This
week I decided to read the Canterbury Tales. The Canterbury Tales is about a
group of strangers that are talking a pilgrimage to the town Canterbury. On
their way, they decide to go around telling stories to make the time go by
faster. This is where each story from this unit is derived from.
I
chose to read this unit because I had read most of the Canterbury Tales in my
high school English class. My professor even made us memorize the first 100
lines of the introduction in Middle English. To my surprise, I can still recite
about three fourths of it. One thing I remember
about the Canterbury Tales is that Chaucer was unfortunately never able to
finish it. So although the book is already long, I don’t think it was even halfway
done. What it did contain though was witty stories about people.
What
I liked most about the Canterbury Tales was that each story was told as if the
person telling it had actually experienced it. If I remember correctly, they
were actual stories the characters had supposedly experienced, and some where
even based off of people in the group that they started to dislike as the pilgrimage
progressed.
My
favorite story from this unit was the Wife of Bath’s story. If you haven’t read
the introduction to the Canterbury Tales, you wouldn’t quite understand but the
wife of bath is one colorful character. In her tale, The Unknown Bride, a
knight is sent out by the queen to seek the answer of what women want most. I
almost died laughing when he figured it out and told the queen that it was “To
rule their husbands.” I also really enjoyed the fact that the knight had to
marry the woman who gave him that answer. She was a grotesque and old looking
woman, however, after they married and he finally accepted her she turned into
a beautiful woman. I love stories like this because they show that you need to
look deeper than what you see on the outside and if you can do that then you
will see true beauty.
Other
than that, this unit is filled of wonderful stories. Some stories are of
trickery, some of love, and some of God. It is a great unit that I would
suggest people to read. I enjoyed it and wish that I could read some more!
Picture of the characters on their journey to Canterbury
Photo Retrieved From Luminarium
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