...her on a high pedestal - She’s neat and tidy – wouldn’t let a crumb fall from her mouth - She’s devoted to the Virgin Mary – wears all sorts of rosary - She’s kind to those less fortunate – wouldn’t harm a mouse But all of these descriptions were used purely for the purpose of revealing her flaws especially during the telling of her tale and during the introduction he gives to her tale in which he is highly sarcastic, and overtly polite. The difference in his manner of introduction to the Prioress’s tale compared with the Nun’s Priest’s Tale and the Monk’s tale, in which he ridicules their tales by saying “Your tales are boring all of us to death, and all this talk is a waste of breath”. Chaucer is in a more subtle way attacking the Prioress’s over-exaggerated sentimentality and sensibility. This can be prominently seen by his use of diction: “ politely as a girl” , “excuse me please” , “my dearest lady” etc. In the prologue to her tale the Prioress offers a hymn of praise to the Virgin Mary. She extols Mary, the mother of Jesus and the "whitest Lily-flower." This hymn acts as a preview of the tale to follow as not only does the prologue aptly fit the Prioress’ character and position, but the story itself is centered on another hymn “O Alma Redemptoris” which gives praise to the Virgin Mary as well. The hymn also acts as an invocation in which the Prioress prays for help in narrating the greatness of the “blissful Queen”. However, through the hymn Chaucer...
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...My pilgrim of choice is Madam Eglentine, a prioress described in the general prologue of the Canterbury Tales. I selected this specific character because Chaucer seems to applaud her seemingly genteel and honorable exterior while also foreshadowing the “scandalous” type of background of the nun. I chose to modernize Madam Eglentine in part because I found her character to be timeless; while Chaucer sets the character of the nun to be on a pilgrimage in the early 14th century, many of her characteristics, namely her multiple personas, enable her to be relatable even in the 21st century. I highlighted Madam Eglentine’s facial features and stately manner because I felt like those external features embodied the values of the person she exemplified. Because she is stately, “her mouth very small, and therewith soft and red” (152), Eglentine seems the ideal person to “weep, if only she saw a mouse caught in a trap, if it were dead or bleeding” (144). Since I highlighted her facial features and external characteristics in the image, which I believe would lead many to guess to her inner sensitivity, I only briefly discussed her “caring” nature in the couplets. Because the nun is now modernized, I also found it meanwhile to write the words “Love conquers all” (162) on her blouse instead of on her brooch. This creates a more contemporary look while strongly emphasizing the prioress’s odd fashion statement. The rest of the nun’s look is classic, because even though Eglentine is modernized...
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...Kumar Professor Padma Baliga English Literature Upto 1900 13 September 2010 The Canterbury Tales and the Panchatantra: Two Frame Narratives contrasted The East has a wonderful tradition in teaching morals through interesting tales; India has given the world the earliest such tales in the form of the Panchatantra, the Hitopadesa and even the Puranas. The Canterbury Tales and the Panchatantra are both frame narratives- often known as ‘story within a story.’ Yet the target audience of both these works is different. And this arises from the nature of these works. Whilst The Canterbury Tales was written by Chaucer originally for a courtly, upper class audience, the Panchatantra was written to teach the high morals and sensibilities of Vedic literature to three disinterested princes in the simplest language, using animals as symbols and characters. Indeed, the Panchatantra and its derivative work, the Hitopadesa are often dismissed as stories for children. Though these fables are indeed vastly instructive, they also teach a way of thriving in the material world and a way of life itself; the Panchatantra is referred to as a niti-shastra. This paper attempts to contrast the Canterbury Tales with the Panchatantra and illustrate the manner in which the latter is a niti-shastra without being merely populated by abstruse, pithy phrases. We know that in The Canterbury Tales, a group of about 30 pilgrims gather at the Tabard Inn in Southwark, across the Thames from London...
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...Canterbury Tales AUTHOR · Geoffrey Chaucer TYPE OF WORK · Poetry (two tales are in prose: the Tale of Melibee and the Parson’s Tale) GENRES · Narrative collection of poems; character portraits; parody; estates satire; romance; fabliau LANGUAGE · Middle English TIME AND PLACE WRITTEN · Around 1386–1395, England DATE OF FIRST PUBLICATION · Sometime in the early fifteenth century PUBLISHER · Originally circulated in hand-copied manuscripts NARRATOR · The primary narrator is an anonymous, naïve member of the pilgrimage, who is not described. The other pilgrims narrate most of the tales. POINT OF VIEW · In the General Prologue, the narrator speaks in the first person, describing each of the pilgrims as they appeared to him. Though narrated by different pilgrims, each of the tales is told from an omniscient third-person point of view, providing the reader with the thoughts as well as actions of the characters. TONE · The Canterbury Tales incorporates an impressive range of attitudes toward life and literature. The tales are by turns satirical, elevated, pious, earthy, bawdy, and comical. The reader should not accept the naïve narrator’s point of view as Chaucer’s. TENSE · Past SETTING (TIME) · The late fourteenth century, after 1381 SETTING (PLACE) · The Tabard Inn; the road to Canterbury PROTAGONISTS · Each individual tale has protagonists, but Chaucer’s plan is to make none of his storytellers superior to others; it is an equal company. In the Knight’s Tale, the protagonists...
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...Religious background of Holocaust 1. Introduction Anyone who bothers to investigate in any depth the Holocaust, and its many involved attendant subjects, inevitably encounters intellectual and emotional difficulties not usually met in other fields under examination. When studying the Holocaust, it is extremely difficult to maintain the same level of professional distance and objectivity that one practices with other subjects. Obviously, the magnitude of the destruction and suffering, the millions of lost lives and their untold stories, their unfulfilled hopes and dreams can be overwhelming. Furthermore, thoughtful and honest investigators will occasionally find that they have encountered an area of the Holocaust wherein are found agonizing personal ramifications. That is to say, the scholar is studying an event or a complex of issues that share key components of one’s personal background, beliefs, and values. It is highly unlikely that the scholar will be able to maintain absolute objectivity, feeling completely uninvolved in what is being examined. Instead, the person will most likely be compelled to ask some rather pointed personal questions, or probe into realms in which the investigator has close personal ties. When this occurs, it can be very distressing and painful. 2. A short insight on the background of Jews in Poland, Germany and Russia Several Polish noblemen of the middle ages showed special favour to Jews who immigrated because of persecution in Germany...
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