Adultery in the Canterbury Tales and the Inferno
The medieval ages, a time of intense poverty, illiteracy, and large imbalances amid the classes, affected various cultures differently throughout Europe. During the 1300’s, Italy was on the verge from breaking from their medieval principles to a higher level of thinking, which sparked the emergence of thinkers like DaVinci, Machiavelli, Raphael, etc., whereas England remained stagnant with their traditional beliefs in regards to the class system. The Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri, was written at this point of transition when Italy was shifting toward a state of elevated thinking, and created a complex tale that fused Classical, Germanic, and Christian writing styles that included metaphors, similes, and connotations to produce an intricate story that appealed to the educated mind. However, during the Medieval Ages, much of the entertainment the lower classes obtained through orated stories told to one another. The English novel, The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer, followed this simplistic style of speech by compiling different stories by various men of humble background. The protagonist of Dante’s Canto V is Francesca, a woman who fell in love with her husband’s brother and was eventually killed by her husban
“Love, that releases no beloved from loving, took hold of me so strongly through his beauty that, as you see, it has not left me yet. Love led the two of us unto one death. Caina waits for him who took our life,” (Divine Comedy Canto V, lines 103-107). Dante’s and Chaucer’s belief is that everyone will be judged by God, and that adultery, no matter what your heart desires, is still a sin in the eyes of God. Both novels take a cynical approach to human nature in that each of the books’ main characters succumbed to their human instincts, sinned, and eventually received punishment from God for their transgressions. With backgrounds that vary greatly, Dante and Chaucer each create unique perspectives on adultery. Chaucer constructs a fictitious world for the common man to relate to literature, while Dante tells a fanciful tale of infamous characters both in history and literature for the educated man to study. Using different concepts, these authors use the stylistic approach towards the same goal. They are ultimately joined by their belief in God’s will and judgment. Chaucer’s story, told in the narrative of a miller, creates a more simplistic and realistic view of adultery. The dialogue of this story is basic compared to Dante’s novel, because the narrative is the actual linguistic style of a commoner at the time. The Miller’s Tale is friendly banter from the Miller, who is poking fun at the carpenter’s intelligence. The story is about an old carpenter who marries a young, free-spirited woman, named Alison, who falls in love with a lodger, Nicholas, who’s staying at their house. The two adulterers devise a plan to spend a night together that involved tricking the carpenter into thinking that there would be a flood and he had to prepa
Some topics in this essay:
Miller’s Tale,
Comedy Canto,
Dante Chaucer’s,
Chaucer’s Christian,
Dante Chaucer,
Dante’s Chaucer’s,
,
Achilles Dante’s,
Canto Francesca,
Nicholas Alison,
divine comedy,
upper class,
writing style,
rhyming scheme,
miller’s tale,
style writing,
alison falls love,
canto francesca,
medieval ages,
rhymes line,
love lodger,
divine comedy canto,
falls love lodger,
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Approximate Word count = 1204
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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