"Nun's Priest's Tale"

Analytical Essay # 103955

Literature > English
Literature > Poetry
Psychology > Dreams

This paper uses medieval dream analysis to unravel multiple themes in Geoffrey Chaucer's "Nun's Priest's Tale".

2,158 words () | 16 sources | APA | 2008 United States

Paper Summary:

This paper argues that dreams and their medieval interpretation are central to the structure of the "Nun's Priest's Tale". The paper looks at the style and illustrates how this story is clearly a sophisticated treatment of the beast fable. The paper shows how, although Chaucer refuses simple interpretation, the tale is a powerful meditation on human fallibility.

Outline:
Introduction
Style and Characterization
Role of Poem in Chaucer's Narrative
Analyzing Medieval Dreams
Exploring the Beast Fable
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"The Nun's Priest's Tale is a 625 line segment of the Canterbury Tales, which is preceded directly by the monk's long and depressing narrative on the lives of fallen men and women. After the Knight interrupts this gloomy account, the Host turns and asks the Nun's Priest to "Telle us swich thyng as may oure hertes glade" (2811) and enliven the mood. In asking a clergyman to recount a secular tale of merriment, particularly after his holy brethren the monk had just offered a long and moralizing account of fame and hubris, the Host is making a sidelong jab at the sanctity of men of the cloth."

Sample of Sources Used:

Aers, David. (1999) "Interpreting Dreams: Reflections on Freud, Milton, and Chaucer." in Peter Brown and A. C. Spearing (eds.), Reading Dreams: The Interpretation of Dreams from Chaucer to Shakespeare. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Benson, Larry. (1987) The Riverside Chaucer , Third Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987.
Benson, Larry. (1999) 'The "Love-Tydynges" in Chaucer's House of Fame'. in Quinn, William A., (ed.), Chaucer's Dream Visions and Shorter Poems, Basic Readings in Chaucer and His Time, New York - London.
Brody, Saul Nathaniel. (1979) "Truth and Fiction in the Nun's Priest's Tale." Chaucer Review 14 (1979): 33-47.
Curry, Walter Clyde. (1960) Chaucer and the Medieval Sciences, Rev. ed. New York: Barnes.