Canterbury Tales

A detailed Summary of Canterbury Tales

Are there many ways that themes and symbols can be shown in stories? Geoffrey Chaucer uses many different themes, symbols and styles in writing all of tales in The Canterbury Tales. By using these things, Geoffrey utilizes several specific symbols to illustrate various central themes. The characters in the tales make the same mistakes that ordinary people would make, and they receive the same or even worse consequences. One message that is portrayed is greed can make people to evil actions. An example of this is in "The Pardoner's Tale," when the three friends wind up killing each other because of their greed for the money. The second message that is displayed is that one should be careful when meeting strangers and to be cautious of the sincerity of false flattery from those that one does not know. For example, in "The Nun's Priest's Tale," Chanticleer falls for false flattery from Sir Russell Fox, but then he gets even with him when he to uses it to trick Sir Russell Fox. The third and last message that is shown is that reformation in a person can occur because of some type of punishment. This theme occurs in " The Wife of Bath," in that the lady that the knight has to marry is old and ugly, but because of this punishment of h

There never was a singer I would rather

for whatever pleases you suffices for me." (Page 239)

As shown with the three friends in "The Pardoner's Tale", greed stabs friends in the back and deceives them into doing wrong. There are two occasions in which the three friends plot against each other so one may receive more money than the others may. First of all, the three friends find a collection of gold coins under a tree, which they decide should be theirs and they choose to try to take it. They realize that they can not take the coins during the day because people will assume they are robbers. After figuring out a plan, one friend goes to town to get supplies for the others. While he is gone the two other friends talk and plot actions to occur when he returns. The one friend says to the other,

Thoughts of this kind, and has a full permission

take all my property and let my body go.

My witness, I would round upon these clods

And how he put his voice under control!

Divided equally of course, dear friend." (Page 163 line 166-174)

By them both agreeing to this, they believe that they will have more money to split between the two of them by killing the other one. This is proof that they are greedy because all three of them found the money and each one deserves their share of the money. Plus they are all friends with eachother and should be splitting the money, not trying to stab each other in the back in order for them to get more money. The next example showing how greed can deceive friends is portrayed when the friend goes into town. As the other two were plotting a plan, so was the friend that went to town. However, none of them thought that the other friend would also be plotting kill them. He slyly says to himself,

By now his personality values have changed because he has been with her for sometime now and has had really no choice in what he wants. But now she has given him the chance for her to become what ever he wants. Since he told her to pick which one she would rather be, he gave her what women desire most as in the domination over their husbands. He has gotten over the fact that she may not be the prettiest or the youngest but he still can love her. Since he has changed from when he has first meet her, he tells her that it is her decision because no matter what she may be or look like, he still can love her. With him saying this, she decides to be a little of both. She will be honest, young, and beautiful. This makes the both of them very pleased to be with each other.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Wife Bath, Pardoner's Tale, Russell Fox, Fox Truly, Fox God's, Canterbury Tales, Ass Page, Priest's Tale, Tale Chanticleer, sir russell, russell fox, sir russell fox, Sir Russell, false flattery, nun's priest's tale, priest's tale, nun's priest's, fox mouth chanticleer, singing fox, pardoner's tale, themes symbols, women desire, fox mouth, false flattery sir, result person improving,

Approximate Word count = 6688
Approximate Pages = 27 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English