The Canterbury Tales

Chaucer is renowned for his psychologically intricate character portrayals. The Pardoner, an irreverent character in Chaucer's framework narrative The Canterbury Tales, is an excellent example of just such a complex character. Although alcohol may...

The Canterbury Tales

The Miller and Reeve's Tales of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, while being intricately crafted examples of the French genre fabliaux, differ significantly in both progression, resolution, as well as the tales' overall connotation and voice. While the...

The Canterbury Tales

When the Miller proposes to "quite," or revenge, the Knight's tale in the Prologue to his tale (3127), he alters the host's use of the word "quite" (3119). Whereas the Host is asking the Monk to match the Knight's tale, the Miller wants to requite...

Orlando

So he waited in the darkness. Suddenly he was struck in the face by a blow, soft, yet heavy, on the side of his cheek. So strung with expectation was he, that he started and put his hand to his sword. The blow was repeated a dozen times on...

The Canterbury Tales

In Geoffrey Chaucer's famous satirical poem The Canterbury Tales, the author describes a pilgrimage which commences in the town of Southwark and continues to the burial sight of Saint Thomas Becket. The pilgrims are quite an assorted lot,...

The Grapes of Wrath

Historians have noted that works of literature often adopt the mood of the times in which they were written. It is thus not surprising that The Grapes of Wrath, written by John Steinbeck in the desperate nadir of the Great Depression, appears to...

The Canterbury Tales

Alison in "The Miller's Tale" is described as young and wild, like an animal: "Thereto she koude skippe and make game/ As any kyde or calf folwynge his dame", and we know that she would be willing to follow any idea as long as it is "fun". We...

The Canterbury Tales

The Man of Law's Tale is in many ways marks a new beginning in the middle of the Canterbury Tales, a break from the bawdy and secular tales that precede it. While Chaucer could have made it a more straightforward recentering of the tales on a...

The Canterbury Tales

The Pardoner of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is representative of the darker side of the corrupt church of the Middle Ages. A pardoner was a church official who had the authority to forgive those who had sinned by selling pardons and indulgences to...

The Canterbury Tales

Chaucer's excessively overt satire of the Prioress in the General Prologue is undeniable. With so much emphasis drawn to her misplaced ideals, the words scream of something terribly amiss. A cursory examination reveals a woman severely out of...