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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A five page paper looking at Chaucer's "Miller's Tale" from the "Canterbury Tales" in terms of its relevance to today's world. The paper argues that a joke that requires too much explanation is no longer funny, and because six hundred years has passed between Chaucer's day and our own, this has happened to him. Bibliography lists six sources.
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_KBchau16.doc
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
our sensibilities extends far beyond spelling and diction. Chaucer, humanistic though he may have been for the late Middle Ages, wrote works predicated upon a view of life that is
very different than ours, and we may even question his relevance to our own world. An argument for this point of view can be made using his "Millers Tale" from
The Canterbury Tales. First it should be noted that the "Millers Tale" is an example of a type of story known as a fabliau. Just as there are unwritten rules
for the types of stories we enjoy today -- for example, situation comedies need a joke every third line, and the problem introduced in the first five minutes has to
be resolved in the final five -- Chaucers era had story genres that operated by their own sets of rules too. As J.A. Cuddon explains in the following block quote,
a fabliau is: "a short narrative in octosyllabic verse, usually of 300 to 400 lines. The genre flourished in France between 1150 and 1400 AD. . .
. Fabliaux tended to be ribaldly comic tales. They were satirical, in a rough and ready fashion. . . . Their caustic attitude towards women may have been a reaction
against the apotheosis of women in the tradition and cult of courtly love" (Cuddon, 323). All these traits we can see depicted in "The Millers Tale." But first
it would be helpful to speak briefly about marriage versus courtly love. Noble marriages, up until very recent times, were contracts entered into for political, dynastic, or other purely pragmatic
reasons; in many instances the groom had not met the bride until the arrangements for the wedding were in full swing. The goal was to find a bride whose bloodline
...