Essay on Geoffrey Chaucers The Shipmans Tale - 1182 Words

The Shipman’s Tale The Shipman’s Tale, one of the many tales in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, is exactly suited to the Shipman’s personality and profession as given in â€Å"The Prologue.† The shipman is described by Chaucer in the prologue as very sneaky, deceitful, and even pirate-like. The Shipman’s tale matches his personality and profession because The Shipman’s Tale is one of trickery and con. The monk in the tale tricks both the merchant and the merchant’s wife out of their money. He also uses his relationship with the merchant to his advantage, because he knows the merchant would never suspect him of having sex with his wife. The shipman is also portrayed in the prologue to have no sense of remorse or feelings of sorrow.†¦show more content†¦Wanting to know the whole story, John promised to keep it a secret and the wife then proceeded to tell him more. She said that her husband was the worst man to ev er exist since the world began. She also admits that she owes a debt of 100 francs and asks the monk for the money instead of humiliatingly asking her husband. The monk agrees to get her 100 francs under the condition that she has sex with him in return. The wife agrees to these terms. That evening the three had dinner together, after which the monk took the merchant aside and asked him if he could borrow 100 francs. He told the merchant it was going to be used to purchase cattle and the merchant handed over the money without hesitation. The following day, the merchant was on his way to Bruges. The following Sunday, the monk, remembering the promise the wife made, showed up at the house with the 100 francs. He and the merchant’s wife then proceeded to have sex for the entire night. When the merchant returned he was eager to see his wife and tell her about his business transactions. But first, he went right to the abbey to see his friend the monk. He and the monk were happy to see each other and after they had a conversation about the merchant’s trip, the monk mentioned that he had left the 100 francs he owed to the merchant with his wife. Once the merchant got home, he met his wife at the gate, told her his stories and then continued to enjoy a night in bed with her. When they wereShow MoreRelatedGeoffrey Chaucers The Shipmans Tale1520 Words   |  6 PagesThe structure and characters of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Shipman’s Tale warp the traditional in order to create a thriving network for exchange. Stylistically, this particular tale utilizes common conventions of the fabliau: sex, trickery, and poetic justice. That being said, The Shipman’s Tale is completely void of an overall moral message—a key element in the genre. Instead, there is a focus on the presence of male and female characters who work to fulfill an individual agenda, and on the â€Å"[explorationRead MoreEssay on Chaucer and the Seven Deadly Sins723 Word s   |  3 PagesIn the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer the tales expose a common, universal truth which is the seven deadly sins. In the Tales the characters in the stories struggle with the temptation of not obeying the sins which incorporates and suggest why the pilgrims telling the stories are in fact on the pilgrimage. The pilgrims in the Canterbury Tales are on a pilgrimage to Canterbury to seek spiritual renewal for the sin or sins that they have committed. In the prologue of the Tales it writes, â€Å"PeopleRead MoreEssay on The Portrayal of the Clergy in the Canterbury Tales1169 Words   |  5 PagesThe Portrayal of Religion and the Clergy in The Canterbury Tales Geoffrey Chaucer, in his Canterbury Tales, felt that the Churchs turmoil experienced during the fourteenth century contributed to the a declining trust of clergy and left the people spiritually devastated. The repeated epidemics that the European Church experienced weakened the church by highlighting the clergys inability to face adversity. The clergys inability to provide relief for the people during a period of suffering didRead MoreMarriage And The Role Of Women2150 Words   |  9 Pagesbought and fondled with; they are not allowed to control their lives. Geoffrey Chaucer took part in telling the story of how many women acted in the 14th century and how the women were portrayed at this time. Chaucer’s views on marriage are made very clear throughout The Canterbury Tales. He used the five marriage tales: â€Å"The Shipman’s Tale, â€Å"The Wife’s Prologue†, â€Å"The Clark’s Tale†, â€Å"The Merchant’s Tale†, and â€Å" The Franklin’s Tale† to express his views on marriage, â€Å"I was struck most strongly by how