The End of a Journey

Tis the end of my journey with The Canterbury Tales. This week was actually not too bad work-load wise. Too bad it's probably never going happen again, but I enjoyed it while it lasted. All I did was basically super-read to finish The Canterbury Tales so here are my thoughts on them.

Not all the stories are worth mentioning in my opinion so I'll just share my favorite ones with you guys.
SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER ALERT ALERT ALERT

To finish the Knight's tale, what happened is that Arcite won the mini-war! But he fell off his horse and landed on his head and died. So now Emily goes to Palamon. That's just the lamest way to win. Arcite technically won, but then lost by dying. A happy ending to Palamon though.

The Prioress's tale was spiritual, miracle story. What happens is that this little boy who enjoys going to school to learn about God wants to learn this song that he heard on the way to school. He learns it and sings it on the way to school, but some Jewish guy doesn't like hearing Christian music so he does the logical thing: slit the boy's throat and throw him in a ditch. The boy' mother is distraught because he didn't come home from school so she sets off to find him. She finds him by hearing his voice singing from the ditch he was thrown in. He's alive, yay! Basically mother and son reunite and they live happily ever after.

The Monk's tale is compilation of the stories of the downfalls of various prominent figures in history or myth. this one was a depressing, boring one so I'll just tell you some of the people mentioned. Lucifer, Hercules, Samson, and Julius Caesar. Yeah, you get the gist of tragedy here.

The Clerk's tale was absolutely ridiculous. The marquis of some place is pressured into marrying. So he marries this super poor peasant girl he thought was really beautiful and had a kind heart. He gives her one condition: she must abide by his every word. After they have their first child he decides he wants to test her faithfulness. He demands that she gives up their child to be killed. The child isn't really killed, but sent to live with his sister in Bologna. She willingly does it and still has a cheerful heart. The marquis does the same with their second child. To test her even further he divorces her to marry another woman worthy of his status and makes her leave the palace naked to live in the village as a peasant again. After all this she's still has a kind, innocent heart. The marquis eventually feels as though she's faithful enough and takes her back. What a swell guy. This story really irks me because no woman, or man for that matter, should be tested in their faithfulness. The fact that one would even feel the need to is red flag in that relationship. Also, neither man nor woman should be above or below in a relationship. No one gives orders and no one takes them. It's a compromise from both sides.

IT'S ALL GOOD IN THE HOOD. READING MAY ASSUME NOW.

In other blog posts I discussed the Wife of Bath's tale, the Miller's tale, and the Reeve's tale so I won't here. Out of all the stories, I like the Wife of Bath's tale the most. It may be because I'm a girl, but I agree that women should have their own say in things and have the right to make their own decisions.

Okey dokey, so now that I've finished one book I need to move on to the next one. I'm not sure what it's going to be yet, but I plan on asking Mrs. Finco. Happy reading then!