The Canterbury Tales.
Geoffery Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales is an example of an extremely complicated and wondrous piece of fictional work. This story is a fourteenth frame narrative from Britain. The main story line's plot is a contest between thirty pilgrims on their way to Thomas Becket's Canterbury shrine tell tales. Harry Baily is the lead pilgrim and is identified as "the host," states that in order to win the contest the pilgrim must tell tales of best sentence and moost solaas, this means that the pilgrim which tells the tale with a moral lesson and must be entertaining to the group during the few days that it took to make their way from London to their destination (800). Chaucer was unable to finish his one hundred twenty tales he originally planned one writing and only completed twenty-four. The most noticeable of these twenty-four tales belong to two of the most beloved pilgrims by his readers and Chaucer himself. Even though "The Pardoners Tale" was entertaining and moral "The Wife Of Baths Tale" is obviously the more moral and entertaining of the two tales.
"The Wife of Bath's tale" is the more likely candidate to win against "The Pardoner's Tale" in morality side of the host's competition, the more important of the two qualities. The reason her tale has morality is the goodness of the poor and downtrodden. Once her story is near its end and the knight, her protagonist, is face to face with the old woman, the antagonist, the wife's message becomes clear. The very first of her ideas is that gentleness, the most prized quality by the upper class, does not come from the class that someone is born into but rather their choices. For though they give us all their heritage they cannot bequeath their virtuous living (263-6). Through the wife's narrative it is explained that class is something someone earns on their own, not something that someone is born with. She certainly has at least one more major commentary on morality.
The way that she talks about the sensibilities of her time is extremely intelligent. She states that being poor is preferred in many ways to being wealthy, the one with the the most power is religion The High God, in Whom we believe, say I,/In voluntary poverty lived his life (322-3). The Catholics would have responded to this by saying that the poor are following in the footsteps of their messiah. The Wife continually makes arguments for morality in favor of poverty: The poor man, when he walks along the way/Before the robbers he may sing and play (337-8). This statement sounds humorous at first but in all reality it is the very center of what it means to be wealthy. This wealth, according to the wife is a certain source of constant worry. This is held up by her chief rival the Pardoner.
All of The Pardoner's Tale's strength lies within its moral which is defined in his prologue:Radix malorum est cupiditas (98). As this tale continues it prove that the love of money is the root of evil. The very end scene of Pardoner's Tale is everything that one needs to fear the greed of money. Thus ended these two homicides in woe;/Died thus the treacherous poisoner also (431-2). The reason for this scene is even more frightening: O cursed sin, full of abominableness!/O treacherous homicide! O wickedness!/O gluttony, lechery, and hazardry! (433-5). The sermon type ending was even more powerful then one may think due to the fact that the indtended audience was meant to be Catholic. Although morality is strong in this tale entertainment is the other half of the competition between the pilgrims.
The Pardoner's Tale is definitely entertaining. The very first notable entertaining aspect in The Pardoner's Tale is how he relies on the three forms of poetic irony. The first form of irony that appears in his tale is verbal irony. When the three young men find the pile of gold, their leader says For as you know, the gold is ours, chaps (185**). There is no doubt that upon a persons second reading of this story they would be surprised to find that word "chaps" does not only mean "friends," it also is a synonym for the jaw bone. This is the wickedest (175) of the young men, because he is already planning on killing his friends by calling them bones. The Pardoner has many other examples of irony just waiting to show up to the readers.
The Pardoner's next example of irony is situational irony. The reader is originally told a story about three men searching for a man named death. Readers seem to forget all about the part of the story when these young men find the gold. At this point the story took a sure twist up until all of the young men are dead. When this happens Chaucer goes back Thus these two murderers received their due,/So did the the treacherous young poisoner too (294-5). The due in this case is death. When this occurs the reader will most likely remember that death was what these young men were searching from the beginning for, the reader would assume that the quest to find this assassin would be a wild goose chase, the young men did indeed find what they where looking for. The Pardoner has one more form of irony in store for his listeners.
The final example of irony from the Pardoner is dramatic irony. To let his audience know that these three young men are doomed to death before they have the slightest idea Chaucer uses foreshadowing. The best example of foreshadowing is the old man that they meet on the road to find Death. The old man give several clues to his identity such as One who would change his youth to have my age/And so my age is mine and must be still (121-2). The reader easily mistakes the old man as looking for an exchange of youth and old age when in all actuality he is looking for an exchange of like for death. So when the old man tells the young men where they may find what they are looking for or fate. The reader should recognize that the three will find their death.
Their are two obvious clues to how the old man is death. The first clue is how the old man dresses. When the young men stop him to ask who he is, all wrapped up except his face. The end result is that the old man is wearing a large robe. They also mention his walking staff. He walks knock knocking with [his] staff from night to noon (122). The staff from the understanding that the old man is Death reincarnated, will become a scythe the only implement used by the grim reaper. The young men are seeking death and when he is in their faces they do not even recognize him. There is humor widely spread through out this tale, but it is lacking when compared to " The Wife of Bath's Tale".
The two tales have their flaws. People would note that the "Wife of Bath's Tale" has a bad taste to it. The Knight commits a rape and does not get any punishment what so ever in fact he is rewarded. He is given a hundred percent forgiveness of the crime and a beautiful loving loyal wife. This is not the happy ending anyone wants or expects. While on the other side "The Pardoner's Tale" only has irony going for it. It lacks the humor that the Wife uses. The Wife's story problem can be simply fixed by explaining the class structure of the time and how it made it so easy for the knight to be forgiven. "The Pardoner's Tale" consist of everything it is required of it but it is still not as strong and well put together as the Wife's Tale.
Already have an account? Log In Now
6384