After the touching tale told by the Clerk, The Host tells the Pardoner to recount a funny story to lighten the mood a little. The Pardoner agrees and begins his tale by telling the company about how he preaches in churches. Every time he preaches, his theme is the same, which happens to be that greed is the root of all evil. In order to seem impressive in front of the congregation, the Pardoner says that he just mutters some Latin and begs them to pray for salvation. To top it all off, he pulls some "sacred relics" out of a sack to show to the people. He claims that they are the bones of saints and extols their virtues and that in order to reap the benefits of these holy relics, one would have to give him a small offering of silver. In this manner, the Pardoner tells the company how he makes the most out of his position as a clergyman.
He then proceeds to tell the story of three young men who possessed all the vices possible to be had, the worst of which being gluttony, drunkenness, gambling, and swearing or "taking the Lord's name in vain." One day, the three men are nearly dead drunk in a bar when they hear a bell which is ringing to signify that someone has died. They find out that one of their old friends has been killed by a strange fellow named Death, who has also been killing off many other people and sometimes entire villages. They get angry at this and decide to find Death and beat him up. They're drunkenly looking around for Death when they see an old man walking slowly towards them. They jeer at and insult him, but the old man remains calm and tells them that they can find Death sitting under a tree in a grove just around the bend. The three men then rush to the grove of trees and find an enormous heap of gold coins. They decide that they will split up the gold three ways, but only after one of them goes to the market and gets food and drink for all of them. The other two will stay and guard the gold. Once one of them has left, the other two plot to kill him upon his return and split the gold between themselves. Meanwhile the one at the market decides that he wants the gold all to himself, so he poisons the food meant for his two comrades. When he returns, the other two men beat him up until he's dead, upon which they eat the food that he had brought with him. The poison in the food works quickly and both of them die. At the end of his story, the Pardoner preaches the virtue of not having any of the vices that led the three men to their downfall. He tries to scam the other pilgrims into paying for absolution of sin and for the so-called relics in his sack. The Host at this point mocks him, saying that the Pardoner would tell him to kiss his (the Pardoner's) dirty underwear and claim that it was that of a saint. As everyone laughs at the Pardoner, the Knight calmly breaks up the skirmish. The Host then prevails upon the Parson to speak. As the Parson begins to tell his story, the pilgrims have made their way into a forest. Geoffrey Chaucer himself then stops his horse, dismounts, and prays as the rest of the company fades into the night. This story was left with little closure, so one can vaguely assume that the pilgrims go on to Canterbury and continue to tell their tales. If I had to write a sequel to this book, I could write it as one big narrative composed of the viewpoints of all the characters in the story at different parts of the journey. Each character's thoughts and personalities could be more clearly portrayed by including their own thoughts and feelings on the tales and the journey itself. We could also get a better idea on why they behave the way they behave through this sort of multi-perspective narrative. All the characters would be the same in this sequel; the only major difference would be in the style of narration of the stories as the perspective keeps shifting from character to character. In this sequel, the main conflict would be the same as it was in the original book, which was really just occasional prejudiced squabbles between characters. I would definitely recommend The Canterbury Tales to a friend because many of the tales told in the book are interesting to read and the way that the characters are written makes them seem very real and alive to the reader. I will be commenting on the reading blogs of Colin, Maddy T., Michael, and Matthew E.
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At this point of the story, the Summoner has finished his scathing story about how friars are incredibly hypocritical and pretentious people; wolves in the guise of sheep, if you will. In his story, a friar goes around town begging for alms, and stops at one house that he frequents quite often. He tells the owner of the house why he should be giving more donations to friars and other members of the parish and how that's the best way to get to heaven. The man considers this and tells the friar that if he searches the chair on which he (the man) is sitting, the friar will find some gold to receive as alms for all the other members of the parish. As the friar proceeds to do so, the man passes gas on the friar's hand, upon which the friar becomes severely enraged. The friar runs to the lord's manor and demands that justice be served. The lord calms the friar down and contemplates on how to solve this problem. Then, his young squire named Jack tells the lord to bring a wheel with twelve spokes and tie down the offender on the front of it. When the man passes gas, the stink will supposedly be divided into twelve parts, with the first going to the friar himself. The lord and lady of the manor laugh uproariously and reward the young squire for his wit. Thus, the Summoner's story ends.
The company of pilgrims has a good laugh about this and the Clerk is then cajoled into telling a story. The Host jokingly tells the Clerk not to use any of his technical Oxford jargon and to speak in a way that anyone can understand. The Clerk agrees and tells the story of a marquis named Walter who marries a peasant girl named Griselda. Griselda is so kind, patient, and understanding that the marquis decides to test her to see whether that patience is genuine. When she has children, he has a servant take them away with his orders to "kill them," when in reality he is sending them to his sister's place in Saluzzo, Italy. Through all this, Griselda remains calm and patient, not shedding a tear for all that has happened. At one point, the marquis divorces her and makes her go back to her old peasant life. Even then, she takes it all with a smile and does not utter a word of complaint. A year passes by, and the marquis begins to repent his actions. He calls Griselda back to the manor and tells her that all which had happened to her was simply a test of wills. Then Griselda, the marquis, and their children live happily ever after for the rest of their lives. I feel like if I were in this story, I would be friends with the Knight and the Clerk. This would be so because they are both very honorable and morally upright people who can also hold intelligent conversations. Based on the stories they told, I can assume that they are rather open-minded for educated people at the time. I think I would also get along with the Host and the Squire because they are also very amicable and friendly people, but the Miller and Reeve are both pieces of work because one of them is always inebriated and the other just slanders everyone else. I feel like I would not get along with them very well for the above reasons. I will be commenting on the reading blogs of Maddy T., Matthew E., and Michael. At this point of the book, the pilgrims are continuing to tell their stories. I feel that with the exception of the Reeve, the Miller, the Friar, and the Summoner, all the characters have good relationships with each other. These four, however, continue to bicker like small children. The Host is the only person keeping them from physically attacking each other. The main character of the story, Geoffrey Chaucer himself, merely observes and records all that happens. I feel that the author added in the petty personal conflicts between these characters in order to keep up the comic relief. This comic relief, in turn, keeps the readers engaged throughout the course of the story. I believe that this was a good idea from the author's part, as humor is something we can all relate to and appreciate.
I will be commenting on the blogs of Matthew E., Maddy T., and Michael Q. So far, The Canterbury Tales has been about a group of pilgrims who are traveling to a saint's shrine in the medieval English town of Canterbury. As fate would have it, all of them happened to rest at the same inn before beginning their journey. The pilgrims include a Knight, a Squire (the Knight's son), a Yeoman, a Prioress (a nun), a Monk, a Friar, a Merchant, a Sergeant of the Law, a Franklin, a Haberdasher, a Carpenter, a Weaver, a Dyer, a Maker of Tapestries, a Cook, a Shipman, a Doctor of Physic, a Wife of Bath, a Parson, a Ploughman, a Manciple, a Reeve, a Summoner, a Pardoner, and the narrator himself. Each of these characters is introduced at length, with the narrator extensively commenting on their respective mannerisms and personalities. Then, the host of the tavern is introduced. He tells the pilgrims that since the journey to Canterbury is long and grueling, they should hold a storytelling competition to pass the time. Before they reach their destination, each pilgrim must tell two stories and the one who tells the best story will be staying at the host's inn on the way back with all their expenses paid for by the rest of the pilgrims and the host himself. The pilgrims readily agree to this. The next morning, before they start their journey, the pilgrims draw straws to see who will go first. The Knight draws the shortest stick so he begins to tell his story.
His story is about two princes of Thebes named Palamon and Arcite and their fight for love. The story was very masterfully told and had the audience captivated until the very end. After the Knight has finished, the Miller, who is completely drunk, demands to tell his own story, much to the chagrin of the Reeve, who tells him to shut his mouth. The host, however, encourages the Miller, so the Miller begins his story. In essence, it is about how a young scholar outwitted a carpenter. This story was obviously intended to spite the Reeve, who is a carpenter by profession. The Reeve, in order to get back at the Miller, tells a story about two apprentices who also happen to get back at a dishonest miller who had been keeping all the wheat he was supposed to sell for himself. The pilgrims laugh at the Reeve and the Miller for being so petty after both of their stories were told. After reading part one of my book, I believe that the pilgrims will continue to tell their stories until one of them will inevitably win the competition. In the next section of the book, the pilgrims will continue to tell their stories and make progress on their journey. As stated earlier, the plot of the book going further will be the telling of stories by our group of characters until one of them wins the prize. So far, I feel that this book is an interesting one, however long- winded it may be at certain parts of the stories. I will be commenting on the reading blogs of Matthew E., Maddy T., and Michael Q. |
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