Chanticleer Flatters The Fox example essay topic
Blasphemy and greed are other problems he speaks of. Also, he attempts to sell fake religious relics and is amazingly greedy himself. Yet there are also many twisted situations in the story itself. In the beginning of the story, the three rioters make a pact to "be brothers,"to each defend the others", and "to live and die for one another" in protection from death. In going out to fulfill their vows, they encounter money and end up killing each other over greed.
After finding the money, the men plan to stay with it until it becomes dark when they can safely take it away. To tide themselves over until then, they send the youngest one out to get food and wine, and while he is away they plan to kill for his share of the money. While that goes on, the youngest one plans the same thing by slipping poison into the drinks of his companions. When he returns, he is attacked and stabbed to death by the other men. The remaining men drink to his death and their newfound fortune, as a result of the poison, and also their greed, die as well. "The Nun's Priest's Tale" also has a twisted situation, the most obvious of which are the characters themselves.
The story begins by the telling of an old woman who owns several farm animals, but while the woman is described as "a poor old widow" who "led a patient, simple life", the animals are described as royalty. For example, the animals had regal names and titles, yet the woman had none at all. The first example of a situation occurs after Chanticleer has told Pertelote of his dream, and she makes fun of him. Although Chanticleer means to tease her, it becomes unexpected when Pertelote's advice to ignore his dream ends up leading to Chanticleer's downfall. His downfall occurs when the fox tricks Chanticleer into his trap. But what is also unexpected is how the fox ends up unsuccessful.
Once the fox had captured Chanticleer, he states "misfortune will come to those who talk when they should be quiet". However, lack of silence from the fox leads to his loss. The fox had captured Chanticleer by flattering him until the boastful rooster did something foolish, enabling the fox to make his move. Later, Chanticleer flatters the fox until he gives in to the rooster's kind words, enabling the rooster to escape.
Both of their foolish acts involved their vanity making them brag and speak when they should have been silent. What was clever about Chanticleer, was the fact that in the fox flattering of Chanticleer, he mocked his lack of wisdom and in defense, Chanticleer acted by displaying both of these qualities in his attempt to escape. Both "The Pardoner's Tale" and "The Nun's Priest's Tale" display crime, greed, and lies to teach two similar lessons. The moral of "The Pardoner's Tale" is "money is the root of all evil".
Similarly, the moral of the "Nun's Priest's Tale" is that vanity will eventually lead to nothing. It is quite amusing that our technology and currency changes for the benefit of the people and the world, while our actions and attitude do not change at all.