The Clerk's Tale

At their essence, all stories are the same; from George Lucas ' Star Wars and Grimm 's fairy tales to The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum and Homer 's The Odyssey. Granted, at face value, there might seem little common ground between Luke Skywalker and Cinderella, or between Dorothy Gale and Odysseus. However, every story plays towards certain experiences-- a progression of trials, triumphs and occasional failures that allow the hero to develop and overcome adversity. This process, called the Hero…

more entertaining and acceptable to modern audiences. Likewise, in the fiction novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, relates to the values of the Puritans who settled in New England Massachusetts while also relating to modern audiences with TV’s, cars, and planes, which can be seen as more towards the present day than relating to the 16th century America. It can be seen that The Handmaid’s Tale resembles the time from when the puritans lived in New England, but in reality the theocratic…

a Time, discusses the breadth and oeuvre of the fairy tale genre, delving into its progression into children’s literature and the darkening of themes in recent years as part of a reclamation process. The novel is presented as a history of the fairy tale, spanning from the first mentions of the worlds of faery, on into the 21st century to look at adaptations, particularly film and theater re-imaginings of the words and worlds of the fairy tale. However, in the opening prologue, Warner offers the…

focus on the innocence of children, and their interactions with the supernatural. He created a new type of horror films, which are similar in narrative and structure as they are based off of fantasy and gothic aspects. While Labyrinth mixed fairy tales with a war storyline, Devil’s Backbone replaces the fairies with ghosts. Pan 's Labyrinth concerns a little girl named Ofelia who discovers a magical faun that commands her to complete three tasks, each more difficult and terrifying than the…

The Canterbury Tales was written in the 1400s by a man named Geoffrey Chaucer. Chaucer’s work was written in Middle English, was considered the “father” of English poetry, along with this work being considered his masterpiece. The work tells about the pilgrimage of different pilgrims on their way from their home town known as Southwark to Canterbury. In this time Saint Thomas was murdered at the Canterbury Cathedral, and it established a major landmark for the pilgrims to visit the shrine. Each…

The Handmaid 's Tale provides clear examples of how language can and does influence, control and oppress a society. Names given to individuals…

The Miller’s Prologue and Tale. Miller’s Tale The Miller’s tale is one of 24 selected stories from Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. The Tales are primarily written in verse, with the author telling tales through observation in which he creates an image of what English society was at the time. This is done through description of stock characters, with the narration being mostly in a pragmatic, satirical tone, but being discreet in doing so. The Canterbury Tales are highly insightful of…

In both, The Handmaid’s Tale and Oryx and Crate, Margaret Atwood creates societies where government control is omnipresent. The Handmaid’s Tale is set in a future dystopian society named Gilead in which people use their power to take advantage of others. In the novel, all aspects of life are watched by The Eyes. They are everywhere and their presence and identities are unknown. This is a main fear for the public. They are used to create a sense of control over the citizens and are used as…

in fairy tales of ‘being cute but essentially helpless’ (1) or constantly needing to be saved by the knight in shining armour from the beginning of the story, such as when we get an insight on the narrator’s sexual awakening. This challenges traditional literature as women’s sexual desires are not often written about in books or stories. Ultimately, Carter challenges negative…

The Southwestern tales, which are also known as Hispanic folktales, were first told around the early nineteenth century and are still told today. Presently, the folktales are used to instill moral lessons and the meanings of religions to people of different ages, especially young children. Jose Griego y Maestas collected and presented the tales “Los tres hermanos (The Three Brothers)” and “La comadre Sebastiana (Dona Sebastiana)” in Tales from the Hispanic Southwest. The tale of “Los tres…