Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
THE CANTERBURY TALES - Coggle Diagram
THE CANTERBURY TALES
- A knight rapes a maiden in King Arthur's court and is condemned to death.
- The Quest: Queen Guinevere spares him on the condition that he returns in a year and a day with the answer to: "What is it that women most desire?"
- The Answer: An old, ugly woman (The Loathly Lady) gives him the answer in exchange for a promise of marriage. The answer is "Sovereignty" (control/power) over their husbands and lovers.
- The Choice: The knight is forced to marry her. On their wedding night, she offers him a choice: her old and ugly but faithful, or young and beautiful but possibly unfaithful.
- Transformation: By allowing her to choose (granting her sovereignty), the knight breaks the enchantment. She becomes young, beautiful, and faithful.
- Januarie: An old, rich knight who marries young May (a peasant girl) for lust, believing marriage is "paradise."
- Adultery: May quickly takes a young lover, Damyan (Januarie's squire).
- Climax: Januarie goes blind. May tricks him into boosting her into a pear tree where she and Damyan have sex.
- The Gods: Pluto and Proserpina argue. Pluto restores Januarie's sight, but Proserpina gives May a clever excuse.
- A devout young Christian boy sings a hymn (Alma Redemptoris Mater) as he passes through a Jewish ghetto.
- The local Jews, incited by Satan, hire a murderer to kill the boy and throw him into a pit.
- Miracle: The boy's corpse continues to sing the hymn until the Virgin Mary removes a "grain" placed on his tongue.
-
-
-
- Time: Late 14th Century (Middle English)
- Setting: Pilgrimage from The Tabard Inn (London) to Canterbury Cathedral (St. Thomas Becket's Shrine).
- Characters: 30 Pilgrims (representing various social classes).
- Contest: Each pilgrim should tell four tales (two on the way to Canterbury and two on the way back); the best one wins a dinner paid for by the rest.
-
- Focus: Social Satire and vivid description of medieval society (Clergy, Nobility, Commoners).
- Narrator's Tone: Often seems naive, but descriptions subtly expose the characters' flaws (hypocrisy, greed).
-
-
- Contradiction: Her life suggests worldliness (expensive jewelry, refined manners) instead of religious simplicity.
-
- Genre: Miracle story of the Virgin (Religious Legend).
- Themes: Religious devotion, Martyrdom, Anti-Semitism (reflects common medieval prejudice).
-
-
- Appearance: Well-dressed, stately beard, seems prosperous.
- Reality: He is secretly in debt; he focuses entirely on profit and trade.
- Attitude: Very cynical about marriage, revealing his own unhappiness (recently married for only two months).
-
- Genre: Fabliau (A crude, comical tale focused on trickery).
- Themes: Deceit in marriage, Blindness (physical vs. moral), the mismatch between youth and age.
-
-
-
- Appearance: Bold, gap-toothed, large hips, wore expensive scarlet clothing and very large hats.
- Experience: Has had five husbands; she is an expert on love and marriage.
- Personality: Domineering, confident, and uses her sexuality and wealth to gain power.
-
-
- Key Prologue Idea: She defends having multiple husbands and argues for women's control (using her personal "experience" over male "authority").
- Themes: Female Sovereignty, Power dynamics in relationships, True Gentility (nobility based on character, not birth).