Lesson Summary ‘The Reeve’s Tale’ is a story about revenge or what is called quitting, meaning to repay someone. The moral of this story is that you can’t hope for good if you do evil.
What does the Reeve represent?
A reeve is a manager of someone’s estate or farm. This reeve is also a carpenter, which leads to trouble when the Miller tells a tale insulting carpenters, but most of the Reeve’s portrait focuses upon his role as a manager, which he’s been doing for many, many years.
What is the moral of the cook’s tale?
The moral lesson of this fragment is that participating in one vice tends to lead to other vices and can even spread to others who would otherwise be good people.
What does the Reeve do in The Canterbury Tales?
A reeve oversees all aspects of the agrarian activity of a manorial estate; Oswold, for example is responsible for keeping accounts, managing the planting and harvesting of grain, and keeping track of all the landlord’s livestock.
How is the Reeve’s tale an immoral one?
In “The Reeve’s Tale,” a dishonest miller cheats all his customers by shorting them on corn, “padding” their sacks with a less expensive substance like bran.
What kind of story is the Reeve’s tale?
fabliau
Like “The Miller’s Tale,” “The Reeve’s Tale” is a fabliau, a medieval genre of bawdy story, usually concerning adultery. Chaucer may have based this tale on a similar story from Boccaccio’s Decameron in which two clerks have sex with the wife and daughter of the innkeeper with whom they’re staying.
Is the Reeve’s tale satire?
In The Canterbury Tales, the Reeve tells a satirical story about a miller. In the Reeve’s story, the miller is a deceitful lazy, untrustworthy, base, corrupt, loathsome person.
What is the moral of the story the?
The moral of a story is the lesson that story teaches about how to behave in the world. Moral comes from the Latin word mores, for habits. The moral of a story is supposed to teach you how to be a better person.
What is ironic about the cook in the Canterbury Tales?
Blancmange was famous for curing illnesses, so people often gave it to people who were sick. Thus, there may be additional irony here in that the Cook is known for a dish that was reputed to cure all illnesses, but it clearly could not cure his own illness.
What is the plot of The Cook’s tale?
This 58-line fragment of a tale of “harlotrie,” as the poet described it, tells of a womanizing, gambling apprentice cook who is dismissed from his job. He moves in with a fellow reveler and his wife, a shopkeeper by day and prostitute by night.
How does the Reeve’s tale end?
The Reeve ends his tale by summarizing the punishments its miller has endured, then explaining these punishments with the proverb “Hym that nar wene wel that yvele doth” (“he who does evil fares badly”) (466).
Why does the Reeve go on the pilgrimage?
In the General Prologue, Chaucer tells us that the reeve on this pilgrimage earns incredible profits for his lord, mainly by being extremely vigilant to make sure that none of the businessmen with whom he works are cheating him.
What is the setting of the Reeve’s tale?
A Mill in Trumpington, not far from Cambridge, England
The setting at a mill puts the focus of the tale on the everyday economic transactions of a medieval village, which also become a source of conflict: the miller cheats his customers, leading the clerks to attempt payback.
How is the Miller able to cheat the college in the Reeve’s tale?
How is the Miller able to cheat the college in “The Reeve’s Tale?” The Miller cheats the college by stealing their corn and grain. He does this even when the manciple, the person responsible for buying provisions, is quite sick.
What is ironic about the manciple?
The Manciple is an ironic character because he constantly cites classical lore and legend, such as that found in Ovid’s Metamorphosis, and he overuses rhetorical devices as well to further overstate his education. However, he states that he is ”an unlearned man” and is not well-educated.
What does the Reeve vow do through his story?
What does the Reeve vow to do through his story? He vows to repay the vulgar act in the Miller’s tale with a counterattack.
When was the Reeve’s tale written?
Ranging in tone from vulgar humour to serious moralising, the stories are unified by common themes, notably a contrast of the ‘loose woman’ and the virtuously long-suffering one. Chaucer began writing the tales late in his career (1387), but died in 1400, leaving them unfinished.
Who are the characters in the Reeve’s tale?
“The Reeve’s Tale” is one of eight of Chaucer’s stories adapted by Pasolini in The Canterbury Tales. Patrick Duffett portrays Alan, Eamann Howell portrays John, the Italian producer/ actor Tiziano Longo portrays Simkin the Miller, Eileen King portrays his wife and Heather Johnson portrays Molly.
How does the Reeve keep his hair and beard trimmed?
How does the Reeve keep his hair and beard trimmed? He trimmed his beard down to his skin and he kept his hair above his ears. What is the Reeve’s bodily build like, judging by the narrator’s description of the Reeve’s legs? Like a priest, legs were lean, no calf was to be seen.
Who did the Miller offend while telling this tale?
For instance, the Miller apologizes for the tale he is about to tell, and transfers all blame to the “ale of Southwerk”—in effect, to the Host himself (3140).
What is satire Canterbury Tales?
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales is sometimes called an estates satire, meaning that it satirizes the three estates, or sociopolitical groups in England at the time he was writing.