Sin: Pride

In the Parson’s Tale the sin I focused on is Pride.

It was interesting to see how the Parson, the only pilgrim that is seen as good, detailing everything that applies when it comes to Pride. The Parson explains that every other sin stems from this sin. Of course, a lot of what the Parson has to say reflects back to God and biblical stories. Pride seems to be mentioned first because it has waterfall effect. The person who is prideful tends to focus only on themselves, in turn making them selfish.  Also, a person that is prideful can tend to boast about everything they have accomplished whether it be good or bad. 

It is clear in the text that it is okay for a person to be aware of what they are and their capabilities but to be prideful about is sinful. The remedy for pride is humility. Being humble allows other people to recognize a person for what they can do and they have accomplished. The parson said humility is shown in the heart, mouth, and works. I think this remedy is very fitting for some of the pilgrims on the trip. Both the prologue and tales by the other pilgrims show lack of humility in both ways. The friar and the summoner take jabs at each other showing their pride. Instead of being humble and not worrying about whose tale is better and whose profession is more respectable they should show it in their actions and then other people can choose for them. Their discourse only heightens the ill thoughts towards their kind. The Wife of Bath shows her pride in her tale and prologue. Maybe pride says one should be more like Griselda. She kept her mouth shut and wins in the end. The wife of Bath gloats about her many disastrous marriages. She’s left to compromise and her tale reflects her own loneliness. Maybe the wife of Bath ought to have been a little more patient and quiet. Not basking in the glory of the power she feels she has. The parson mentions assenting to good counsel as the cure for pride. I do believe Phoebus fails to assent to the crows counsel, in turn he ends up killing his wife as well as cursing his friend who only had his interest in mind. The Pardoner is greatly prideful and resembles that not only in his prologue but in his tale as well.  Though he is prideful his story also resembles where such pride can get a person. All three thieves end up dead because of their pride; they have gathered bounty and see it only good for themselves. This is not respectable (and now I find it quite ironic that the pardoner tells this tale. I always thought it was a double scheme on his part, but now I feel he may be actually looking to good the meal at the end. But then again it is the pardoner trying to feel this way for him. Tricky guy there!).

I do believe each pilgrim may have exhibited pride. The host as well, he exhibits in action taking charge and making those around aware at all times it is home. This pride is a tricky sin and can be seen in many aspects.

Can these pilgrims be categorized into each sin? Is that the purpose of Chaucer writing in this tale? This could be a good time for reflection.

Class Reflection

This class has been very enjoyable for me and has really helped me to broaden my knowledge of the Medieval Period.

It is so many myths and misconceptions that people have containing to the time. I find myself getting upset when people use the words turkey, dark, and disease in relation to the period. I have found out so much more has made the period. Before coming to the class many of my own myths and misconceptions were dwarfed, but not all. I also still had a struggle with the idea of taking a whole course on Chaucer; reading medieval literature is not my first hobby.

Some of the themes and ideas I have gathered from The Canterbury Tales that I can use in my own life are:

Having respect for authority.

Many of these tales had the person who was the head and those under him (leader is always a man). Though it may not always be a man that I will have to respect this respect goes for the nature and those who deserve it. In many of the tales we get people going outside and living amongst the wild. These people do not destroy the nature but see it as something to cherish. This can be because of their love and respect for God.

Being Patient even in the most trying moments.
 

To be honest, patience is not one of my strong suits. Although the extreme cases of patience were not the exact path I want to follow, it does help me to recognize just how impatient I am. Griselda was stripped of her dignity all while being silent and staying obedient. This is a virtue that not only I should exercise, but those of my generation should as well. Now days people are all about efficiency. To me this word efficiency is just a mask for impatient. Everything has to be done now. People do not have the time to enjoy the beauty of what is being done. Again, all of the natural imagery though it seemed to be long-winded verses, caused for beautiful imager of nature. Through this I can tell that people of the Medieval Period really appreciated the view. While in that period views were all they had, our abundance of visuals may cause people of today to become oblivious to how wonderful the view is.

(I guess the section should be called Appreciation of Nature as well)

Keeping loyalty and expecting it as well

Loyalty seems to have been a really big thing in the Medieval Period. In The Manciple’s Tale the crow is called a traitor and is cursed with black feathers and loses the ability to sing just for informing his Lord that his wife was cheating on him (which everyone already knew).  As we go all the way back to The Knight’sTale both Arcite and Palamoun feels as if the other is disloyal. Their code of chivalry calls for them to act as cousins, while courtly love called from them to be loyal to their beloved. Loyalty is important especially the older I get; the older I get the less friends I have. While loss of friends are mostly due to natural reasons (distance and time), finding people trustworthy is hard thing to do. It is everyone’s job to keep that in mind and keep their word whenever it’s spoken.

… And my favorite, Women power

Many of the tales exhibit how much women were degraded, had no power, and word was not trusted all because they were women. Through this these women represents how much strength they really had. If I were to ask any of my friends would they go through what Griselda went through, behave like Virginia, or even follow the steps of the Wife of Bath they would say of course not. But these women were quite respectable in their own rights, especially for women during the period. They exhibited ways to beat the system without being notice. They played their parts and were recognized through these tales. While I know these are not true stories they do (for me) represent real medieval women. I also believe if they could endure the way women were treated and how men considered them property I have no excuse but to expect equal treatment from my male counterpart in the 221^st century. I think the one thing Chaucer accomplished in The Canterbury Tales is bringing out the feminist spirit in me.

Manciple's Tale

This post is on Loyalty

The OED defines loyalty as "faithful adherence to one's promise, oath, word of honour, etc.; †conjugal faithfulness, fidelity."

For me this is what the tale is all about. For me the crow shows his loyalty to Phoebus. Phoebus seems to be more upset by his wife's infidelity and in turn takes it on the crow (the messenger). 

This story is about the crow, but I don't think that we are supposed to view the crow as the bad person. I do not think that Phoebus is the bad person either. It seems Phoebus rage at the crow takes the attention away from his cheating wife. Making the term loyalty to only reply to friendships and governance, which in turn made me think of chivalry.

But then the question is what about the wife. If loyalty is faithful adherence to one's promise would that not apply to a marriage.

What exactly were the vows people took in Medieval European marriages?

Anyways, I believe that the crow had every right, as a friend and companion, to inform Phoebus of his wife's affair. It would be wrong to see this and have his friend believe his wife was faithful while I'm sure everyone in the town would have been aware.

About my other post on animals...

I found the excerpt pertaining to the use of animals in text and why they don't work as well as animals.
"Other animals have been introduced, but with limited success, for we know too little so far about their psychology. ... It is one of the ways where science may enlarge the novel, by giving it fresh subject matter. But the help has not been given yet, and until it comes we may say that the actors in a story are, or prepared to be, human beings." (Forster 44)
 This is from Forster's Aspects of the Novel 

The use of Animals in Story Telling

While doing an assignment for another class I ran across something that may help to explain why the use of animals in stories is NOT as affected of animals.
The excerpt comes from E.M. Forster's Aspects of the Novel. While at the moment I can not come across the exact quote it sums up to say that animals are not as effective as people because the reader is not able to connect with an animal. The animals make-up is only understood to a certain point.
To me this means that the use of animals in stories, including The Nun's Priest Tale, satirizes the actual characters the portray. It makes the story seem almost childish. Is this story meant to be funny. Although, in class, this was much discussion about the animal aspect of the novel I am still unsure as to why Chaucer chose to use an animal in this tale.
Again, I did not really care for the story. The most important part I took from the tale was the discussion between Chauntecleer and Pertelote. I think this discussion holds a lot of meaning. Pertelote is so adamant about the lack of importance of dreams. She says
Nothing, God woot, but vaintee in swevene is.
Swevenes engendren of replexions,
And ofte of fume and complexions,
Whan humours ben to habundant in a wight. (2922)-2925)
She finds the idea of dreaming weak and makes Chauntecleer less of a man. This is the opposite of what I thought how his dream would be perceived.
I've always taken dreams as something to take serioulsyy when it is closely connected to ones life. Even in the bible dreams are taken seriously. Ironically, Pertelote confirms her point by saying "God woot".
WHat do you guys take from this dream?

The Monk's Tale

I was thinking about the Knights interruption of the Monk's so called tale. I thought about what the reading would be like if the Knights tale followed the Monk's tale. This would explain why the monk did not tell his tale after the knight. It also would have been a pretty cool pairing. There's all these short storiesthe Monk tales emphasizing the workings of Fortune in well known people. Then there is the Knights tale which is very well put together with a plot and strong solid theme.
What exactly do you guys make of this? I think it would cause readers to give a different on the Monks tale which I enjoyed.

Deception and Religion

While in small group discussion on Tuesday I begin to recognize a pattern in The Canterbury Tales. Finally! I believe I'm beginning to understand Chaucer's ways (probably not). But, these are the two things I noticed:

In every tale there is some form of deceit happening AND there is always some religious reference.
Here are some forms of deceit and religious references in each tale (not all).

Okay, beginning with "The Knight's Tale" we get Arcite deceiving the King and working as his squire. So far, "The Knight's Tale" is the only tale that heavily references Roman god's. Arcite, Palamoun and Emelye all pray to a Roman god.

In "The Miller's Tale" Alisoun and Nicholas deceive John concrning the second flood to happen. This of course comes from the bible tale Noah's ark.

In "The Reeve's Tale" Simkin deceives his patrons and in turn John and Aleyn deceive Simkin. Simkin's wife is the child of a clergymen, therefore donned illegitimate (Why is this important?).

In "The Cook's Tale" if I'm not mistaken Perkin's master stole his money deceiving Perkin. As we know this tale is incomplete. The master also quotes a proverb "'Wel bet is roten appul out of hord\ Than that it rotie al the remenaunt'" (4406-4407).

In "The Man of Law's Tale" the Sultan's mother deceives Custance and the Sultan. Resulting in Constance lost at sea. And this happens twice! This tale is all about religion. The mother's do not like the change in theology that happens due to Custance.

In "The Wife of Bath's Tale" the old hag deceives the knight. The knight pleas "for Goddes love" more than once.

In "The Friar's Tale" the summoner deceives everyone he comes across. The summoner, a worker for the church, also makes a deal with devil (but doesn't sign with blood).

In "The Summoner's Tale" the friar deceives a sick man in order to get money. This tale is all about the church; friars are supposed to be "Goddes instrumentz", in this tale not so much.

In "The Clerk's Tale" the markis deceives his wife three times, causing her to give up her children and almost her home. Griselda represents virtue the church expects from women. Also, as discussed in class this story may be representative of the sacrifices followers of God must endure to prove their love to him.

These are just some of the examples of deception and religion I found in the tales we have read so far. Of course, there are many more that could be found in each tale. I thought this trend was symbolic. To me Chaucer is saying a lot about how he may view the church. While there is a lot of good going on there is many underhanded things happening. The Canterbury tales may be a book Chaucer wrote to even out the field between everyone in the church government and in every class. From these tales I see that no king is better than any peasant. Also, it is those who are held to the highest expectations who are the most deceiving it seems. This is probably because they can more likely get away with it. This does not only go for the church but for the government system as well. What do you guys think these themes mean?

Wife of Bath's Tale Discussion

Here are some things I found discussion-worthy for "The Wife of Bath's Tale":

My first point of interest is the length of "The Wife of Bath's Tale" compared to "The Wife of Bath's Prologue". None of the travelers we met so far got such in depth stories for their prorogued. It was more of a "pick me first"  scramble. With the Wife of Bath we are presented an in depth look at her personal, which sounds a lot like a tale on its own. This twice as long prologue does not eradicate the importance of the tale

Now that we have gotten over the shock at the length of the tale let us tackle some of the shocking (or not) content. Is this tale some sort of parody of "The Knights Tale". Upon reading the beginning of the tale it was all so familiar; savior King,  knight does wrong, women plea for grace. But in this tale it is the crime of the knight and the comparison of the friars to incubi that make the tale come off as a play on "The Knights Tale".  To have the knight commit rape is an interesting choice that I believe ties into the feminist  workings of the tale. But is this really a feminist tale? I mean, the knight does get off. In the end does his punishment satisfy the feminist in me? Now these fairies and incubi, for what reason would Chaucher choose to use such a comparison? It seems the friars are better because they rape but leave no evidence (pregnancy) behind. But, what is he trying to say about the court. In many ways they are just like the fairies that no longer exist, so nothing has really changed. The tale is already making known that rape happens often by those of the court. Interestingly enough it is those of the court that say the knight should be decapitated. Maybe they are trying to cover up their own sins or make themselves feel better. It is clear that Chaucer is making fun of the court.

So, on to what the knight must do. He is given one year to find out what women want most in the world. Now this tale just continue to pile up on the feminist aspect. This is becoming a go to guide on "how to satisfy your woman". This also ties back to "The Knights Tale", the knight is on a quest. The important part of this said quest is the old hag that gives him the life saving answer. She's old and ugly as part of the knights punishment. Oh, and she is a trickster. They say "behind evryman's fall is a women" and my favorite, "women are the root of all evil". We'll old hag, you're not making it look to good for us. Honestly, I rather the knight bring killed off by a beautiful goddess-like lady he marries. In the end of this tale the night is given exactly what he desires. Granted, do is the old lady. But, she gives in and compromises. I guess this go-to-guide is saying compromises must be made. But this ending makes me feel slightly bad for the knight. I began to forget the reason he had to go on this quest, there is no satisfaction for me in that. Those who commit crimes should be punished accordingly.

The Women of Medieval Times

So far we have read four different tales containing many different women. These women give us a representation of women during the medial period. This representation ranges from the most pure to that of a prostitute. What do these representations say about women and how they were looked upon during the time period? Let's start with "The Knight's Tale".

In "The Knight's Tale" we get Emelye. Emelye is the representation of what every Medieval women wants to be (or at least should want to be). She has goddess like beauty and walks in gardens. Emelye also speaks very little in this tale. In fact the only time she does speak is when she prays to the goddess Diane. In this prayer and sacrifice she also exhibits the traits of what a Medieval woman should be; she prays "As send me him that moist desireth me.\ Bihoold, goddesses of clone chastitee,\ The bittre teeres that on my cheeks falle!\ Sin thow art maide and kepere of us alle,\ My maidenhode thow kepe and we'll conserve,\ And whil I live, a maide I wol thee serve. (Ll. 2325-2330). Emelye reveals two important things for the time her lack of choice and her chastity.  Emelye leaves the choice of man she is left with in the end, up to that man. It is the man that loves her the most that gets her; her feelings do not really matter. Also, Emelye keeps her virginity, ultimately for Palamoun. 

On we go to "The Miller's Tale". In this tale we get a young bride who is married to a carpenter. Physically, she is a beautiful woman. Alisoun would not be an example of what medieval women should be. She is more like the example of a medieval wife that everyone knows exist and talk about behind closed doors. Alisoun is flirty, wild and unfaithful; but she is married. Being married for a woman during the medieval times seems to be the honorable thing. By the end of "The miller's Tale" we come to realize that a woman like Alisoun does not really win. She is left with a husband that everyone thinks is crazy. At the same time she does not really lose either because her true intentions and actions are never revealed.

The dynamic of the next two tales are very different than the former two.  In "The Reeve's Tale" we get two women, a mother and wife as well as her daughter. These women represent a whole different idea a part from the idea of chivalry we had been previously presented with.  I believe their role aids the story in advancing the point the Reeve is trying to get across. Who they are and what they do are only important by being a cause not an effect. 

The incomplete "Cook's Tale" the woman is even less important. It is here that I stumble as to what the importance of a married prostitute plays in this story. I do think it is important to note that she is important.  This further shows the importance marriage is during medieval times.

The Courtly Knight vs. The Chivalrous Knight

In The Knights Tale there is quite an interesting love triangle between Arcite, Palamoun, and Emelye. This triangle in which Emelye is not aware of being a part of until towards the end. In this tale it becomes hard to figure out whether courtly love over rules the laws of chivalry. Palamoun and Arcite both are immediately  overcome by Emelye's "Goddes" like appearance. The two knights, also cousins, both decide that they must have the girl. Out goes chivalry for "Love is a greater lawe" according to Arcite (ll 1165). So it seems Arcite is to be associated with chivalry. For me, this is the last time that he is associated with chivalry.
Arcite is all about winning, he is a knight. For him everything is war. How cunning is he? When he is released from prison and banished from Thebes he finds a way to return in order to see Emelye's face. Now one may look at this as his undying love but after I thought about Arcite and how he worked I saw this was just yet anther win for him. The most pivotal moment that revealed this character trait was Arcite's choice of the god he chose. And which god is that? No other than Mars, "Arcite unto the temple walked is\ Of fierse Mars" (2368-69).  Ah! Arcite I have caught you now. Sending offerings to the god of war. Love is more of a fight for you.
Palamoun is the romantic at heart. When he first saw Emelye he was not sure if she was a woman or a goddess for she was so beautiful! For Palamoun love is just love separate from the idea of chivalry. While he is left imprisoned  he has the opportunity to gaze upon Emelye everyday (awesome!) which helps him survive. When Palamoun escapes and has the opportunity to fight Arcite for Emelye's love he prays to no other than Venus, the goddess of love (Ooooo!).
But who wins the girl? Dun duuuuh dunnnn!!!!!!!!!!! Why Palamoun of course. So true love prevails. Well, to me at least it does. This does not mean that it over rules chivalry. These two knights show that there must be a balance created, one in which chivalry and courtly love is entertained. Maybe this is why it is thought of as one in the same today.