Chaucers Cantebury Tales

A detailed Summary of Chaucers Cantebury 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 hav

ing to marry her, he eventually starts to like her. 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, " You see that we are two, And two are twice as powerful as one. Now look; when he comes back, get up in fun To have a wrestle; then, as you attack, I'll up and put my dagger through his back While you and he are struggling, as in game; Then draw your dagger too and do the same. Then all this money will be ours to spend, 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, " And so the Fiend, our common enemy, Was given power to put it in his thought That there was always poison to be bought, And that with poison he could kill his friends. To men in such a state the Devil sends Thoughts of this kind, and has a full permission To lure then on to sorrow and perdition, For this young man was utterly content To kill them both and never to repent." (Page 164 line 186-195) Although this plan may seem to be errorless because he is the only one to know, greed is the power that drives him into trying to complete this task. Unfortunately both the plans that the friends thought of both backfire because neither of them thought the other friend would be planning to kill them. When he gets back from town, they start to wrestle with him. While wrestling, they stab and kill him. Then to celebrate their victory, they drink the wine, which is really poison. Next both of them die and no one gets the money. These killings would not have taken place had it not been the greed of all the friends because of the newfound money. In conclusion neither of the friends would have died if the money they found didn't turn their friendship into greed. One should be careful when false flattery comes from those that one does not know well or at all. By using false flattery, one can get himself or herself into or out of trouble when meeting a new character which is shown in "The Nun's Priest's Tale". There are two instances in which false flattery gets Chanticleer into and out of trouble. The first of the two occasions that Chanticleer is able to get into trouble and escape it is when Sir Russell Fox tries to coax him into singing. During the day, Chanticleer dreams that while singing a fox grabs him and runs into the woods to eat him. He believed that the dream was just nothing because he knew that gas or an upset stomach would cause bad dreams. So Chanticleer took no note of the dream and didn't believe it would happen to him. As Chanticleer was standing in the garden, something started to head towards him. It was Sir Russell Fox trying to enter the garden. Once the roaster sees Sir Russell Fox coming over, Sir R

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Approximate Word count = 6777
Approximate Pages = 27 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English