Essay Immorality in Chaucers Canterbury Tales - 1646 Words

Immorality and moral ambiguity are two concepts that will ruin any relationship. In Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, he specifically illustrates through his pilgrims’ stories some comical and realistic events that display immorality in the Middle Ages. There are several characters whose stories are focused on presenting the immorality within their tales. Like that of â€Å"The Miller’s Tale,† and â€Å"The Merchant’s Tale.† Chaucer utilizes these tales to display one specific immoral act, which is sexual sin or lust. Chaucer addresses the seven deadly sins in his novel; The Canterbury Tales, lust can be highlighted in two major tales â€Å"The Miller’s Tale,† and â€Å"The Merchant’s Tale† which help display key elements of the immorality in the†¦show more content†¦In â€Å"The Miller’s Tale,â€Å" and â€Å"The Merchant’s Tale† the two young wives are deprived sexually bec ause their partners are so old and this causes them to be tempted outside of marriage. They believe this could never happen though because both husbands, John and January, are so jealous and protective of their wives that they do not allow leaving their sides. In Chaucer’s â€Å"The Miller’s Tale† the jealousy of John shows, â€Å"The carpenter had just married a girl whom he loved better than life. She was eighteen years old. He was jealous and kept close watch upon her, for she was wild and young. While he was old and thought himself likely to be cuckolded,† (66-67). This shows an example of extreme jealous, some of which is expected, because during the Middle Ages there were young men who would come and seduce single and married women. It is described mostly as â€Å"courtly love,† and it is when a man is chasing a woman for different reasons. The woman could be single or even married and if she said no it would cause him great emotional and phy sical pain (Rogers: 1, 107). The young men might catch themselves fantasizing over these unobtainable women. Lust is the second element of medieval immorality that Chaucer addresses in â€Å"The Miller’s Tale,† and â€Å"The Merchant’s Tale.† Lust is a common problemShow MoreRelatedEssay on Chaucers The Canterbury Tales927 Words   |  4 PagesChaucers The Canterbury Tales In The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer comments on moral corruption within the Roman Catholic Church. He criticizes many high-ranking members of the Church and describes a lack of morality in medieval society; yet in the â€Å"Retraction,† Chaucer recants much of his work and pledges to be true to Christianity. Seemingly opposite views exist within the â€Å"Retraction† and The Canterbury Tales. However, this contradiction does not weaken Chaucer’s social commentary.Read MoreChaucers Impression of Women of Medieval Times1079 Words   |  5 PagesCHAUCERS IMPRESSION OF WOMEN OF MEDIEVAL TIMES Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales in the late 1400s. 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