Good Essay On The Canterbury Tales

Geoffrey Chaucer is certainly known to be someone who knew how to write a good story and especially in the Nunn Priests Tale and other similar recounts he espouses on the subject of love quite often. However he tended to see love rather lightly and in some cases, there is also an element of bawdiness and eroticism in his works especially where women are concerned.
The Parliament of Fools is also an important work in the Chaucer canon as it shows how he would be treating politicians who are of the ilk full of stupidity. This compares well with the Canterbury Tales where the pilgrims make merry and love one another with raucous bawdiness full of erotic allusions and almost pornographic similes.
The Nunn Priests Tale is perhaps one of the finest exponents of love and tawdry bawdiness in the whole of Chaucer’s canon. He is consistently demonstrating how women feign to attract attention and when they get it, they are disappointed and look for something else. The question of man’s love for another woman is also tackled extensively here and this also means that life which can be hard hearted for some will also turn a full page if love is encountered accordingly. Chaucer’s almost philosophical observations move that one step forward accordingly. Priests who are also very bawdy in their tendencies to attract other women are intrinsically part and parcel of proceedings as they create a certain sense of joie de vivre about love which is occasionally absent from their lives. The women in the story also demonstrate Chaucer’s penchant for doing things with an element of irony and interest which culminate in tales that are highly enticing and intriguing.
The Church began to decline in the 14th century largely through the growth of heretics who influenced religion with their outlandish ways. This eventually led to schisms in the church such as Martin Luther and of course Henry VIII although the latter was not directly related to cultural influences. Chaucer makes fun of the Church’s pretensions especially where women are concerned since the clerics seem to always be ready for some sort of sexual adventure.
Chaucer’s personal relationships are also put under the spotlight especially in The Canterbury Tales. One asks the question what is love with a certain amount of temerity and dexterity but basically it is the relationship between a man and a woman which comes across as intrinsic love accordingly. However Chaucer does not only examine these relationships accordingly but he also focuses on what may be achieved when there is love between two siblings for example. These allusions are very powerful especially in The Parliament of Foules and in The Canterbury Tales where life is obviously not always a bed of roses in this sense. However life can also be beautiful in the sense of appreciating love which is part and parcel of the whole game of the books Chaucer wrote. Yet we may also seem to abhor certain elements of love and some people may even want to be alone without love.
Finally Chaucer looks at the problem of love with an open mind demonstrating that if this is not taken too seriously then life moves forward just the same. He attempts to throw an element of light heartedness and touches upon this word which man calls love with alacrity and an amount of insecurity also.