Existentialism in waiting for godot

Existentialism in waiting for godot
First of all v need to know about this term .
It is term in philosophy in literature , begin in 19th century while florished in 20th
Its philosophical views emphasize on individual existance, freedom & choice
An individual understands the world according to his own capacity or to his essence with freedom & chose the way ,the path further on the basis of experiences. Essence is one'z being, the very self of an individual..... For example what is the essence of a good book in literature? That it provides us guidance about lite... If it us a medical book then the essance ll not remain the same .... Good book of medic provides us bettr treatments of ailment
So every individual has its own essence few r good at paintings few r at some other art some r good learners while few r good teachers  so her in the waiting for godot astragon is good at complaining 😁 & also a dull & quite a forgetful kind of a man , viladimir is a little different he is good at conversation & both of them r good for waiting😉
Pozzo is having a kind of command over lucky he is good at his master hood but in the end he lost that  interest too
Lucky is good of being a captive or a slave he persists as a slave till the end & v ve noticed that even pozzo lost the interest in keeping him as a slave yet he prefer to remain a slave & put his cord in his blind masters hand
The other living thing in this play who has existence is a tree. Coz the course of the time is to move on while others feel about it as boring or blissful, dire or miserable. The tree in the end bore few leaves which refers that time is passing & the things actually having existence  moving few of them chose to wait one chose to slavery while pozzo had lost all kinds of interest coz he became blind
So the basics of existentialism
Individual existence, freedom and choice
These forces work together in this play
But there is another aspect of the play which is the consideration of the play to "absurd theater"
When philosophy of existentialism & of absurd the art inter mingle it shape rather different
It shapes like this as "Human desires for meaning .... Vs.... Meaninglessness of existance".
In other words " life is meaningless & v r compell to find meanings
..
Its the conclusion of the entrance​ of existantialism' so​ philosophy in absurd theater
Life is meaningless for all the characters of the play yet they r striving to find the meaning in life
Cum idiology fits in the play he had established 6 stages initially to explain the life's meaninglessness
Or to avoid the pointlessness of life
1st suicide
One should kill oneself like viladimir & astragon at the end of 1st act decieded to but could not find the rope
2nd distraction
One must destract oneself by making love or eating or wandering
As both of them did they eat carrots or turnips to distract themselves from the boredom of life
3rd religion
They talked about bible but that is also proved futile
Pretend
Metatextual , played acting but again discarded
Artist
Viladimir try to sing but faild to get pass the time
Politics or to rule someone
Pozzo has a slave , power over lucky but in the end that was not not enough for him he lost the desire to rule him
...
And then the man name Cumus discarded all those and build a new one that is acceptance
..
They accept that he is not going to come yet went on waiting for him
By their own choice they were free to chose this or that but they select to wait him  no spacific end😨

Famous quotations about poetry:

Famous quotations about poetry:

'Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity.'  

William Wordsworth

'A good poet is someone who manages, in a lifetime of standing out in thunderstorms, to be struck by lightening five or six times; a dozen or two dozen times and he is great.'
Randall Jarrell

'Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.'
T.S.Eliot

'Milton, Madam, was a genius that could cut a Colossus from a rock; but could not carve heads upon cherry-stones.'

(To Miss Hannah More, who had expressed a wonder that the poet who had written Paradise Lost should write such poor sonnets.)
Samuel Johnson

'Deprivation is for me what daffodils were for Wordsworth.'
Philip Larkin

'Poetry is the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and best minds.'
Percy Bysshe Shelley

'Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down.'
Robert Frost

'...nine-tenths of what passes as English poetry is the product of either careerism, or keeping one's hand in: a choice between vulgarity and banality.'
Robert Graves

'Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things.'
T.S.Eliot

'Most people ignore most poetry because most poetry ignores most people.'
Adrian Mitchell

'No man can read Hardy's poems collected but that his own life, and forgotten moments of it, will come back to him, in a flash here and an hour there. Have you a better test of true poetry?'
Ezra Pound

'I wish our clever young poets would remember my homely definitions of prose and poetry; that is prose; words in their best order; - poetry; the best words in the best order.'
S.T.Coleridge

'Well, write poetry, for God's sake, it's the only thing that matters.'
e. e. cummings

'In my view a good poem is one in which the form of the verse and the joining of its parts seems light as a shallow river flowing over its sandy bed.'
Basho

(Translated by Lucien Stryk)

'Use no superfluous word, no adjective, which does not reveal something. Don't use such an expression as 'dim land of peace.' It dulls the image. It mixes an abstraction with the concrete. It comes from the writer's not realising that the natural object is always the adequate symbol. Go in fear of abstractions.'
Ezra Pound

'Poetry is the journal of a sea animal living on land, wanting to fly in the air.'
Carl Sandburg

'Poetry is simply the most beautiful, impressive, and widely effective mode of saying things, and hence its importance.'
Matthew Arnold

'I consider myself a poet first and a musician second. I live like a poet and I'll die like a poet.'
Bob Dylan

'Poetry fettered fetters the human race.'
William Blake

'Swans sing before they die - 'twere no bad thing
Did certain persons die before they sing.'
S.T.Coleridge

'The only way of expressing emotion in the form of art is by finding an 'objective correlative'; in other words, a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula of that particular emotion; such that when the external facts, which must terminate in sensory experience, are given , the emotion is immediately evoked.'
T.S.Eliot

'To break the pentameter, that was the first heave.'
Ezra Pound

'Poetry is what in a poem makes you laugh, cry, prickle, be silent, makes your toe nails twinkle, makes you want to do this or that or nothing, makes you know that you are alone in the unknown world, that your bliss and suffering is forever shared and forever all your own.'
Dylan Thomas

'I have never started a poem yet whose end I knew. Writing a poem is discovering.'
Robert Frost

'The poet is the priest of the invisible.'
Wallace Stevens

'Poetry is, at bottom, a criticism of life.'
Matthew Arnold

'The poet's mind is in fact a receptacle for seizing and storing up numberless feelings, phrases, images, which remain there until all the particles which can unite to form a new compound are present together.'
T.S.Eliot

'As a guiding principle I believe that every poem must be its own sole freshly-created universe, and therefore have no belief in 'tradition' or a common myth-kitty or casual allusions in poems to other poems or poets, which last I find unpleasantly like the talk of literary understrappers letting you see they know the right people.'
Philip Larkin

'I think a poet is anybody who wouldn't call himself a poet.'
Bob Dylan

'You I am sure will forgive me for sincerely remarking that you might curb your magnanimity and be more of an artist, and 'load every rift' of your subject with ore.'
John Keats (in a letter to Shelley 1820)

'Like a piece of ice on a hot stove the poem must ride on its own melting.'
Robert Frost

'I could no more define poetry than a terrier can define a rat.'
A. E. Housman

'If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.'
Emily Dickinson

'There are three things, after all, that a poem must reach: the eye, the ear, and what we may call the heart or the mind. It is most important of all to reach the heart of the reader.'
Robert Frost

'Modesty is a virtue not often found among poets, for almost every one of them thinks himself the greatest in the world.'
Miguel de Cervantes

'Publishing a volume of verse is like dropping a rose-petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo.'
Don Marquis

'Poets are the hierophants of an unapprehended inspiration; the mirrors of the gigantic shadows which futurity casts upon the present; the words which express what they understand not; the trumpets which sing to battle, and feel not what they inspire; the influence which is moved not, but moves. Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.'
Percy Bysshe Shelley (A Defence of Poetry)

'I've had it with these cheap sons of bitches who claim they love poetry but never buy a book.'
Kenneth Rexroth

'Poets aren't very useful. / Because they aren't consumeful or very produceful.'
Ogden Nash

'I believe that every English poet should read the English classics, master the rules of grammar before he attempts to bend or break them, travel abroad, experience the horrors of sordid passion, and - if he is lucky enough - know the love of an honest woman.'
Robert Graves

'Great poetry is always written by somebody straining to go beyond what he can do.'
Stephen Spender

'It is always hard for poets to believe that one says their poems are bad not because one is a fiend but because their poems are bad.'
Randall Jarrell

Annaul Exam Imp Questions of English Literature

Annaul Exam Imp Questions of English Literature
YESTERDAY · PUBLIC
WILLIAM BLAKE
Wordsworth’s verdict about Blake (on his death) was that "There was no doubt that this poor man was mad, but there is something in the madness of this man which interests me more than the sanity of Lord Byron and Walter Scott". Elaborate with reference to Black’s works. (2000)
“All that is valuable in Blake is in his lyrics.” Discuss. (2001)
Critically discuss Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Song of Experience as Poetry. (2002)
Critically evaluate W. Blake as a writer of lyrical poetry. (2004)
The predominant almost exclusive theme of W.Blake's short poems is based on the feeling of a child's unpassioned soul, the tone is simple while the emotions possess a pure ardour. Discuss. (2006)
Critical notes: Romantic themes in W.Blake's poetry (2006)
Critical notes: Salient features of Blake’s poetry (2007)
Critical notes: The influence of the occult in the poems of Blake
(2008)
“For mercy has a human heart
Pity a human face
And love the human form divine
And Peace the human dress …
And all must love the human form,
In heathen Turk or Jew:
Where Mercy, Love and Pity Dwell
There God is dwelling too.”
Who wrote these verses? Comment on whether you think they are merely moral platitudes or spring from the poet’s sincerity. (2008)
JOHN KEATS
Short notes: Negative Capability (2000)
How the Odes of Keats reflect his growing concern with the relation between art and life, beauty and reality? (2001)
Discuss the image of ‘the Serpent Woman’ in Lamia and also image of ‘The Cruel Woman’ in La Belle Dame Sans Merci (Keats). (2002)
“Synaesthesia in Keats is a natural concomitant of other qualities of his poetry.” Discuss illustrating from his poems.
(2003)
Detailed notes: Keats as a writer of Odes (2004)
“Free from all moral degree, Keats’ poetry has the most compiling enchantment for lovers of pure beauty. Discuss.
(2005)
Keat's odes depict a skillful fusion of a seeking of beauty which endures and an impassioned meditation of death. Comment. (2006)
“Keats had no religion save the religion of beauty, no God save Pan; the Earth was his great consoler, and so passionately did he love her, with a love far more concrete and personal than that of Wordsworth or even Shelley”. Discuss. (2007)
Keats was a romantic poet who believed in the importance of sensation and its pleasures which included taste, touch and smell as well as hearing and sight. How far do you think he fulfills these beliefs in his poems? (2008)
Keats has been called ‘a mystic through the medium of the senses’. Examine the statement in relation to his major odes. (2009)
5critically analyze the proportion of imagination and reality in Keats's Odes (2010)
Keats' art is full of passion, the object of this desire is not the "intellectual beauty" of Shelley but is caused by the enchantment of the senses. Discuss (2011)
Does Keats escape from the realities of life?Justify your answer to this question through citation from his works. (2012)
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE
Coleridge chooses the supernatural themes which he invests with the semblance of the truth. Comment considering some of his poems. (2011)
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
Shelley’s weaknesses as a writer have always been evident; rhetorical abstraction; intellectual arrogance; and movements of intense self-pity. But in great poems like the "West Wind" or great prose works like "Defence", it is precisely these limitations that he transcends, and indeed explodes. Discuss. (2000)
In the best of Shelley’s poetry, there is a splendour of movement and realization of visionary intensity. Discuss it with reference to Shelley's poems. (2001)
Discuss Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound as an allegory of Man’s Emancipation in an Age of Hope and Deliverance. (2002)
Detailed notes: Adonis is a triumphant elegy. (2003)
Detailed notes: Shelley as revolutionary poet (2004)
Shelley was inspired by love, that is not limited to mankind only. Discuss. (2005)
Mathew Arnold describes Shelley “a beautiful and ineffectual angel beating in the void his luminous wings in vain”. What does he mean? Elaborate. (2007)
Critical notes: Shelley as a revolutionary poet (2008)
“To many readers Shelley’s genius is primarily lyrical: which commonly implies emotional. This is very doubtful – intense and uremitting intellectual activity seems to have been the main characteristic of his mind”. Justify or refute this remark by Graham Hough illustrating from the poems you have read. ( 2009 )
Write a critical note on Shelley's Utopianism (2010)
Shelley's life was one of passionate devotion to intellect; his poems show a philosophical and social force working in the same direction. Illustrate giving examples. (2011)
What is the relationship between Shelley's. 'Love's Philosophy' and the 'Idea of Romanticism'? (2012)
JOHN STUART MILL
Discuss J. S. Mill as an important figure in British empiricism. (2000)
What is the principal Quest of J. S. Mill’s mind? Give an analytical study of his thought in support of your arguments.
(2002)
MARY ANNE EVANS AKA GEORGE ELIOT
George Eliot is generally credited with changing the nature of the English Novel. Discuss the change with reference to the novelists’ works. (2000)
Discuss the Ending of George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss as a manipulated ending to a narrative directed by cause-and-effect. (2002)
Do you think that George Eliot is the first English novelist who has shown tremendous psychological insight? (2005)
Critical notes: Conflict between love and duty in G.Eliot (2006)
In what way do we consider George Eliot as the first modern novelist in the English Literature? Discuss. (2007)
Critical notes: Characterization in the novels of George Eliot
(2008)
George Elliot's works depict her firm grasp of social relations.Discuss in detail.
(2012)
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Short notes: Substance of Shakespearean Tragedy (2000)
Describe "Hamlet" as one of the revenge plays in English Literature. (2000)
Hamlet suffers and suffers greatly. Can you account for his suffering? (2001)
Critically analyze Hamlet’s delay problem. (2002)
‘T. S. Eliot considered Hamlet to be an artistic failure.’ Do you agree? Give reasons for your answers. (2003)
Discuss Shakespeare’s concept of tragedy with special reference to ‘Hamlet’. (2004)
Of all the plays it is the longest and is precisely one on which Shakespeare spent most pains, yet left on it superfluous and inconsistent scenes. Substantiate statement with at least five superfluous and inconsistent scenes. (2005)
‘Hamlet touches on many problems, that troubled the protagonists, soul, like vengeance, suicide, love, without offering a solution for anyone.’ Discuss. (2007)
“In Hamlet we see a great, an almost enormous intellectual activity and a proportionate aversion to real action consequent upon it.” Examine this remark by Coleridge. (2008)
“The time is out of joint! O cursed Sprite
That ever I was born to set it right.”
Explain why Hamlet feels so. (2009 )
"Frailty thy name is woman" .Explain why hamlet feels so? ( 2010)
Shakespeare draws the images of nature not laboriously but luckily, when he describes any thing, you more than see it, you feel it too. Illustrate, giving examples from characterisation in Hamlet ( 2011 )
Throughout the play,Hamlet claims to be feigning madness,but his portrayal of madness is so intense and so convincing that many readers believe that Hamlet actually slips into insanity at certain moments in the play.Do you think this is true,or is Hamlet merely Play-acting insanity?Substantiate your view point through evidence from the play. (2012)
EARNEST MILLER HEMINGWAY
Hemingway is preoccupied with the human predicament and a moral code that might satisfactory control it. Discuss with reference to his ‘The Old Man and the Sea’. (2001)
Hemingway’s ‘Old Man and the Sea’ has been best describe as ‘A heroic story’ filled with light from Sea and Sky, and sympathy with men and their mysterious fellow-creatures’. Discuss. (2004)
The Old Man and the Sea. AT 26531 words by Author’s laborious count it is perhaps his most sustained attempt to unite the actual and symbolic under one continuous narrative roof. Comment critically. (2005)
Portray the character of Santiago; do you find a combination of the actual and the symbolic in it? (2007)
Draw a complete picture of the Hemmingway hero, keeping in mind ‘The Old Man and the Sear’ in mind. (2011)
'A man can be destroyed but not defeated' is well depicted by Hemingway in "Old Man and the Sea". Discuss in detail.
(2012)
JANE AUSTEN
"Pride and Prejudice" and Jane Austen is a novel with limited range. Discuss . (2000)
It is said of Jane Austen that she involves the ‘Critical Intelligence’ of her readers. The prevailing interest is not only in ‘aesthetic delight’ but also in a sense of moral conviction. How far is this true of her “Pride and Prejudice”? (2001)
Short notes: Jane Austen’s novels are the work of a miniaturist. (2001)
“Jane Austen’s view of life is the view of the eighteenth century civilization of which she was the last exquisite blossom. One might call it the moral realistic view. Jane Austen was profoundly moral.” (David Cecil). Elaborate. (2002)
Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice’ has been described as a fairy tale, in which deserving girl gets her prince. Would you say this was a good description? Give reasons for your answer.
(2003)
Jane Austen’s clear sighted eyes read through the inner minds of those who live around her, just as if those minds were transparent. Comment on her art of characterization. (2007)
“Faithful Observation, personal detachment, and a fine sense of ironic comedy are among Jane Austen’s Chief Characteristics as a writer.” Discuss and illustrate from ‘Pride and Prejudice’.
(2008)
“Here is a limited world; but she interprets it with the penetrating insight of the creative artist”. Discuss this remark about Jane Austen in the light of Pride and Prejudice. ( 2009 )
Discuss the significance of the title of Jane Austen's " pride and Prejudice". (2010)
Jane Austen’s clear-sighted eyes read through the inner minds of those who live around her or those whom she invents, just as if those minds were transparent. Discuss her characterization in Pride and Prejudice in the light of this remark. (2011)
Jane Austin's writing is a vivid account of her understanding of the human behaviour, Illustrate the truth from her novel "Pride and Prejudice". (2012)
WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS
W.B. Yeats was a Romantic Poet. Discuss with reference to his major Poems. (2000)
How does Yeats create ‘terrible’ beauty out of his imagery?
(2001)
What does Byzantium symbolize in “Sailing to Byzantium”? Justify or refute Stocks’ remark that Yeats’ poetry is a battle ground for the clash of opposite with reference to “Sailing to Byzantium”. (2002)
Give briefly a critical appreciation of ‘Among School Children’ – Yeats. (2003)
Write critical note on major themes of Yeats’ later poetry with special reference to ‘Sailing to Byzantium’, ‘Among School Children’ and ‘The Second Coming’. (2004)
W. B. Yeats works deal intensely with three basic urges. List each urge elaborately. (2005)
“His poetry possesses an imaginative mysticism, an essential attribute of Celticism, he has the ability to efface the outlines of material objects in a dreamy mistiness.” Dilate upon Yeats’ poetry, in the light of this remark. (2007)
‘Yeats’ symbols, like his mask, by their triple reference to self, world, and spirit achieve on the aesthetic plane a unity of bring impossible in life. Interpret Yeats’ Poem ‘BYZANTIUM’ in the light of this remark. (2008)
Stock says of ‘The Second Coming’ that in this poem Yeats sets his own age in the perspective of eternity and condenses a whole philosophy of history into it so that it has the force of Prophecy’. Discuss. (2009)
"The Second coming" Yeats presents the idea of civilization headed by the "Rough Beast". Discuss (2010)
Yeats work is thoroughly steeped in imaginative mysticism which is the essential attribute of celticism. Discuss in relation to his poems you have read. (2011)
Is "The Second Coming" definitely a ""visionary poem"?Is yes describe what Yeats vision is? (2012)
ROBERT JOHN BROWNING
“People are Browning’s passion: men and women, revealed through their ambitions and failures, love and hatred.” Discuss with reference to his poems. (2001)
Browning’s Dramatic monologue. (2002)
Detailed notes: Browning’s Obscurity. (2003)
Discuss Browning’s monologues as beautiful psychological analysis of characters belonging to different countries. (2004)
Detailed notes: Robert Browning’s interest in psychological analysis of characters from different countries. (2005)
Critical notes: The use of the dramatic monologue by Robert Browning (2006)
Browning had a “robust optimism” unlike the other Victorian poets who were worriers and doubters. Do you agree with this? Explain your answer through examples of Browning’s poetry. (2008)
Write a detailed critical note on Browning’s Dramatic Monologue with special reference to ‘The Last Ride Together’ and ‘My Last Duchess’. ( 2009 )
' Browning did not invent the 'dramatic monologue ' but made it particularly his own'. Discuss
(2010)
Browning's art reflects an intellectual curiosity, a systematic quest of truth and desire for rationality characteristic of his age. Give detailed comments. (2011)
Robert Browning belongs to the Victorian age. Justify the statement. (2012)
CHARLES JOHN HUFFAM
DICKENS
Short notes: Humour and pathos in Dicken’s novels. (2001)
Short notes: Dickens’ Under World (2002)
Are ‘Dickens the humorist’ and ‘Dickens the reformer’ complementary or hostile to each other? Discuss in detail.
(2003)
It is said, “Dickens has his own sentimental way of solving social problems”. Discuss with examples. (2004)
Dickens set so personal a stamp on his books that at every turn he seemed to be an innovator. Discuss. (2005)
'The one gift necessary to the great Novelist is the capacity to create living characters'. Discuss any two novels by Dickens in the light of this comment. (2006)
Dickens’ novels reflect the contemporary Victorian urban society with all its conflicts and disharmonies, both physical and intellectual. Discuss. (2007)
How far do the stories of Dickens reflect the social evils of the Victorian Age? Explain with reference to any two of his novels. (2008)
Do you agree with the view that Dickens is a social Novelist? Discuss with reference to his major novels. (2010)
Dickens writes of the lower middle class not as a detached observer, but as one on their own level and instinctive fraternity can be traced in his novels. Discuss. (2011)
Discuss Charles Dickens as a critic of his age. (2012)
CHARLES LAMB
Lamb seldom permitted his profounder views of life to appear above the humorous, pathetic and ironical surface of his writings. Discuss with reference to his "Essays". (2000)
‘Above all Charles Lamb was a refined humanist whose smile could be both satirist and tender.’ Discuss this statement with reference to his essays.
(2001)
How does the Romantic Sensibility appear in Charles Lamb’s Essays? (2002)
‘Lambs’ essays are lyric poems in prose.’ How far this remark is true? Illustrate with special reference to ESSAYS of Elia.
(2003)
Write a Critical note on Charles Lamb as a prose writer. In what particular ways was he different from the prose writers of his age? Give examples. (2004)
Critical notes: Charles Lamb as a prose writer (2006)
Charles Lambs’ essays are called ‘Lyric Poems in Prose’. Give your own comments on this statement referring to Lambs’ Essays of Elia’. (2009)
Above all Charles Lamb was a refined humanist whose smile could be both satiric and tender". Elaborate the truth of this statement. (2012)
THOMAS STEARNS ELIOT
Discuss the artistic and emotional aspects in ‘The Waste Land’ by Eliot. (2000)
Is ‘The Waste Land’ a public or private poem? (2001)
Detailed notes: Tradition and Individual Talent. (2003)
As a lover of English literature, what impresses you in T. S. Eliot’s ‘The Waste Land’? Give your analysis. (2003)
T. S. Eliot claims universally for his (The Wasteland), but many critics disagree with it. Discuss.
(2004)
To what extent T. S. Eliot claim is justified to have claimed the universality for the wasteland, when there exists a mounting wave of criticism by other critics? Give your objective views. (2005)
“Nothing else so truly reflects the age and redeem it.” How far is it a just remark about T. S. Eliot’s ‘The Waste Land”? (2008)
Complex,Satiric,full of symbolism and illusions to famous works of literature,The Waste Land is a landmark of the 20th Century.Discuss in detail.
(2012)
SAMUEL BARCLAY BECKETT
“Some of Pozzo’s speeches go beyond what seems dramatically plausible in a decaying boss-figure.” Substantiate from your reading of the play ‘Waiting for Godot’.
(2002)
Discuss briefly the universality of text ‘Waiting for Godot’ – Samuel Backett: Word Master.
(2003)
In Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot the pattern for waiting is an ingenious combination of expectations and let downs, of uncertainty and of gradual run down without end. How far do you agree with this view? ( 2009 )
Beckett's "waiting for Godot " presents nothingness, uncertainty and hopelessness of modern man. Discuss (2010)
LORD ALFRED TENNYSON
Short notes: Tenny as a consummate craftsman in verse. (2001)
“Tennyson worked with words like a jeweler, weighing them against each other, tasting their luster, placing them in their foil; yet they are mostly current coinage.” Discuss. (2003)
JOHN RUSKIN
What was the general, social, economic and moral atmosphere in the Victorian age? Write your answer with reference to the writings of Ruskin. (2001)
Short notes: Ruskin’s Social Criticism (2002)
‘Ruskin founded in England what was really a new religion, wherein the quest for beauty in the daily lie of all, even the most humble, become a sort of duty.’ Discuss. (2003)
Ruskin expressed his ideas in a magnified poetic and decorative prose. Discuss with examples.
(2005)
Critical notes: Ruskin’s prose style (2007)
Discuss the roles of Ruskin and Carlyle in the development of Victorian prose. (2010)
OSCAR FINGAL O'FLAHERTIE WILLS WILDE
Short notes: Oscar Wilde’s Ballad of Rending Goal (2002)
Critical notes: Depiction of upper class society in the plays of Oscar Wilde (2008)
JONATHAN SWIFT
Do you agree that Swift is a misanthrope in his ‘Gulliver’S Travels’? Why? (2000)
Comment on Swift’s policy that imperfections in nature are of stirring up human industry, with reference to his ‘Gulliver’s Travels’. (2001)
Swifts’ Gulliver’s Travel is a ‘mock utopia’. Explain. (2002)
Jonathan Swift became famous for his political writing. Gulliver’s Travels as an entertaining political story, but it became very popular as a tale for young people. Give examples from any one of the tales you remember vividly.
(2003)
Write short notes on Jane Austen and Swift separately. As you have seen them in “Pride and Prejudice” and “Gulliver Travels”. (2005)
'Gulliver's Travel' "expresses despair or that its import is nihilistic, is radically to misread the book". Justify or reject the statement. (2006)
Critical notes: Swift as a satirist
(2007)
Discuss ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ as a mock epic. (2008)
“Gulliver himself is a touchstone, a standard, a reporting agent, but he is not a person”. Explain and discuss with reference to Gulliver’s Travels. ( 2009 )
Do you agree with the view that Swift's " the Gulliver's travels" symbolizes the liners turbulences of Human Being.
(2010)
In Gulliver’s Travels Swift dissects the English political life with a corrosive satire. Elaborate (2011)
Swift's irony reaches its crescendo in the fourth voyage of Gulliver. Elaborate (2012)
THOMAS HARDY
“The novels of Hardy are of intensely dramatic and epic nature; his characters move progressively towards a crisis.” Discuss it with reference to his novels. (2001)
Short notes: Significance of the ROAD in Hardy’s novels. (2002)
Detailed notes: Hardy’s characters are subservient to plot. (2003)
It is said by C. Rickett. “In his earlier writing, Sweetness and bitterness are Contrasted but in his later novels of Hardy, the gloom is needlessly intensified”. Discuss with examples. (2004)
Detailed notes: The concept of fate in Hardy’s novels. (2005)
In ' 'Tess', Hardy has rebelled against tradional and orthodox views'. Comment. (2006)
Hardy is neither a feminist, nor a misogynist, but a realist. How far is this statement true? Discuss. (2007)
Do you believe that it was Hardy’s intention to depict Tess as a victim of divine sadism? In your opinion how successful was he in creating feelings of anger, frustration and resentment in the reader? (2008)
Hardy is neither an optimist nor a pessimist. He is essentially a meliorist. Discuss in relation to Hardy’s novels that you have read. ( 2009 )
Hardy's works portray fate or destiny as malignant and cruel agent of nature lurking at the prospect of human well-being.Discuss Critically. (2012)
ROBERT LEE FROST

Aunt Jennifer's Tiger - Adrienne Rich

Aunt Jennifer's Tiger - Adrienne Rich

Aunt Jennifer's tigers prance across a screen,
Bright topaz denizens of a world of green.
They do not fear the men beneath the tree;
They pace in sleek chivalric certainty.
Aunt Jennifer's finger fluttering through her wool
Find even the ivory needle hard to pull.
The massive weight of Uncle's wedding band
Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer's hand.
When Aunt is dead, her terrified hands will lie
Still ringed with ordeals she was mastered by.
The tigers in the panel that she made
Will go on prancing, proud and unafraid.

MEANING OF DIFFICULT WORDS

1.      Prance – to spring from the hind legs; to move by springing, as a horse.

2.      Denizens – a) anything adapted to a new place, condition, etc., as an animal or plant   not indigenous to a place but successfully naturalized.
      b) an inhabitant; resident.
      c) a person who regularly frequents a place

3.      Sleek – smooth or glossy, as hair, an animal / well-fed or well-groomed.

4.      Chivalric - the sum of the ideal qualifications of a knight, includingcourtesy,
generosity, valor, and dexterity in arms / gallant warriors or gentlemen

5.      Ivory – the hard white substance, a variety of dentin, composing the main part of the tusks of the elephant, walrus, etc.

6.      Ordeals – any extremely severe or trying test, experience, or trial.

7.      Panel – a distinct portion, section, or division of a wall, wainscot, ceiling, door, shutter, fence, etc., especially of any surface sunk below or raised above the general level or enclosed by a frame or border.

POETIC / LITERARY DEVICES
1.      Form  This poem is a formal, structured lyric.

2.      Structure  It contains three stanzas of four lines each

3.      Language Most of the words are short and simple everyday words. The sentences are simple in structure and all take two lines.

4.      Diction The unusual word ‘denizens’ stands out and it shows how special the tigers are, unlike how Aunt Jennifer feels about herself. The word ‘chivalric’ shows that the tigers are proud and charming. It means they treat women with respect. The repetition of ‘prance’ [parade] is interesting and emphasises the happy, confident life of the tigers.

5.      Full Stops and Commas Full stops are placed regularly at the end of every second line. The poem is controlled, just like its subject, Aunt Jennifer.

6.      Comparison The tigers are compared to knights from the time of chivalry in the middle ages.

7.      Imagery The main images are of Aunt Jennifer as a fearful wife and, secondly, the magnificent tigers she creates in her panel. Images of precious substances run through the poem: ‘topaz’, ‘ivory’ and the gold of ‘wedding band’.

8.      Metaphor The poet compares the yellow stripes of the tigers to a precious stone, topaz.

9.      Contrast [difference] The main contrasts are between nervous Aunt Jennifer and her confident tigers. Another contrast is between the strong yellow and green colours. The words ‘prancing’ and ‘fluttering’ contrast as well.

10.  Mood/Atmosphere Fear is the main atmosphere in Aunt Jennifer’s life of ‘ordeals’ where her fingers tremble and show terror.  An air of freedom and confidence dominates the atmosphere in her artistic creations. The men beneath the tree create an atmosphere of mystery.  The image of Aunt Jennifer’s corpse from the future is a bit eerie or creepy.

11.  Hyperbole [Exaggeration]  The poet exaggerates the weight of her husband’s wedding ring to make a point about how dominating he is.
12.  Paradox [apparent contradiction]   Here a trembling and ‘mastered’ woman creates free and confident creatures in her artistic endeavours. ‘Fluttering’ fingers produce something that has ‘certainty’.

13.  Tone The tone appears to be positive and cheerful when the poet describes the tigers. See the comment on sibilance below. The tone becomes sad and even creepy at times in describing the life of Aunt Jennifer.

14.  Repetition The word ‘prance’ is repeated to emphasise the pride and freedom of the tigers. ‘Ringed’ echoes ‘wedding band’. There is repetition of various sounds as indicated in the next few bullet points.

15.  Rhyme Every pair of lines rhyme, like the ‘een’ sound in ‘screen’ and ‘green’ at the end of the first two lines. The rhyme pattern for the poem is: aabb ccdd  eeff. This rigid pattern mirrors the rigid life of Aunt Jennifer.

16.  Assonance [similar vowel sound repetition] Note the long ‘i’ sound in ‘find’ the ivory’. This creates a sad or mournful effect.

17.  Consonance [similar consonant sound repetition] Note the repeated ‘n’ sound in the first line and the  ‘f’ sound in the first line of the second stanza.

18.  Alliteration [repetition of consonant sounds at the start of nearby words] e.g ‘p’ in ‘prancing proud’ emphasises the feeling of confidence expressed in the tigers’ movements.

19.  Sibilance [repetition of ‘s’ sound] Note how the five ‘s’ sounds in the first line create a smooth opening, suggesting an air of confidence within the artificial world of the panel.

STANZA BY STANZA ANALYSIS

Stanza 1: The relative, Aunt Jennifer, makes a panel with images of tigers parading proudly across it.  The tigers are free, unlike their maker. Her panel contains animals that are happier and more confident than she is. There is a ‘certainty’ about them that their maker lacks in herself. Aunt Jennifer paints confident, proud tigers. They are assured and confident dwellers, ‘denizens’, of their green world. ‘Denizen’ suggests independent citizen. It would seem that Jennifer is not an independent citizen of her own world. She is instead a wife, weighed down by duties as we learn in the second stanza. Jennifer uses sharp and contrasting colours, sharp yellow against a green background. Her tigers are as bright as topaz, a yellow gem. Her picture contains an image of men under a tree, though the proud tigers show no fear of the men. This is mentioned to show that they differ from Jennifer, who lives in fear of her husband to some extent. The tigers remind the poet of knights, full of courtesy and style. Chivalric men respected their women and acted kindly towards them. Again, this seems to contrast with how ‘Uncle’ behaved towards Aunt Jennifer according to the second stanza.

Stanza 2: The poet describes Aunt Jennifer’s nervous hands struggling to pull the wool with her ivory needle. The word ‘fluttering’ suggests trembling. We get the impression of a frail woman who finds it hard to pull the needle. It is interesting that if her needle is made of ivory it may have come from an elephant’s tusk. Ivory is a bit like topaz, a precious material. As ivory involves the killing of elephants for their valuable tusks, it would seem that Jennifer may not care much for tigers in the wild or know much about their reality. Thus, her artwork is unrealistic. Perhaps the poet feels it is a pointless and empty type of art. The poet humorously suggests that Aunt Jennifer’s fingers find it hard to hold the weight of her wedding ring and then pull the needle at the same time. The wedding band is another reference to a precious substance, probably gold. By mentioning that it is ‘Uncle’s wedding band’, the poet suggests that Uncle owns Jennifer too and that as a female she is the property of her husband. The words ‘massive’ and ‘heavily’ suggest Aunt Jennifer lives a demanding sort of life in which she has to attend to her husband’s needs and fulfill his commands. As a result she is somewhat worn out in her old age.

Stanza 3: The poet predicts that, when Aunt Jennifer dies, her hands will look worn from all her needlework as well as the hard time she has trying to please her husband. Aunt Jennifer is ‘ringed’, trapped in her marriage and controlled like an animal. Her husband is her master. Her artwork will live on after her as a reminder of the dreams she never fulfilled.

CRITICAL APPRECIATION

Adrienne Rich's "Aunt Jennifer Tigers" is a poem that concerns itself mainly with a woman struggling to accept the indignities of her daily life while being insatiably focused on attaining some sense of immortality once that life ends. Aunt Jennifer must find a way to deal with her unhappy and submissive station in life, and she does so by sewing exciting and memorable works of art. Sewing is her escape and in this case she's escaping to a jungle where wild animals rule the land and never show fear. The tigers created by Aunt Jennifer are beasts demanding respect from even their predators. This demand for respect is something that Aunt Jennifer is incapable of doing for herself. In the meantime, she will deal with her problems by escaping from them.

This escape into her art is shown vividly in the opening stanza of the poem where the imagery is vibrant and alive and shows what Aunt Jennifer is capable of doing; it also provides a glimpse into Aunt Jennifer's subconscious in its portrayal of animals who don't allow themselves to be victimized by anyone. The tigers are literally prancing across the screen. The image of something prancing immediately brings to mind a being that is confident and self-assured and happy; all things that Aunt Jennifer is not. The tigers are not just simply tigers, of course. They are "Bright topaz denizens of a world of green" (2). The use of colors implies that Aunt Jennifer's tigers and their land are more vital and enjoy a sense of freedom far greater than she. Yellow connotes the sun and fierce energy, while green reminds one of spring and rebirth. Aunt Jennifer is longing for both energy and rebirth. She cannot find it at home so she goes on journeys into her sewing. The tigers are foreign and that also brings speculation that Aunt Jennifer would like to travel, which is just another form escape. That the tigers sense no fear of the predatory hunters is key. The assumption here is that Aunt Jennifer is afraid of her own predator: her husband. He has hunted her and captured her and keeps her in a cage from which her only escape is her sewing. The tigers, on the other hand, do not live in fear. No, rather they pace about as if they were kings of their domain. They are certain of their place in the world and will allow no one or nothing to interfere. The tigers are to Aunt Jennifer the ultimate creatures of self-actualization. They are exactly what she wishes she could be herself. And in creating them so resplendently, they will live on long after their creator has passed on.

Aunt Jennifer is doing what she can to cope with an unhappy lifestyle and this melancholy is made apparent in the second stanza of the poem, which deals in ambiguous images of rapidity and heaviness to symbolize the need to escape from the stagnancy of her marriage. Aunt Jennifer's fingers are "fluttering through her wool" (5) in the first line of the stanza and this suggests that Aunt Jennifer is trying to sew as fast as her fingers will allow. Complex questions arise from this simple description of Aunt Jennifer sewing. Why does she need to create something so fast? Exactly what is she afraid of that would spur her on so? Perhaps her fear is that she will not live long enough to finish the creation. Perhaps she fears she will be interrupted in the middle of her work. She is trying to do it as fast as she can, but then begin the images of weight, of carrying a burden. The fact that the "ivory needle is hard to pull" (6) insinuates that she's been sewing for a long time. In fact, sewing is probably what she does most of the day when she's not caring for her husband. The marriage to the speaker's Uncle is perhaps Aunt Jennifer's greatest weight. After all, "The massive weight of Uncle's wedding band / Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer's hand" (7-8). This bulk is probably more emotional and mental than physical. It is doubtful that Aunt Jennifer's wedding band itself weighs down her hand so much that she can't sew as fast as she'd like. The weight is probably one in which her marriage didn't turn out as she planned. Perhaps she wanted children and never had any. Certainly no mention is made in the poem of the speaker having cousins. Aunt Jennifer's marriage has most likely turned out to be her biggest disappointment and one that she would probably even like to escape. And for at least a little while escape she does, right into her sewing.

The final stanza argues for the successful grasping of a sense of immortality so eagerly sought by Aunt Jennifer. This final portion of the poem contains imagery that reflects back on the first two stanzas and completes the three-tiered approach to the poem as a consideration of the life-spirit of someone who has not led the life they wanted contrasted with the bid for a satisfactory afterlife. The stanza begins with a look forward to when Aunt Jennifer will no longer be alive and creating her artistic sewing pieces. The first line pointedly shows that Aunt Jennifer had terrified hands which "will lie / Still ringed with ordeals she was mastered by" (9-10). The line clearly harkens back to the second stanza and its dealings with the burdens Aunt Jennifer lives under. What could possibly have terrified her hands? And what ordeals was she mastered by? The most obvious answer is made by connecting the ordeals back with the heavy weight of her wedding band spoken of in the second stanza. Aunt Jennifer is more than likely abused-at least emotionally-by her husband. She is quite literally mastered by her husband. Such is the need for escape into her art. The final two lines of the stanza-and the poem-reflect back on the very opening line. The tigers are still in the panel that she made and they continue to prance, "proud and unafraid (12). The tigers that she fought so hard to create despite the overwhelming burden of her life will, indeed, continue to prance forever. By the end of the poem, Aunt Jennifer has fulfilled her need and achieved her own little sense of immortality. Her life was not in vain, she created something out of nothing, something that will live on well after she is dead and buried.
The structure of the play "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers" is built upon the give and take of showing a woman's ability to create an everlasting work of art while dealing with the abject humiliation of a living a life that is built on worries and woe. In three small stanzas of just four lines each, the poem craftily builds toward the welcome conclusion that no matter how much life has to dish out to a person and bring a person down, each of us can still achieve some small measure of respect and immortality if we just have the discipline to do what we know we can do well. If a person can find out what it is that he does well, he can achieve it and create for himself something that will last long after he have created it. Aunt Jennifer successfully beat back the load that she was forced to carry and created a small wedge of life everlasting for herself.

Themes

1. Marriage is unequal due to male domination/Inequality

The woman at the centre of the poem, Aunt Jennifer, is a nervous and fearful wife. She lacks inner conviction or ‘certainty’, unlike the tigers she portrays. Aunt Jennifer is ‘mastered’ in her life. She lives a life of inequality. She is so nervous that her fingers ‘flutter’ through the wool she is using in her tapestry or panel. The poet portrays the marriage of Jennifer as an unhappy one for her. Aunt Jennifer feels the burden of duty and obedience. This is shown by the symbol of the wedding ring that she wears. It is described as her husband’s property: ‘Uncle’s wedding band’. It ‘sits heavily’ on her hand because he dominates her life. Her life with her husband is desctibed as a life of ‘ordeals’.  It is shown that Jennifer is terrified in her marriage. Her husband may be fiercer to her than the tigers she produces in her artwork.  The poem therefore provides a negative picture of marriage. The poem is probably saying that the ‘Uncle’ or husband is behaving like a tiger, and the tigers are ‘chivalric’ like the husband should be. Each world is the reverse of what it should be.

2. The world of art is happier than the real world/Dream versus Reality
Aunt Jennifer’s hobby is making designs and pictures from wool. Jennifer produces wool tapestries that she places on panels. The creatures she places there are free and proud, the opposite to herself. She is ‘ringed’ or mastered in marriage and therefore she is not free, but controlled.  It seems that she creates a happier looking world than the one she lives in. She makes precise and brightly coloured pictures like the sharp yellow tigers of the poem, pictured against a green background. These bright contrasting colours are probably much more vivid than Jennifer’s everyday world. Her artistic work will live on after she dies, as, according to the poet, her tigers will ‘go on prancing’. The figures she creates are stronger and happier than she is. They are proud and ‘prance’ about, unlike their creator, who is nervous and fears her husband. The word ‘prance’ or parade contrasts sharply with ‘fluttering’, meaning trembling. The tigers do not fear the men the aunt places under some trees in her tapestry. Therefore, the imaginary tigers produced by Aunt Jennifer live a type of proud and free life that she can only dream about. It is a ‘chivalric’ world, one where gentlemen treat women with great respect. Yet this is also a false world, as real tigers live out a battle for survival of the fittest, where the strongest dominate. Perhaps Aunt Jennifer uses art as an escape from her troubles. In her artwork Jennifer imagines the kind of life she would have liked.

***
The tigers display in art the values that Aunt Jennifer must repress or displace in life: strength, assertion, fearlessness, fluidity of motion. And the poem's conclusion celebrates the animal images as a kind of triumph, transcending the limited conditions of their maker's life. Accepting the doctrine of "ars longa, vita brevis," Rich finds in her character's art both persistence and compensation; she sees the creations as immortalizing the hand that made them, despite the contrary force of the oppressive structure of Aunt Jennifer's conventional marriage, as signified by the ring that binds her to her husband. This doctrine is utterly consonant with what was, according to Rich, "a recurrent theme in much poetry I read [in those days]. . . the indestructibility of poetry, the poem as vehicle for personal immortality" (Blood 168). And this more or less explicit connection helps show how deeply implicated Rich herself was in Aunt Jennifer's situation and her achievement, despite the "asbestos gloves" of a distancing formalism that "allowed me to handle materials I couldn't pick up barehanded" (Lies 40-41).

The problem, however, is that the tigers are clearly masculine figures--and not only masculine, but heroic figures of one of the most role-bound of all the substructures of patriarchy: chivalry. Their "chivalric certainty" is a representation by Aunt Jennifer of her own envisioned power, but it is essentially a suturing image, at once stitching up and reasserting the rift between her actual social status an her vision. Aunt’s name, after all, echoes with the sound of Queen Guinevere's; her place in chivalry is clear. Her tigers are only Lancelots, attractive because illicit, but finally seducing her to another submission to the male. So long as power can be envisioned only in terms that are culturally determined as masculine, the revolutionary content of the vision, which was all confined to a highly mediated and symbolic plane in any case, will remain insufficient. Indeed, the fact that assertion against the patriarchy is here imagined only in terms set by the patriarchs may be seen as this poem's version of the tigers' "fearful symmetry." And the "Immortal hand or eye" that framed their symmetry is not Aunt Jennifer's framing her needlework, but patriarchy's, framing Aunt Jennifer.

Chaucer and the Prologue to the Canterbury tales

Introduction:

Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales is an anthology of 24 tales written in Middle English.

Background:

Geoffrey Chaucer wrote this story in the late 1300’s but never finished it. He wrote in the native language or vernacular of the Medieval period in Britain called Middle English. Chaucer's original plan was for over 100 stories, but only 24 were completed, some of which had already been written for earlier works.

Overview:

👉Fragment I:

General Prologue
The General Prologue is a basic descriptive list of the twenty-nine people who become pilgrims to journey to Canterbury. The pilgrims, who come from all layers of society, tell stories to each other to kill time while they travel to Canterbury. The Host, Harry Bailey decides that every pilgrim will tell 2 stories on the road to Canterbury and other 2 on the way back. The person he judges to tell the best tale will receive a free meal at the Tabard Inn at Southwark when they return.
Knight
The Knight's tale is about two young knights that strive for Emily, who is the sister of queen Hippolyta who is married to duke Theseus, lord and governour of Athens. The story contains many aspects of knighthood, including discussions on love, courtly manners, brotherhood and loyalty. Several fights and battles are fought and even foreign kings are brought in to emphasize the epical meaning and shape of the last battle. Finally, death is the end of every worldly sore.
Miller
The Miller's tale is about an old carpenter who has a young wife and is duped by the suitor of his wife. The suitor is eventually duped by another suitor.
Reeve
All people find the story amusing except the grumbling Reeve, who takes the story personally as he is a carpenter by trade. The Host urges the Reeve to stop grumbling and sermonising and start telling a tale. The Reeve obeys and tells a tale about a haughty miller who deceives two students but is deceived in return: the deceiver is deceived.
Cook
The Cook’s Tale is an unfinished fragment and deals with the story of an apprentice cook named Perkin who loses his job because of his loose habits. The dismissal however has no effect on Perkin and he moves in with a like-minded friend whose wife is a prostitute.

👉Fragment II:

Man of Law
The Man of Law's Tale is about Constance, the daughter of the emperor of Rome. She, a devoted Christian, is shipped to Syria to marry the sultan who is willing to convert to Christianity to overcome legal difficulties. However, the sultan's mother is not amused by her son's conversion and pushes Constance back into the sea. Despite her sufferings, Constance remains faithful and even converts the hosts that give her shelter. At the end, her Christian faith is her protection and her reward.

👉Fragment III:

Wife of Bath
The Wife of Bath presents herself as the authority on marriage and marital life. She comments on the social and legal position of women in marriage and daily life. She claims she has her knowledge from experience, not from scriptural authority. Rather than rejecting scriptural authority, she appeals to logic thus rejecting too strict interpretations of scriptural rules and commandments.
Friar
The Friar's tale is about the trade and earnings of a nameless summoner who attempts to blackmail and old widow by serving a false summons. Eventually the summoner is cursed to hell by the old woman.
Summoner
The Summoner's tale is about a greedy friar who has no shame cajoling churchly donations out of his people and friends. The Summoner obviously seeks some revenge for the Friar's tale.

👉Fragment IV:

Clerk
The Clerk's tale is about a marquis called Walter. Lord Walter is a bachelor who is asked by his subjects to marry in order to provide a heir. Lord Walter assents and marries a poor girl called Griselda. After some time, Walter starts testing Griselda's patience. Ultimately, the clerk's tale is about unconditional female submissiveness.
Merchant
The Merchant tells a tale about a sixty-year old knight who decides he should marry a wife. The meaning of love, marriage, truth and faithfulness are being discussed.

👉Fragment V:

Squire
The Squire’s Tale is an unfinished fragment. King Cambyuskan receives a magic horse, sword, mirror and ring as gifts from the king of Araby and India. The horse has the ability to transport a man anywhere he wants to go in a flash. The sword could magically cut through the thickest armor and even heal wounds. The mirror can reveal future misfortunes and tragedies and the ring imparts to its wearer the power to understand the speech of birds. The king’s daughter wears the ring and hears a falcon miserably lamenting her betrayal by her fickle lover. She takes the poor falcon to court and nurses its self-inflicted wounds.
Franklin
The Franklin's tale is about a knight called Arviragus who is married with a lady called Dorigen. During Arviragus' absence, a squire called Aurelius attempts to court Dorigen. She thinks to get rid of him by demanding something apparently impossible. When Aurelius however performs the impossible, Dorigen is faced with a major dilemma: either being faithfull to her husband and break her promise or being unfaithfull to her husband and keep her promise.

👉Fragment VI:

Physician
The Physician's tale about a knight called Virginius has a wife and a beautiful virtuous fourteen-year-old daughter called Virginia. One day, a false judge named Appius sees Virginia and decides he will have her regardless the cost. However, Virginius rather kills his daughter instead of handing her over to the judge.
Pardoner
The Pardoner's tale about three frequently drinking young men who become acquainted with the killings of Death. They decide to find, stop and kill Death.

👉Fragment VII:

Shipman
The Shipman tells a story about a merchant, his wife and a frequently visiting monk called Dan John, who pretends to be the merchant's cousin. The wife secretly asks the monk to lend her money. The monk gladly promises to bring her the money she asks. The interchangeability and exchangeability of sex and money are emphatically elaborated in the Shipman's Tale.
The Prioress
The Prioress Tale is a hymn to Mary and Jesus, Christianity, motherhood and anti-Semitism.
Sir Thopas
Chaucer tells a story about a knight called Sir Thopas who wishes to love a fairy queen. Sir Thopas rides to fairyland on horseback, but finds the entrance blocked by a three-headed giant called Sir Oliphant who challenges Sir Thopas to fight. Sir Thopas returns home to get his gear and rides out again.
Melibee
Chaucer then relates the Tale of Melibee. Melibee’s enemies attack his house and his daughter is injured. But his wife, Dame Prudence persuades him to banish all thoughts of revenge and to forgive his enemies.
Monk
The Monk mentions and describes biblical, classical, Greec, Roman and worldy leaders who all have one thing in common: once they were great, but fortune has abandoned them.
The Nun's Priest
The Nun's Priest's tale is about a rooster called Chauntecleer that lives with seven chickens and several other animals in the yard of a poor old widow.

👉Fragment VIII:

Second Nun
The Second Nun's tale is about the life of Saint Cecilia who refuses to worship Roman gods. Still being a virgin, she is arrested, interrogated, executed and martyred for her Christian beliefs.
Canon’s Yeoman
The Canon's Yeoman’s Tale deals with his own experiences during the practice of alchemy. The tale recounts how a Canon duped a priest into believing that he could transform mercury into silver and sold him the fake formula for forty pounds.

👉Fragment IX:

Manciple
The Manciple's tale is about Phoebus, who possesses a white crow. Phoebus has a wife who is (symbolically) kept in a golden cage. Despite his efforts to keep his wife clean, she commits adultery.

👉Fragment X:

Parson
The Parson’s Tale is the concluding tale. It is a very long prose sermon on the seven deadly sins. The story contains examples of the seven deadly sins and explanations, indicating what people need to do in order to get redemption.

👉Chaucer’s Retraction

Chaucer finishes the tales by a Retraction, asking the people that have been offended by the tales to blame it on his lack of manners and education, because he did not have immoral intentions and asked the people who found something useful in his stories to give all the credit for them to Christ. He retracts by a prayer for forgiveness for all his works narrating about secular and pagan characters, asking his readers to remember him for his homilies and his works about the lives of saints.