She wears a skirt with red stockings and tight-laced supple shoes. She is also a great weaver and has been on many pilgrimages. She is described in "The General Prologue" as being a worthy woman who has only had five husbands. She knows all the remedies of love and is an expert at and preaches and practices the art of love. I n her "Prologue," the Wife of Bath starts out by saying she is a believer in experience rather than authority. She says, "Experience, though noon auctoritee Were in this world, is right ynough for me" Chaucer The Wife of Bath has been married since the age of twelve and has had five husbands.
So she definitely has a lot of experience in the area of sex and marriage. Therefore, she says that she is a strong believer in experience as opposed to written authority such as the Bible.
She does not see anything wrong with the fact that she has had five husbands, because she says that even God wants man to increase and multiply: "God bad is for to wexe and multiplye: that gentil text can I wel understonde" Chaucer In fact, she is going on this pilgrimage to Canterbury with the hope of finding her sixth husband.
Even though the Wife of Bath says she is a believer in experience rather than authority, she often quotes and uses the Bible to support her ideas and beliefs, though she misquotes more often than not.
T he Wife of Bath then makes an interesting argument against virginity. She says:. The Wife of Bath argues that if God had condemned marriage and wanted people to be chaste, then where would people come from? If everyone was supposed to be chaste, then there would be no people, and hence, no seed for virginity to grow from.
The Wife of Bath believes that everyone has a gift from God, and she thinks her sexuality is her gift. People are called to different works by God, and hers is her sexuality. She believes that God has given man sexual organs for both reproduction and pleasure. In her opinion, God has given her this great sexual instrument, and she will use it as often as she can.
She does not envy virginity, but believes that virginity is perfection and is not meant for everyone. She says, "I nil envye no virginitee: Lat hem be breed of pured whete seed, And lat us wives hote barly breed--" Chaucer Travelling with the Summoner is a noble Pardoner , his friend and his companion in what sense Chaucer intends the word 'compeer', meaning companion, nobody knows and the last pilgrim-teller to be described.
He sings loudly 'Come hither, love to me', and has hair as yellow as wax, which hangs like flaxen from his head. He carries a wallet full of pardons in his lap, brimful of pardons come from Rome.
The Pardoner is sexually ambiguous - he has a thin, boyish voice, and the narrator wonders whether he is a 'geldyng or a mare' a eunuch or a homosexual. The narrator writes that he has told us now of the estate the class , the array the clothing , and the number of pilgrims assembled in this company.
He then makes an important statement of intent for what is to come: he who repeats a tale told by another man, the narrator says, must repeat it as closely as he possibly can to the original teller - and thus, if the tellers use obscene language, it is not our narrator's fault. The Host is the last member of the company described, a large man with bright, large eyes - and an extremely fair man.
The Host welcomes everyone to the inn, and announces the pilgrimage to Canterbury, and decides that, on the way there, the company shall 'talen and pleye' to tell stories and amuse themselves. Everyone consents to the Host's plan for the game, and he then goes on to set it out.
What the Host describes is a tale-telling game, in which each pilgrim shall tell two tales on the way to Canterbury, and two more on the way home; whoever tells the tale 'of best sentence and moost solas' shall have supper at the cost of all of the other pilgrims, back at the Inn, once the pilgrimage returns from Canterbury.
The pilgrims agree to the Host's suggestion, and agree to accord to the Host's judgment as master of the tale-telling game. Everyone then goes to bed. The next morning, the Host awakes, raises everyone up, and 'in a flok' the pilgrimage rides towards 'the Wateryng of Seint Thomas ', a brook about two miles from London. The Host asks the pilgrims to draw lots to see who shall tell the first tale, the Knight being asked to 'draw cut' first and, whether by 'aventure, or sort, or cas', the Knight draws the straw to tell the first tale.
The pilgrims ride forward, and the Knight begins to tell his tale. The General Prologue was probably written early in the composition of the Canterbury Tales, and offers an interesting comparison point to many of the individual tales itself. Of course, it does not match up to the tales as we have them in a number of ways: the Nun's Priest and the Second Nun are not described, and, most significantly, the work as we have it does not reflect the Host's plan.
For starters, the pilgrimage only seems to go as far as Canterbury for the Parson's Tale and only the narrator tells two tales on the way there, with all the other pilgrims telling only a single tale and some who are described in the General Prologue not telling a tale at all. We must, therefore, view the General Prologue with some hesitation as a comparison point to the tales themselves: it offers useful or enlightening suggestions, but they are no means a complete, reliable guide to the tales and what they mean.
What the General Prologue offers is a brief, often very visual description of each pilgrim, focusing on details of their background, as well as key details of their clothing, their food likes and dislikes, and their physical features. These descriptions fall within a common medieval tradition of portraits in words which can be considered under the technical term ekphrasis , Chaucer's influence in this case most likely coming from The Romaunt de la Rose.
Immediately, our narrator insists that his pilgrims are to be described by 'degree'. By the fact that the Knight, the highest-ranking of the pilgrims, is selected as the first teller, we see the obvious social considerations of the tale.
Still, all human life is here: characters of both sexes, and from walks of life from lordly knight, or godly parson down to oft-divorced wife or grimy cook. Each pilgrim portrait within the prologue might be considered as an archetypal description. Many of the 'types' of characters featured would have been familiar stock characters to a medieval audience: the hypocritical friar, the rotund, food-loving monk, the rapacious miller are all familiar types from medieval estates satire see Jill Mann's excellent book for more information.
Larry D. Benson has pointed out the way in which the characters are paragons of their respective crafts or types - noting the number of times the words 'wel koude' and 'verray parfit' occur in describing characters. Yet what is key about the information provided in the General Prologue about these characters, many of whom do appear to be archetypes, is that it is among the few pieces of objective information - that is, information spoken by our narrator that we are given throughout the Tales.
The tales themselves except for large passages of the prologues and epilogues are largely told in the words of the tellers: as our narrator himself insists in the passage. The words stand for themselves: and we interpret them as if they come from the pilgrims' mouths.
What this does - and this is a key thought for interpreting the tales as a whole - is to apparently strip them of writerly license, blurring the line between Chaucer and his characters.
Thus all of the information might be seen to operate on various levels. When, for example, we find out that the Prioress has excellent table manners, never allowing a morsel to fall on her breast, how are we to read it?
Is this Geoffrey Chaucer 'the author of The Canterbury Tales ' making a conscious literary comparison to The Romaunt de la Rose , which features a similar character description as it happens, of a courtesan? Is this 'Chaucer' our narrator, a character within the Tales providing observation entirely without subtext or writerly intention?
Or are these observations - supposedly innocent within the Prologue - to be noted down so as to be compared later to the Prioress' Tale? Chaucer's voice, in re-telling the tales as accurately as he can, entirely disappears into that of his characters, and thus the Tales operates almost like a drama. Where do Chaucer's writerly and narratorial voices end, and his characters' voices begin?
This self-vanishing quality is key to the Tales, and perhaps explains why there is one pilgrim who is not described at all so far, but who is certainly on the pilgrimage - and he is the most fascinating, and the most important by far: a poet and statesman by the name of Geoffrey Chaucer. The Question and Answer section for The Canterbury Tales is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel. Considering the nature of pilgrimages, why is it significant that this journey begins at this time?
Which musical instruments are used in prologue to Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer? Because the narrator is staying at the tabard inn, he is doing what. The Canterbury Tales is the last of Geoffrey Chaucer's works, and he only finished 24 of an initially planned tales. The Canterbury Tales study guide contains a biography of Geoffrey Chaucer, literature essays, a complete e-text, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. The Canterbury Tales is considered one of the greatest works produced in Middle English.
He is very poor because he spends all his money on books. The Merchant A shrewd and intelligent man who knows how to strike a good bargain and is a member of the rich rising middle class. The Squire A vain, lusty young man and a candidate for knighthood.
He can sing, write poetry, and ride a horse very well, and considers himself a lady's man. The Franklin A large and wealthy landowner who enjoys fine living and good companionship. The Shipman A huge, uncouth man who can steer a ship but flounders on his horse. The Prioress Madame Eglantine A very genteel lady who is coy and delicate. She has precise manners, eats as an aristocrat would, and wears a gold brooch with "Love conquers all" inscribed in Latin.
The Physician A doctor who can speak knowingly of medicines, drugs, and humours, and who knows astrology as well. He is fond of gold and makes a lot of money during the plague season. The Pardoner The most complex of all the pilgrims.
He is an intellect and uses advanced psychological means to gain his objective. Although he is not a good person, he can preach a good sermon.
The Monk A man who tends the property of the monastery. He is fat and happy, loves good food and wine, and finds the taverns more to his liking than the cold, severe monastery. The Nun's Priest The priest of the church who accompanies the nuns so that they may offer up their confessions.
The Second Nun A very devout nun who, because she believes that idleness leads to sin, begins her story immediately. The Canon and the Canon's Yeoman Although not one of the pilgrims, the Canon appears with his servant the Yeoman but leaves when his Yeoman begins a tale. The Manciple The steward for a law school. Although not as intelligent as the law students, he is clever and shrewd enough to be able to put away some money for himself.
The Parson A very poor but very holy and virtuous religious man who tells a highly moral tale. He gives his scant money to his poor parishioners and tries to live the perfect life and set an ideal for others. Duke Theseus The Knight's Tale His name is that of the famous ruler of ancient Athens who performed many outstanding feats in his life and was reputed to be a great and noble ruler. She was a powerful queen of the Amazons before Theseus conquered the tribe and made her his queen. Emilie The Knight's Tale Theseus' beautiful sister-in-law who inadvertently attracts the attention of two imprisoned knights, Arcite and Palamon, and thus is the instrument motivating the central plot.
Years later, he is the first to fall in love with the beautiful Emilie. When Arcite sees the beauteous Emilie, he pledges his undying love for her.
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