Essay on Human Nature and The Canterbury Tales - 1572 Words

Human Nature and The Canterbury Tales When Geoffrey Chaucer undertook the writing of The Canterbury Tales, he had a long road ahead of him. He intended to tell two stories from each of thirty pilgrims on the way to Canterbury, and then two more from each pilgrim on the way back from Canterbury. Of these, he completed only twenty-four. However, in these tales, Chaucer depicts both the pilgrims and their stories with striking realism. In The Nuns Priests Tale, The Canons Yeomans Tale, The Friars Tale, The Reeves Tale, and The Clerics Tale, Chaucer demonstrates his remarkable insight into human nature. By comparing and contrasting these tales, one can see the universality of human nature as shown by Chaucer.†¦show more content†¦But the second canon is well beyond this point. In all this world he has no peer for falsehood; so selfish is he that he infects whole towns and robs them; so horrible is his greed that he can only compare with the traitor Judas who betrayed Christ (Whittock 270). However bad a picture the Yeoman paints of this canon, the Friar creates this canons near-equal in his own tale. This time the character is a summoner. The summoner is unswerving in his greed even in the face of the devil, and as the Dictionary of Literary Biography says, [he] tells the devil he may be good at what he does in his neck of the woods, but if he wants to see how it is done, he should watch the summoner at work (140). The devil of course does watch, and because the summoner will not repent for his lies and stealing, the devil proceeds to carry him off to Hell. Condemnation does not come in such a dramatic fashion for the miller in The Reeves Tale. His trickery against the clerks is repaid by the clerks sleeping with his wife and daughter, as well as by being clubbed by his wife in the confusion the morning after. His wife clubs him deliberately, not by accident. She is tired of having a husband who has been a cheat to his customers and is unworthy of her, and she is seeking a long-desired retribution upon her husband (Balliet 2). These reasons areShow MoreRelatedReality of Human Nature Hidden Behind the Canterbury Tales Essay1460 Words   |  6 PagesReality of Human Nature Hidden Behind the Canterbury Tales A common word on the street says that everyone is different, therefore behave differently. Everyone has their own lifestyles and have diverse habits or reactions among circumstances. It is true. People do have different appearances, styles, ethnicities, and interests because of how they were raised within a family or just the way they are born. However, physical appearances may have an effect on how people are unlike, but emotionally andRead MoreCourtly Love in The Knights Tale and The Wife of Baths Tale1353 Words   |  6 Pagesin his work The Canterbury Tales. 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