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Character of the wife of bath
Wife of bath is a contradictory character
Comparison between the wife of bath and the pardoner
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Some of the similarities in both stories are greed, making fun of elderly. The difference is that in one tale death was encountered, and in the other tale death was not encountered. In the Pardoner's and Wife of Baths tale, both show that they do not respect their elders. In the Pardoner's tale, the three men heard about death, and wanted to kill it.
Winning the Meal Which one is the better tale “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” or “The Pardoner’s Tale?” The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer is a very well known story in the medieval time. In The Canterbury Tales during the spring a group gathers and wants to go on a pilgrimage to Canterbury where they will find the shrine of Saint Thomas a Beckert. On their journey they stayed at a high class inn called The Tabard, where they found an innkeeper who wanted to join them on their journey to Canterbury.
A pardoner is a man who sells religious relics of forgiveness to sinners. However, Chaucer’s Pardoner is an untrustworthy character who sells fake tokens for a profit. He boasts of his great ability to preach, and ironically, his favorite topic is greed. “
Chaucer characterizes The Wife of Bath as controlling and powerful. The Wife of Bath was a complete contradiction of the typical female, during this time. The average woman was submissive and reserved. Whereas, The Wife of Bath possessed character traits that one would associate with men. Chaucer emphasizes this trait by describing her in such ways one would describe a man.
The character of the Pardoner in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales is a complex one, full of contradictions and ambiguity. On one hand, he is described as a "noble ecclesiast" (Chaucer 691) and a skilled preacher, capable of moving his listeners to tears with his sermons. On the other hand, he is also a con artist, selling indulgences to people who believe that they can buy their way out of sin. This duality is central to the Pardoner's character, and it is the source of both his power and his corruption.
Chaucer wrote the book: The Canterbury Tales, in which a group of men going on a journey all tell a tale. Within each tale is a moral lesson as well as each tale consists of a corrupt action committed within the church and is conveyed by those kind of characters within the story. One of the tales that Chaucer tells in his book is called: The pardoner 's tale. Within this tale the pardoner (who is telling the tale) is a preacher who often gives sermons but admits that he does is solely for money and not to condemn people of their sins. (Greed)
The temptation of greed ended up killing the three men at the end of the tale. ”The Pardoner's Tale” provides a clear understanding that greed is a sin we all have to battle with in our lives, whereas the moral of the wife of bath's tale applies to people doing bad things. This tale teaches the reader a lesson about greed and how it can overcome people, making them do bad
A pardoner is a person who travels to different villages selling church pardons. Pardons are actual pieces of paper with a signature of the bishop, forgiving the person 's sin. During the Middle Ages sinners under sentence of an extended penance could purchase a remittance of their penance duties from official pardoners. This soon lead to corrupt practices, the ignorant believing they could buy complete forgiveness for a sin. Fake pardoners were only too willing to exploit such people.
The Wife of Bath and her tale are the most similar out of all the tales because they both share a domineering outlook over others. In the general prologue she is told to have had five husbands and is described as a looker, “Her face was bold and handsome and ruddy,” (Chaucer 39). In her prologue she goes more in depth of her time spent with her five husbands. Wife of Bath talks most about how she gains control over her husbands. For instance, her fifth husband was the controlling force in their marriage until he made the mistake of hitting her and telling her he would do anything to keep her with him and said, “My own true wife, do as you wish for the rest of your life…” (335).
The Pardoner preaches to the “yokels” (L. 66 Pardoner's Prologue) that “Avarice is the root of all evil”. Synonymous with greed, avarice is the very thing that the Pardoner preaches against while he himself is using modern psychology and gulit tactics to profit at the expense of others. He admits that what he does is simply a game to him and that he knows he is a fraud. It truly shows a lack of morality in that he is so willing to continue his business when he is aware that he is a con artist. The Wife of Bath is another character within “The Canterbury Tales” that has major character flaws.
There are many similarities in the Wife of Bath and Pardoner Tale’s that bring them together. For example, greed, lust and issues with corruption that both tales have in them. This is important because these topics open the true meaning of the characters and unfold how the time period was at the time. The issues of corruption plays an important role in the tale’s the reason why is because many religious role models are corrupt.
Chaucer’s The Pardoner manages to be a much debated and highly controversial character of The Canterbury Tales, criticized by Chaucer himself in the way he was described. From his ambiguous sexuality and fluid gender representation to his questionable lifestyle of abusing the name of the Church for his own purposes as well as his overall defiance of the social norms of his time, the Pardoner is one character that can be explored from various angles. The Pardoner is first introduced to be travelling with The Summoner, a corrupt officer of the Church like The Pardoner himself.
He does not set a good example for humanity for he “Made monkeys of the priest of congregation”(726). Chaucer uses satire very much in the Pardoners character because he is not being the religious figure whom he was expected to portray in the poem. The Pardoner is a fraud and a liar, when he is suppose to be a honest person of God. In the Canterbury Tales, the Frair, Monk and Pardoner are all given satire to give strong messages and deep characteristics.
Darby Puckett Ms. Maria Kersh Honors European Literature 11 April 2023 Wife of Bath's Tale and Miller's Tale The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories told by an ever-eccentric group of people with the eventual end goal of winning a prize. While many of these stories do share many similarities, overlaps, and potential contrast, in this writing, the primary discussion will be centered around the tale of the Wife of Bath and the tale of the Miller. Now before the comparison themselves are made, the storytellers themselves ought to be mentioned. In the first prologue, we are introduced to all of the pilgrims and given a sort of look into what kind of characters they are.
Response Essay for The Wife of Bath’s Tale “The Wife of Bath's Tale” is a book written by Geoffrey Chaucer, and often regarded as the best book in the collection of the Canterbury Tales. The book tells the story of a young knight in the land inhabited by elves and fairies during the days of King Arthur. This young knight rapes a young maiden in the King’s court and the King passes a judgment of beheading the knight’s head. However, before his execution, Queen Guinevere intervene and gives the knight a chance to go out and seek what women want upon which he will be spared.
