The Pardoner's Tale Analysis

The Superior Story

Which story is more entertaining and has better morals? The Canterbury Tales, composed of 22 different stories and written by a man named Geoffrey Chaucer, are very complex and meaningful stories that are applicable to real life scenarios and have deep hidden morals that should be things that humans follow. Two of the most known tales across the globe in the Canterbury Tales are “The Pardoner’s Tale,” and “The Wife of Bath.” These two tales have many similarities but both provide different elements to make them arguable. “The Wife of Bath” tale is the better story because it contains fantastical elements, builds more suspense, has a more complex plot, and contains more morals.

The first reason that I thought the “Wife of Bath” was a more entertaining and better story morally was its use of fantastical elements and it created suspenseful moments. The story is being described as fantastical, “This was a land brim-full of fairy folk. The elf-queen and her courtiers joined and broke. Their elfin dance on many a green mead, or so was the opinion once, I read, Hundreds of years ago, in days of yore. But no one now sees fairies any more”(33-38). The story adds suspense by saying “Yet you shall live if you can answer me: What is the thing that women most desire?”(80-81). The first quote talks about fantastical elements, which gives the story more detail and makes the story less boring. The second quote creates suspense by saying that the knight can live if he