'The Canterbury Tales'

Paper Summary:

This paper takes a look at Geoffrey Chaucer's work, 'The Canterbury Tales'. The paper reviews and discusses the delightful collection of pilgrims that Chaucer assembled for his famous work. According to the paper, all these characters are microcosms of the society at the time and have the qualities one might expect out of such people.

From the Paper:

"Like Chaucer was considered the first English poet and developed a style that bridged the Anglo-Saxons into the more modern and Shakespearean England, the Roman de la Rose was also remarkable and ground-breaking. "The poem is important for being the first example in French of both a sustained first-person narrative and of narrative allegory" (Wheeler). More interesting to a scholar of Chaucer, though, is the fact that he read and translated the poem as did many Europeans at the time. It was "widely read throughout Europe" and "influenced much of the literary output of the Middle Ages" (Wheeler). The character of the Wife of Bath was probably at least influenced by, if not based upon, the character of La Vieille. "The Wife of Bath is not an entirely original character in Chaucer. Chaucer's version of the Wife of Bath appears to originate in this earlier French poem, Le Roman de la Rose. He combines description taken from La Vieille or La Duenna Vieille ("The Old Woman") and from La Jaloux ("Jealousy"), two characters in that work. Like the Wife of Bath, La Vieille has been married numerous times, she knows the arts of manipulating men, and engages in a lengthy confessional revelation of her controlling techniques and avoiding the potential miseries of marriage"(Wheeler). Comparisons between La Vieille and the Wife of Bath abound. "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Anderson, Robert et al, editors. Elements of Literature: Literature of Britain. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1993.
• Benson, Larry D., general editor. The Riverside Chaucer. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1987.
• British Library. "Roman de la Rose." Online Gallery. Retrieved 4/18/2006 from http://www.bl.uk/cgi- bin/ogprint.cgi?url=/onlinegallery/themes/euromanuscripts/roman.html
• Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. Reprinted in Medieval Sourcebook. Retrieved 4/18/2006 from http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/CT- prolog-bathmod.html
• Edwards, Steve. "Alice Kyteler, convicted witch." Retrieved 4/18/2006 from http://www.geocities.com/stevenedw/alicekyteler.html

More papers on 'The Canterbury Tales':

• Analytical Essay # 5972 : "The Canterbury Tales"
• Persuasive Essay # 91974 : "'The Canterbury Tales'"
• Book Review # 91688 : "'The Canterbury Tales'"
• Analytical Essay # 52820 : "Marriage in "The Canterbury Tales"

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