Wife of Bath vs. the Pardoners - 1251 Words

Charlotte Stern Period 6 March 30,2012 Wife of Bath vs. The Pardoners Geoffery Chaucers The Canterbury Tales is an example of an extremely complicated and wondrous piece of fictional work. The main story lines plot is a contest between a diverse group of pilgrims on their way to Thomas Beckets shrine. in order to win the contest the pilgrim must tell â€Å"tales of best sentence and moost solaas,†, which means the stories must be filled with moral and entertainment to win the feast. Even though no winner was actually announced, I believe it would have been a toss up between the â€Å"Pardoner’s Tale† and the â€Å"Wife of Bath’s†. †¨ If it were just looking at morality, The Wife of Baths tale would be a sure win. There is no way†¦show more content†¦The Pardoner has many other examples of irony just waiting to show up to the readers.†¨ The Pardoners next example of irony is situational irony. The reader is originally told a story about three men searching for a man named death. Readers seem to forget all about the part of the story when these young men find the gold. At this point the story took a sure twist up until all of the young men are dead. When this happens Chaucer goes back â€Å"Thus these two murderers received their due,/So did the the treacherous young poisoner too† (294-5). The â€Å"due† in this case is death. When this occurs the reader will most likely remember that death was what these young men were searching from the beginning for, the reader would assume that the quest to find this assassin would be a wild goose chase, the young men did indeed find what they where looking for. The Pardoner has one more form of irony in store for his listeners.†¨ The final example of irony from the Pardoner is dramatic irony. To let his audience know that these three young men are doomed to death before they have the slightest idea Chaucer uses foreshadowing. The best example of foreshadowing is the old man that they meet on the road to find Death. The old man give several clues to his identity such as â€Å"One who would change his youth to have my age/And so my age is mine and must be still† (121-2). The reader easily mistakes the old man as looking for an exchange of youth and old age when inShow MoreRelated Canterbury Tales Essay - Sexuality in The Wife of Bath and the Pardoner1711 Words   |  7 PagesSexuality in The Wife of Bath and the Pardoner In Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, an eclectic mix of people gathers together at Tabard Inn to begin a pilgrimage to Canterbury. In the General Prologue, the readers are introduced to each of these characters. Among the pilgrims are the provocative Wife of Bath and the meek Pardoner. These two characters both demonstrate sexuality, in very different ways. Chaucer uses the Wife and the Pardoner to examine sexuality in the medieval periodRead MoreLiterture Final Exam Notes1143 Words   |  5 Pages or tests †¢ Patterned events (for instance, events reapeated three times) 20. exemplum: an acecdote or brief story (latin for â€Å"example†) ex: The Pardoner’s Tale exemplum against the sin of greed 21. irony: ex from The Pardoner’s Tale: The Pardoner preaches about not to be greedy yet he is greedy ex2: The 3 greedy men all end up dying, and no one ends up with the money 22. personification: giving inanimate objects human characteristics 23. archetypal narrative elements: basic storytelling