Hello everyone,
Firstly, I’d like to apologize for my lack of posts
recently. It had been my original intention to write a few posts for the blog
over the Thanksgiving break, however instead, my lovely fiancé, Thomas decided
that it would be a great time to have his lung spontaneously collapse! We had
to take him to the emergency room on the first day of break and he stayed
throughout the week. Thankfully, he is home and doing pretty well now, and with
some luck he hopefully won’t need surgery. All things considered I wasn’t able
to write anything for the blog while all of this was going on, so you’re
getting my posts now, and again sorry about the delay!
I also had to miss a class or two because of this, which brings
me to my second thought: when we were putting the list of superlatives together
in class (on what turned out to be our last day nonetheless!) I didn’t have too
much to say. This wasn’t because I wasn’t interested, but rather because I
wasn’t quite sure which tales I’d pick. For whatever reason I was unaware that
we would be putting together a list of superlatives, so when I got to class and
saw all of the various categories go up on the boards I wasn’t sure which tales
I would place in which categories. I did write a few things up on the board but
overall I was reserved in my choices. Plus, I had a lot going on so my memory
was incredibly foggy that day which prevented me from participating as much as
I would have liked to.
To solve this problem I decided to make a brief list of
superlatives myself, after giving the tales more consideration and having time
to think over my choices carefully.
Top Three Favorite Tales:
1. The Friar’s Tale – I absolutely love this tale. At first
I had trouble seeing its magic but as I began to read it over and over again I
became obsessed. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this tale because I didn’t have
to over think anything. Instead of trying with difficulty to see what was
hidden in the text all I did was read it, again and again. With each
read-through I was able to make connections and see things that I hadn’t the
first time. Overall, this was my favorite tale this semester.
2. The Pardoner’s Tale – I don’t really know what else to
say about this tale other than how fantastic I think it is. The story itself is
great fun to read in and of itself, but in addition there are also a lot of
possibilities and thoughts to explore related to this particular tale. It has
connections to the medieval world as well as to our modern day society, perhaps
even more so than some of the other tales, and all of these elements make it
simply fantastic.
3. Thopas / Melibee – These tales made my favorite list simply
because of how snarky they are. Thopas is so much fun to read and once you
realize what is going on with the poetry itself… the story becomes infinitely
more intriguing. I also love Melibee because it is a clear and brilliant
statement from Chaucer. What makes the tale even better is that it is actually
a well-composed story. I feel like that took an extreme amount of patience and
dedication to complete, mixed with a bit of sass of course.
Top Three Least Favorite Tales:
1. The Wife of Bath – I’m sure I’ve made some of you cringe
with the selection of this tale as my least favorite but to be perfectly honest
I have had quite enough of the Wife of Bath for a now. I’ve been exposed to
this tale in so many different classes and contexts by this point that I am
really quite sick of it at the present time. I do love and appreciate the tale
for what it is; however I have simply had enough for a while. I’m sure I’ll
find a new way to appreciate and see this tale in the years to come but for now
I’d rather read something else.
2. The Reeve’s Tale – I’ve chosen this tale as my second
least favorite because I honestly thought it wasn’t all that great. I just
didn’t buy the story and since I was able to predict what was coming next I
wasn’t able to connect with it in any kind of significant way. Thus, I didn’t
enjoy it that much.
3. The Knight’s Tale – Even though this tale is a prefect
example of a well-written/spoken tale… I still didn’t like reading it. I guess
it was the combination of my unfamiliarity with the Middle English Language as
well as my uneasy feeling about the plot line that caused my sour feeing
towards the tale to develop, but in the end I would simple prefer to spend more
time discussing another tale as opposed to this one.
Favorite Character:
The Fiend from the Friar’s Tale – He’s just so incredibly
honest and yet excessively devious at the same time. My favorite character by
far!!
Least Favorite Character:
The Queen from the Wife of Bath’s Tale – The knight needed
to die. End. Of. Story.
Two Tales I Would Read to My Child:
1. Thopas – I believe this tale is super fun even if it is
unfinished, going nowhere fast and incredibly snarky on the part of Chaucer.
It’d make a perfect story for a child in my opinion.
2. The Friar’s Tale – I would read this story to my child
over and over again if given the chance. Not only is it my favorite of the Canterbury Tales, but I also believe
that there are many valuable lessons to be learned from the story.
Two Tales I Wouldn’t Read to My Child:
1. The Clerk’s Tale – To be quite honest I really hated this
tale and I would never want to read it to my child for fear that they would
think it acceptable to emulate any of the characters’ actions. Just no.
2. The Summoner’s Tale – Even though I like this tale I feel
like it may not be quite right for a child. Simple as that :)
Two Tales I’d Recommend for a British Lit. Introduction
Course:
1. The Wife of Bath
2. Pardoner’s Tale
(See my next blog post for a more in depth explanation of my
choices)
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