Reading Response:The Wife of Bath, The Wife of Bath Prologue, and The General Prologue

Reading Response: The Wife of Bath, The Wife of Bath Prologue, and The General Prologue By Geoffrey Chaucer These selections from The Canterbury Tales best exemplify the ideals and traits of women (as portrayed by Chaucer). In, The Wife of Bath Prologue, the narrator brags of her sexual exploits as well as her prowess of controlling men. The narrator is quite forthright in her enjoyment of this manipulation; she comments on her technique of lying and predomination of men. The General Prologue further serves to display the daunting traits of women. The narrator makes several stabs at a woman's appearance; and the overall effect is one of distaste and inadequacy. The tale itself, The Wife of Bath, embodies the characteristics of the two previous selections; by fermenting a character that is both cynical towards men and symbolizes superficiality. The first selection, The General Prologue, offers the reader a glimpse into the theme and tone of the entire Tale. In this segment of the story, the author appropriates the fabliau genre. This style of composition relies on a bawdy, suggestive sense of comedy to communicate its message. This is particularly effective towards the end lines, where the author includes, "Gap-toothed was she...An overskirt was tucked around her buttocks large, And her feet spurred sharply under that...The remedies of love she knew,

  • Word count: 1227
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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How in your view does Chaucer convey the Wicked Witch of Bathin an attractive light?

How in your view does Chaucer convey the Wicked Witch of Bath in an attractive light? In the prologue to the tale, Chaucer enables us to see the Wife's character in two ways: first, we have her own account of the sort of person she has been, and is; second, we see this substantiated by the manner in which she delivers her account of her past exploits. The wife's account of herself appears largely to be honest, as she makes little attempt to conceal misdemeanors and weaknesses that she relishes in recollection, and which, she believes, will entertain hearers. The wife evidently believes her character to have been determined by her horoscope; whether or not we admit the astrological influence, it is clear that the two aspects of her character, which the Wife attributes to the zodiac, are her dominant characteristics. As a result of her star sign, she is pleasure loving and promiscuous and has a bold and unstoppable nature. As such, she could never deny a man her 'chamber of Venus' no matter what he looked like of how poor he was. After all, she had often been told that she had the best 'thingummebob' imaginable and if a man was willing to admire then the Wife was willing to be generous. In her first three marriages the Wife has readily dominated her elderly husbands, comically attacking them for their supposedly unreasonable criticisms (which the Wife's later admissions show

  • Word count: 1099
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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‘Walter Mitty’ and the ‘Poor Relation’s Story’

'Walter Mitty' and the 'Poor Relation's Story' The stories 'Walter Mitty' and the 'Poor Relation's Story' are two stories that show people that everyone wants a better life. Whether it is in reality or in fantasy. 'Walter Mitty' is a story about a man of the same name who fantasises about a better and more powerful existence, as his wife is dominant. Mitty is in retirement and obviously doesn't like his new life. In the 'Poor Relation's Story' it is about a man called Michael who also wants a better life. But he lies and says he already has a fantastic life. Both men live in a make-believe world of their own. Walter Mitty is an elderly man who has just retired and is now forced to spend the rest of his life driving his wife around. He is a very shy man who hasn't go the confidence to stand up to his wife and has a weak character. Therefore is used as a 'doormat' for his wife to wipe her feet on. He is constantly searching his imagination to find the man inside him, using his ideas of what he would have preferred to be. He seems to always drift off to scenes of him in command in the army or in a tense situation. He seems to want power because his wife restricts his. The Poor relation, Michael, is basically a very subconscious man who doesn't feel happy at all with his life. He then tends to lie to people about his life and habitat. He is a poor man who is single and has

  • Word count: 1749
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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First Paper The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Jesse Chan February 27, 2003 Professor Norman Lewis Spring 2003 English 120 First Paper - "The Birthmark" by Nathaniel Hawthorne As human beings, we are NOT perfect! It is part of our nature to be flawed one way or another. But there are some who choose to believe the opposing view. The theme of Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "The Birthmark" is how humans fight forcefully against Nature for perfection. It is those humans who, eventually, learn that Nature cannot be changed or revised. Aylmer was a famous scientist and philosopher who achieved great wonders. All his life, he has made remarkable discoveries and won numerous awards. His life revolved around two deep passions - the love for Nature [perfection] and the love for his wife, Georgiana [imperfection]. He believes the world is perfect, but little does he realize his life is rather imperfect. Georgiana is a very beautiful woman who loved her husband dearly. She was indeed beautiful with the exception of one flaw - her birthmark. This single mark lied on her left white cheek that resembled the shape of a hand. This mark is known as the "crimson hand". Her beauty is imperfect because of this "fatal mark". Although this beauty mark hindered Georgiana's beauty in Aylmer's eyes, others don't see this point. Other people, such as Aminadab, feel that she is beautiful with or without the "fatal birthmark".

  • Word count: 1353
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Although the Millers Tale was written over 600 years ago, we still find it funny, why?

The Millers Tale Essay Question - Although the Millers Tale was written over 600 years ago, we still find it funny, why? The Miller's Tale is arguably Chaucer's best work of humour and it strikes the right balance between bawdiness and vulgarity. The setting of the Miller's Tale is very ordinary and therefore we relate to it and is not humorous. The details give verisimilitude to the tale. But the main aspects of humour in The Miller's Tale are the four characters and how they react with each other. First John, the carpenter. He is a very stereotypical carpenter in those times who marries a young woman for her beauty so she can share his riches. He is rich but stupid and his stupidity and gullibility provides the chance for the main practical joke of the tale to take place. John can be compared with the Miller an example of John's stupidity which makes the tale funny is on line 119 'He knew nat Catoun, for his wit was rude' this tells us directly that he was rude. He is also very gullible which also brings humour to the story. We can see this in the way that he believes Nicholas about the flood and builds the boat in the roof (another stupid thing to do because the roof is a stupid place to build a boat!) and how he is completely oblivious to what Alison and Nicholas are doing while he is in the roof building the boat. Another example of John's stupidity is that instead

  • Word count: 2187
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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The Canterbury Tales is more than a collection of stories, many of them taken from popular folk tales or existing stories in other languages.

The Canterbury Tales is more than a collection of stories, many of them taken from popular folk tales or existing stories in other languages. It is a picture of life in England in the fourteenth century. The three main levels of society at the time are represented in the stories - knights, the clergy and the common people. In addition, the professional classes and the merchant class have their representatives. The tales are the social comment of the highest order. Chaucer is cynical about many aspects of society but none more so than the church. He shows in several stories the corruption of organised religion at the time and portrays the highest members of the church as pleasure loving and wealthy, in contrast to the most basic tenets of abstinence and poverty espoused officially by the church. An analysis of the tales for elements of anti-clericalism as responses to the prevailing political, social, and religious setting requires some basic historical knowledge about Late Middle Age conditions in England, as well as the belief that literature in general reflects the historical conditions under which it is written because a piece of literature cannot be fully understood without such historical knowledge. In the years before the Reformation, members of the Catholic clergy were notorious for their immoral acts. The abuses of clerical power and privileges by the medieval clergy

  • Word count: 2006
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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What is established in the opening to the 'Turn of the Screw' by Henry James and how is it effective as a basis to a ghost story?

What is established in the opening to the 'Turn of the Screw' by Henry James and how is it effective as a basis to a ghost story? The Turn of the Screw is a story written in 1898 and from a governess' point of view. In the main story the governess thinks the two children she is caring for are under the evil influence of two ghosts, Miss Jessel and Peter Quint. What we would expect from an opening to a ghost story written in 1898 is to be launched straight into the plot. We would expect this because this grips the reader's attention and makes you want to read on. We would also expect the setting to be introduced because this makes you become involved in the story. We would expect the language to be complex because this is the style that was used in the eighteen hundreds. We would expect the characters to be introduced and to become real to the reader. We would expect this because the reader will not believe in the characters if they do not seem realistic. We would also expect atmosphere to be created because this prepares the reader for a ghost story and makes the reader feel part of the story. We would also expect tension to be created because this makes us want to read on. The Turn of the Screw is in some ways typical of an opening to a ghost story written in the eighteen hundreds because the style is complex: for the first sentence, which is long, dense and contains four

  • Word count: 2201
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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What impression does The Prologue give you of the Church in Chaucer’s England?

THE GENERAL PROLOGUE What impression does The Prologue give you of the Church in Chaucer's England? Chaucer uses The General Prologue to highlight the predicament and the shortcomings of the Church in England at his time: by the use of satire and irony he manages to effectively criticise the Church in the 14th century. I have chosen to use three of Chaucer's portraits to illustrate the impression he gives of the Church. The first of these characters is the Monk; a man who one must remember has vowed to lead a life of poverty, chastity and obedience. It can immediately be seen that Chaucer is not partial to the Church and the clergy. The first two lines set the scene for the portrait; Chaucer starts by telling the reader that the Monk outshines all other monks ('a fair for the maistrie' - line 165), this at first appears complimentary, though when one reads on one discovers that this monk outshines the other monks in his negligence of his duty to God. This "exceptional" monk is in fact a gluttonous, self-centred man, who would rather concentrate on hunting ('venerie' - line 166) and increasing his chances of a career promotion. He also appears to contradict all of the aforesaid vows, for example his 'venerie' is not only hunting, an indulgent pursuit of a man certainly not living in poverty and obedience, but it is also an image of sexual pleasure. In saying this Chaucer

  • Word count: 1300
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Remind yourself of lines 77-162 of The Wife of Bath's Prologue. How does Chaucer present contemporary attitudes towards the church in this passage?

Remind yourself of lines 77-162 of The Wife of Bath's Prologue. How does Chaucer present contemporary attitudes towards the church in this passage? In most of Chaucer's characters within The Canterbury Tales, we can derive opinions and attitudes towards the church. Some characters, such as the Prioress, Friar and Monk who should be devout and honourable are, in fact, presented as being entirely dishonourable. Chaucer seems to be highlighting the obvious flaws within the Medieval Church, such as its corrupt Friars and money-orientated core. The Wife of Bath, although not a character related directly to the church, presents many points regarding the church's 'ideal' and her own opinion of this. This opinion may be taken as representative of the 'common people' and could depict the popular attitude towards the church at the time. Although in the general prologue, it is mentioned that the Wife attends church, the context in which this is put (that it is merely an excuse to wear nice clothes), immediately highlights the lack of genuine interest towards the church. The Wife, being a loud, gregarious, rebellious woman, does not easily fit the church ideal, "Virginitee is greet perfeccion" [l 105]. Within this passage, the Wife presents the church's 'ideal' as being unreasonable and unrealistic. This is supported in the Friar's general prologue, whereby Chaucer speaks of him having

  • Word count: 1348
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Compare and Contrast the Attitudes of Mitsu and his wife, Natsumi towards Takashi.

Gautam Aggarwal Ibd Year 11 The Silent Cry-Kenzaburo Oe Comparative Essay Topic: Compare and Contrast the Attitudes of Mitsu and his wife, Natsumi towards Takashi. The Silent Cry is a narrative of a translator called Mitsusaboro (Mitsu) and his relations with the other main characters, namely his wife Natsumi and his brother Takashi. In the novel Mitsu is often portrayed as a man who loves his own space and leads his own silent life. This might be the reason the author has actually titled the book "The Silent cry" referring to Mitsu's cry (narrative). His brother on the other hand is portrayed as an outspoken person who becomes a leader and was a part of the acting group that went to the United States of America with his troupe. Natsumi on the other hand had never met Takashi and she during the course of the book gets attracted to him. To describe the attitude of both Mitsu and Natsumi as a stagnant feeling towards Takashi is very difficult as their attitudes towards him keep on changing during the whole course of the book. The rivalry between the two siblings is demonstrated very early in the book when their mother on her death bed told Mitsu and Takashi's sister that "Mitsu will be ugly and Takashi will be handsome. People will like Takashi and he will lead a successful life". These were the last words that their mother said this shows that Mitsu was probably always

  • Word count: 1313
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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