¶ … Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer. Specifically, it will compare and contrast the element of a love triangle in several texts: The Knight's romance, the Miller's fabliau, and Franklyn's lai, and discuss how the treatment of each triangle is appropriate/inappropriate for its genre. Each of these triangle tales is unique, and fits its genre quite well; which shows Chaucer's great skill as a storyteller.
Love Triangles in The Canterbury Tales
Each of these tales within "The Canterbury Tales" takes a different look at love and love triangles, which seem to have existed as long as man has. The Knight's romance is an example of courtly and romantic love, where two strong and vital men vie for the hand of a beautiful woman. It has all the elements of chivalry that were so common at the time, and so, the Knight and his fight to win the beautiful Emelye are historical examples of how the class of knights and their ladies lived at the time. This is one reason so many legends have built up around the time of knights and chivalry in medieval Europe. Their stories were romantic and compelling, for what woman would not like to have two handsome, strong men fighting over her? However, there is more to this love triangle than simply courtly love and chivalry. All of the characters suffer bouts of good fortune and bad fortune, and the ultimate moral in this triangle seems to be "what goes up must go down." The knights are imprisoned for many years before they are released, and then, Arcite is despondent when he cannot have Emelye, and just when it seems...
At which point, Palaomon would marry Emelye. This is significant, because it is highlighting how the various outcomes of different events can change quickly. As the knight is drawing upon his own experiences to: illustrate how your personal fortunes can change (based upon your level of preparedness for them). ("The Knight's Tale Part 1 -- 2," 2011) ("The Knight's Tale Part 3 -- 4," 2011) When you step back and
Chaucer's Wife Of Bath Prologue And Tale: Geoffrey Chaucer's Wife of Bath starts with the Prologue to her tale through developing herself as an authority on marriage because of the extended individual experience with the institution. From her initial marriage when she was 12 years old, she has had five husbands and received criticisms from several people because of these numerous marriages. The criticisms are mainly based on that fact that
Neither lust, nor greed, nor vanity, is necessary to account for betrayal: it is the simple and inevitable reflex of the changeability that is the very life of human beings."(Mann, 19) Thus, the discourse of the Wife of Bath should be seen rather in this light, than as an antifeminist one. In fact, her prologue is to be read rather like a purposeful unmasking of the many antifeminist stereotypes circulated
"Whoso that first to mille comth, first grint" (389). In other words, strike first. She claims to "byte," "whyne," and "pleyne" as though she is offended or hurt before the man does, so then the man will hesitate to complain against her (386-87). Before he is able to challenge her infidelities, she has already retorted with her own questions and criticisms of his social activity, thus creating guilt. For
For the poet, Christianity must be devoid of the cultures of corruption and hypocrisy that prevailed during his time. Ideally, a religion, in order to be respected and followed by the people, must maintain a clean image -- that is, an image that reflects the truth of its teachings, wherein its religious principles are embodied by the people who make up the Church. It is also through "Canterbury" that Chaucer
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