Death Personified

In our lesson on Friday we set out to finish the Pardoners tale, and we did (YEAH).
We began the lesson by looking at quotes from the tale, then analysing them in detail.
The first quote we looked at was,



“A privee theef man clepeth Death”

The ideas we came up with after we analysed this quote where: that firstly we looked at the word “privee” which means stealthy. This meant that Death was the type of being that would creep up on people without them being aware of the fact that they would meet their doom.
We then looked at the word “theef” which meant thief, and we said that Death according to Chaucer was this messenger from god that came to steel the lives of people in an unjust way. “Like the thief of god” asked one person? It is said in the tale that Death came as a form of punishment for the wicked that have committed one of the deadly sins. Yet we read that he also takes the lives of children. This could be used as evidence that death is unfair.
The next quote was:

“And with his spear he smoot his heart atwo”
We looked at the sounds that appear in this quote such as the “o” sound which is used to emphasis the pain that the spear causes to the person when Death takes their lives. These sounds create the sound of something being sliced open and the heart being ripped out. We also noticed that this quote is more graphic and vivid then the first. Which could mean that as the Pardoner is nearing the end of his tale he wants his audience to be in a state of fear, and then seek his council for help. This would be an opportunity for him to sell his fake relics.
The next quote was:

“False traitor”
We found in this quote a double negative. This is used to add emphasis on being a traitor. Again we find that Death is associated with being unjust to people.
The last quote that we looked at before we read an article on
“Death Personified”
Was:
“Ne Death, alas, ne vol nat han my lyt”
As we where very aware of the time we had to move on to the article, so all we noticed was that there where very negative words used in this quote about the Death.
The article we read spoke about how Chaucer uses apostrophes not the punctuation mark, but the literary term for the rhetorical technique of conveying extreme emotion to an abstract idea or personified objects. The examples used are that we noticed the use of “o” at the beginning and an exclamation mark at the end.
In the article we also highlighted Miller suggested. This was that the tree beneath which the men find the treasure could tie in with the Pardoner’s initial message that money is the root of all evil.
The article discussed many other points but these where some of the points we highlighted.
We then read the tale and finished it. The tale ended with all the three men dying because of their greed for the gold. Towards the pardoner addresses the pilgrims that they should repent for the sins that they committed if they did not want their fate to be like those of the three men. He also tells them to kiss his relics and buy them from him if they want to travel safely without breaking their knacks.
The pardoner says that the first person to pay should be the host. We said that this could be because the host might be the one with the most money. The host feels offended by this and exposes the Pardoner for being a liar, which leaves the Pardoner speechless. The knight calms everything down, and the Pardoner and the host ride off together.


The home work was that we should do the questions that we got on “The Pardoners tale”, “Wuthering Heights” and “Bloody chamber”
Do as much as you can at least one a day of each.
I know we all have other home work but we should as much questions as we can, because practice makes perfect.