Seeing red lately?

Since we were not able to attend class Tuesday I thought I’d share my “favorite” deadly sin. I hope this is what was intended. Of the deadly sins, my favorite would have to be wrath or anger.  Everyone has experienced anger and felt the freedom of letting go. I find that in some moments of anger (those which do not bring harm to others) there is uncensored honesty. Who hasn’t experienced a flash of rage while stuck in rush-hour traffic on the Beltway or witnessed the wrath of an aggressive driver? As you may have guessed, terrible traffic and poor driving are my triggers. If you are guilty of wrath yourself it seems that you are in good company with some pilgrims of The Canterbury Tales. These people see red when offended by a tale or, like the narrator, simply run out of patience and show their darker side.

The drunken miller kicks off the tit-for-tat tales when he tells a story of a carpenter made a cuckold by his clerk. Chaucer writes:

Whan folk had laughen at this nice cas
Of Absolon and hende Nicholas,
Diverse folk diversely they seide,
But for the moore part they loughe and pleyde;
Ne at this tale I saugh no man him greve
But it were oonly Osewold the Reve.
Because he was of carpenters craft (Chaucer 3855-3860)

The miller then incurs the wrath of the reeve. The reve follows with a story about a miller who is made a cuckold by two students determined to outsmart him. The story ends with miller finding the students copulating with his wife and daughter.

In the same fashion, the friar tells a tale that enrages the summoner who in turn shares a spiteful story of his own. The friar’s story is of a summoner who is on his way to extort money from an old woman and happens upon a man riding alongside the forest. They talk and the summoner finds out that this yeoman is as corrupt as he. In the end it is revealed that the yeoman is a demon who takes him to hell at the behest of the old woman. In response, the summoner shook with anger and said:

Sin ye han herd this false Frere lie,
As suffreth me I may my tale telle!
This Frere bosteth that he knoweth helle,
And God it woot, that it is litel wonder;
Freres and feendes been but lite asonder.
For pardee, ye han ofte time herd telle. (Chaucer 1670-1675)

This summoner contrives a tale that is both biting and bawdy in response. He tells of a corrupt friar who preys on a poor couple only to be played the fool and farted on (putting it mildly).

Even the narrator of the Canterbury Tales succumbs to anger after hearing the story of Virginia from “The Physician’s Tale.” He began to swear, as if he was mad, and rant:

This was  fals cherl and a fals justice!
As shameful deeth as herte may devise
Come to thise juges and hir advocatz!
Aglate this sely maide is slain, allas! (Chaucer 289-292)

The manciple is another pilgrim who attempts to incite anger by berating the cook about his drunkenness and smell though he says, “’I wol not wrathe him, also mote I thrive!” (80).

There are other pilgrims who act upon their wrath and a number of characters from their tales who do as well. However, there are a few characters that readers might wish would become angry and unleash their fury. Characters such as Grisilde of “The Clerk’s Tale” and Cecilia from “The Second Nun’s Tale” earned the right to revenge, but maintain the patience and suffering of a saint.

Wrath is my “favorite” deadly sin because it seems an innate tendency for humans to experience overwhelming anger from time to time. However, wrath equals wrinkles, so do not let it consume you. Think about this when you are waiting in bumper-to-bumper traffic or endless lines while holiday shopping this weekend and aim to be more like the knight and less like the manciple.