A compare and contrast analysis of “The Canterbury Tales” by Geoffrey Chaucer & “Piers the Plowman” by William Langland.
This paper reviews two medieval books ” The Canterbury Tales” by Geoffrey Chaucer and “Piers the Plowman” by William Langland and examines how the “Deadly Sins” are presented in the texts. It discusses the portrayal by each author of each of the sins in turn and how both describe a pilgrimage and both try to make people better by depicting virtues and vices. Langland chose to use for this purpose abstract characters while Chaucer on the opposite side used very true to life characters with human faces.
“Pride is first to confess her “swaggering airs” and to admit that to take “a humble place” would be “something new” for her. Her confession is rather short, but this description of how pride is reflected in people’s behavior helps to recognize those guilty of pride in General Prologue. Prioress is supposed to call herself humbly a sister, was cleped madame Eglentyne (121), she sings the services entuned in hir nose trying to imitate French in order not to look as a nun but more as a noble lady. Friar is also proud, he prefers to socialize with frankeleyns over-al in his contree,/ and eek with worthy wommen of the toun and avoids poor and his fellow beggars.”