I read all of the Canterbury Tales twice and I read a modern translation of it on sparknotes.com, and I can still say I don't understand it completely. There was just so much to read, and when it is written in such a different language than I am used to, I easily got lost. I tried really hard though. I hope that helps me out.
Out of the characters we got to know pretty well, I can say my least favorite was the Pardoner. Cheating people like that, while pretending it was going to help them get to Heaven was just plain wrong. Nothing could excuse that. Sure, his tale had a good moral, but that just made me dislike him even more. It is bad enough when someone does something bad, but when they continue doing something bad when they are well aware that what they are doing is wrong...that's just inexcusable. Then he had the nerve at the end of his story to try and cheat the fellow travelers! That part was when I really liked the Host. At times in the story he was kind of crude, but right then he was good in my book.
My favorite character was the Wife of Bath. Yeah, she may be considered a whore by some people, but I really admire her. In that time period, women were supposed to be subservient to their husbands, and bend down to their will, but she refused to. She knew what she wanted, and she went after it! I liked that. She wouldn't even take her fifth husband's constant insults to the female gender, and even tore pages from his book to prove her point. I didn't much enjoy her story, though. While it was not bad, I thought her prologue was much more interesting.
I really liked the Priest's tale. The one with the rooster Chauntecleer and his seven wives, including his favorite, Pertelote. It had a good moral, as well: "Never trust a flatterer." I understood that one completely. I mean, just look at politics! I was surprised Chauntecleer got away from the fox Russel in the end! I fully expected him to die, even though it made me sad. But the Host did ask the Priest for an uplifting story....so that might be why.
I liked the wife of Bath's tale, as well. It was really interesting and fun to see how she "used" their weaknesses to get what she wanted. I think she has a pretty healthy relationship with her husbands. Even though her last husband was a complete jerk, she never lost sight of who she really was and what she wanted. I applaud her.
ReplyDeleteI liked the Wife's Tale too! Women Power!! lol
ReplyDeleteActually, I liked all the tales, except the rooster one because i didn't understand it. It was confusing and they had wierd names. The most Funny tale tho was the Miller's. When I read it, I was like what the freak? It was a unique tale....
I agree that Canterbury Tales was very hard to get through. The language was very difficult to understand and there were a lot of footnotes that were referred to. I didn't like the Pardoner either because cheating on anything is morally wrong and he cheated people about God. Most of the time I didn't like the Host but in that section he was great because he saw right to the heart of the Pardoner's tale. The Wife of Bath was amazing because she didn't take crap from anyone. She stood up for herself and her gender which I think was admirable. The rooster was kind of interesting with the politics like you said and the fox.
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