Canterbury Tales
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales contains many different types of individuals that exist in the Middle Ages. Although these characters lived in the fourteenth century, people similar to them still exist in today's society. Three pilgrims from Canterbury Tales who parallel people from today are the Merchant, who is closely related to the middle-class businessmen of today; the Nonne, who is much like modern day upper class women; and the Pardoner, who can be compared to a devious salesman or con artist from today's society. The first character, the Merchant, is very much like an average; middle-income businessman that exists in the world of today. The Merchant from the tales feels that he must brag and show off for people to recognize the wealth he wishes he had. Although he has a sufficient amount of money, which his wearing of posh clothing proves, he does not have as much money as he sees fit of himself or for anybody that falls under his job description. That means that the Merchant, because of a preconceived notion that all merchant's should be filthy rich, is insecure due to his financial situation, so he feels the need to deceive people because of his insecurity. Chaucer hints at the Merchant's tend
ency to brag as well when he mentions that the Merchant is "Souning alway th' encrees of his winning" (Chaucer 277) meaning that the Merchant is always able to include implications of his success when he speaks. These types of people still exist today and one can tell who they are because they tend to spend the money they do have on material things such as cars, and clothes, just as the Merchant chose to spend his money on expensive clothing and a nice horse, simply to convince people that they have money and can afford expensive things. The Canterbury Tales has no place in time because of the commentary on different individuals that seem to fit in any time or place in history. These are just three of the pilgrims that appear on the story, but all of them can in some way be found in the society of today. Chaucer does an incredible job of understanding and putting into words what lies inside of an individual that applies to people from the past, present, and future. The third pilgrim that distinguishes easily in present day society is that of the Pardoner. A pardoner's job in the Middle Ages would be to sell pardons for the sins of regretful people. At the time people were actually gullib
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 819
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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