Comparison Between The Characters Of The Canterbury Tales

Analysis of the Canterbury Tales characters Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400) son of a merchant, page in a royal house, soldier, diplomat, and royal clerk, Geoffrey Chaucer saw quite a bit the medieval worlds. His varied experiences helped prepare him to write The Canterbury Tales.

It provides the best contemporary picture we have of fourteenth-century England.

Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales in his later years. Only 24 of the projected 124 tales were finished, but these 24 stand together as a complete work.

In this masterwork, each character tells a tale on the pilgrimage to the cathedral of Canterbury.

Even as the tellers of The Canterbury Tales come from the length and breadth of medieval society, the tales themselves take you on a trip through medieval literature: romances and comedies; stories in rhyme and stories in prose; crude humor and religious mysteries.

Because the characters of The Canterbury Tales reflect some values of the medieval society now I am going to compare some characters of these tales with famous characters of our contemporaries days.

The option that I have chosen is option number 2, and I am going to compare three character of the same class with predictable characteristics.

The characters are: -The knight compared with George W. Bush -The wife of bath compared with Madonna -The squire compared with Leonardo Di Caprio The knight compared with George W. bush The knight is distinguished man, he is full of values such as truth, honor, generousness and courtesy. He had done nobly in his sovereign's war and he has ever been honored for his noble graces.( Lines 43,46-47).

George W. Bush is distinguished man, he try to reflect similar values like the knight, such values are: the truth, the honor, generousness and courtesy.

George W. Bush does not fight in a religious war, specifically, but he fights a war against the terrorism, mainly in the Islamic world like Afghanistan.

Both characters, are from an upper class and respected for all their contemporaries societies.

In the knight's tale, he makes emphasis in honorable codes of conduct; he sets specific rules for the battle meant ensure justice, and even orders that no soldiers shall die in the battle.(Lines 84 and 85 of the knight's tale).

Mr. Bush is always trying to set codes of respect for preserve the live in times of war, making emphasis in no soldiers shall die.

This are the similarities that I can find in both Characters.

The Wife of Bath compared with Madonna Now I am going to compare the character The Wife of Bath with a famous pop star named Madonna. She was a sex-symbol in the 90's and she caused a lot of controversy for many things that she said and made.

The Wife of Bath begins the prologue to her tale by boasting of her experience in marriage. She has married five men already,(Line 470) and ignores the idea that this is a reproach to Christian principles. She is merely adhering to the Christian principle of "be fruitful and multiply." She cites the case of King Solomon, who had multiple wives, and tells the group that she welcomes the opportunity for her sixth husband. She also points out that Jesus never lays down a law about virginity, and essentially states that we have the parts for sex and should use them as such.

Madonna have been a sex-symbol in the 90's and the symbol of the female sexuality. She is a rich woman like The Wife of Bath and she is ambitious.

"I came to the realization that a strong female is frightening to everybody, because all societies are male-dominated--black societies, poor people, rich people, any racial group; they're all dominated by men. A strong female is going to threaten everybody across the board...I know the majority of Americans think I walk around my house [with] jodhpurs on and a whip...that I eat men for breakfast and send out my limousine driver to pick up bushels of young men and women, and I let everybody else make my business decisions for me. Even really successful, intelligent men are so fucking scared of me and buy into the hype." --Spin, January 1996 (http://www.madonna.ca/biography.htm) As we can see this is a declaration of Madonna for a magazine where she pretended to show than the society is male-dominated and she tries to show she is not a prostitute for do it.

The Wife of Bath is perhaps the most fully realized character in the Canterbury Tales.

Headstrong, boisterous and opinionated, she wages a perpetual struggle against the denigration of women and the taboos against female sexuality. She issues a number of rebuttals against strict religious claims for chastity and monogamy, using Biblical examples including Solomon to show that the Bible does not overtly condemn all expressions of sexuality, even outside of marriage.

Those who use religious texts to argue for the submission of women are the most fervent targets of scorn for the Wife of Bath. She claims that the reason for the bias against women in these texts is due to the lack of experience and contact with women of those who write the text.

One of Madonna's greatest achievements is how she manipulated the media and the public with her music, her videos, her publicity, and her sexuality. Arguably, Madonna was the first female pop star to have complete control of her music and image.

The Wife of Bath is overtly manipulative, using her sexuality as a weapon against her husbands in order to shame them into providing for her.

During 1985, Madonna became an international celebrity, selling millions of records on the strength of her stylish, sexy videos and forceful personality.

So here we can see how both characters are using the female sexuality to get something in change.

We can say that both characters are feminist icons of their societies. Trying to make a feminist revolution for dominate the men.

The Squire compared with Leonardo Di Caprio The character of Leonardo Di caprio can be comperas