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Canterbury Tales

Mai Zhang

Mrs. Martinez

AP English

21 October 2006

  The Purpose of the Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale

Why did the Yeoman give his confession and how does intentions relate to current real life situations?   The answer to this question can be found when analyzing the Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale.   Geoffrey Chaucer wrote the Canterbury Tales in the 1300’s.   The reasons the Canon’s Yeoman tells his tale: to repent for his sins, to denounce alchemy, and to change his ways of life, can be related to modern day life.  
First off the Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale can be seen as a desperate confession to repent for sins.   The Medieval Christians viewed confession as a way to blind Satan and escape temptation (Ryan, 298).   Instead of a priest, the Host, Harry Bailey, serves as a confessor to the Yeoman.   The Host asks the Yeoman a series of questions quite similar to what a priest would ask a sinner.   The whole tale can be viewed in a religious way with the Canon being the Devil and the Yeoman being the sinner who gives in to temptation.   The alchemist’s fire that blows up on them so many times corresponds with the fires of hell (Ryan, 299).   The Yeoman does not portray his Canon in such a negative way.   This is partly due to the fact that he wants to make it seem as if his actions weren’t as sinful.   The Canon in the Yeoman’s actual tale is however, described in a demonic way.   This Canon knows that he cannot perform alchemy.   His whole purpose is to use deception in order to achieve an end.   The Canon’s tricks associate fire and blindness, thus strengthening the idea that he is devilish.   The Yeoman gives his confession because he probably has an ill feeling that he was associating with a fiend similar to the evil Canon in his story.   The Yeoman believes that once he confesses, God will have forgiven him and he will be free from the bondage of alchemy.   The fact that the Yeoman joins the pilgrimage directly relates to his penitence.   All this can be related to modern day life...