Period 5
12/16/11
English 3
Canterbury Tales Essay The Canterbury tales is not just one story, but multiple stories. In which Chaucer expresses his opinion of the time he lived in. also the reason for this Canterbury Tale occurring is because they’re holding a contest. Whoever tells the best tale wins free food. They’re also telling these tales to keep themselves entertained as they head to the shrine of Thomas a. Becket. There are many different instances in this novel where Fate is shown. The Knight’s tale is a perfect example of a tale where fate is incorporated various times throughout. One instance in particular where fate is shown in this story is when both men Arcite, and Palamon meet again in the garden pg. 75 (Chaucer) faith is glorified here because the chance of both men having met again was slim. Therefore fate had to be the cause of their reencounter. As you can see fate plays a crucial role in this tale. Fate is portrayed as a negative factor in the Pardoner’s Tale. As you’ll soon come to know fate in this tale leads to the death of the 3 rakes, which is why it’s seen as a negative factor. The instance in this tale where fate is portrayed is, when an old man symbolized as death warns the three rakes that if they go they’ll find death and die pg. 359 (Chaucer). Knowing this the 3 rakes still go, and instead of finding death they find a pile of gold behind the bushes, and in the end they ended up poising each other, where fate takes action because when you think about it they did find death….their death. Chaucer’s view on women of this time is not a very good one, because in various stories he’s seen to attack women. One instance is during the Reeve’s Tale where both the women (mother and daughter) are said to have slept with the scholars who spent the night in the Miller’s house line.4197-98 (Chaucer). He makes both of the women look like harlets. In overall Chaucer uses these Canterbury Tales to express his ideas of what he felt during this time period. Also we can see that fate as I said before takes a crucial role in all the tales we’ve read thus far. We can also conclude that Chaucer doesn’t think highly of women, and is a very chivalrous person.
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