"Beowulf "and "The Canterbury Tales"

Paper Summary:

This paper first examines the standards of morality in "Beowulf" where individual desires allow for a more loose interpretation of morals based on religion or society. The paper highlights how in "Beowulf", a woman who tried to adhere to the moral code of a man could be viciously killed. The paper then turns to Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales" where the wife creates her own morality based on religion but she also cannot live up to it. The paper therefore shows how both the Wife and Beowulf are moral in all senses of the word, but there is a question of how strongly they believe in their moral code when they are presented with testing circumstances.

From the Paper:

"Literature has the ability to transcend time and affect society centuries after it is written. However, the dynamic nature of language allows us to use such stories as Beowulf and Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales as a survey of society and the moral codes that are established. In each work, morality is a central theme that is either exhibited by the characters or completely disregarded. This display of people forming covenants with one another in order to help the society function as a whole, allows the reader and often the author to pass judgment and decide for themselves how the character should be looked at. Although, it is merely wishful thinking to hope that a character will display perfectly moral qualities or will be entirely flawed and fit neatly into one extreme as both works present complex characters."

Sample of Sources Used:

• "Beowulf". Greenblatt 29-100.
• Chaucer, Geoffrey. "The Canterbury Tales". Greenblatt 218-315.
• Greenblatt, Stephen, ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. New York: Norton, 2006.
• Gert, Bernard. "The Definition of Morality". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.2002.http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/morality-definition/

More papers on "Beowulf "and "The Canterbury Tales":

• Analytical Essay # 17331 : "Beowulf" ( Anonymous ) and Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales"
• Analytical Essay # 29326 : "A Mentor for the Squire"
• Analytical Essay # 63685 : "Humor in Medieval Poetry"

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