The Covetous Man

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2. Outline and discuss the role played by the narrator in medieval comic tales. First of all I would like to explain why I have chosen this topic and why it is very interesting to me. My interest in the narrator comes from a reading I did one month ago. I am fascinated by semiotics; last month I found myself reading a very complex and stimulating book by John Berger called Ways of Seeing. The content is easily deduced from reading the title. However, I think it is important to examine this quote: “We only see what we look at. To look is an act of choice. As a result of this act, what we see is brought within our reach – though not necessarily within arm’s reach. To touch something is to situate oneself in relation to it. We never look at…show more content…
In the end of The Covetous Man and his Envious Companion we are not likely to feel sorry for the characters because they are nasty, and the narrator warns us: “Bad cess to anyone who feels sorry for them, that’s what I say, for both of them really were very nasty characters” In addition, in the satirical story of The Parson and the Wolf we can see that there is an intervention of the narrator in the middle of the story that he uses in order to make fun by using irony: “The parson, lamenting this loss of revenue, sought revenge through craftiness, since he mistrusted his strength. He dug a rather large pit, and put a lamb in it; and so the pit wouldn’t be discovered by the enemy, he covered it over with branches. There is nothing granted to human kind more useful than its wit!” Furthermore, looking deep into the end of The Peasant and his Two Donkeys the narrator has a moral message for the reader; “In the light if this anecdote I would like to remind you that he who puts aside all pride acts sensibly and reasonably. No man should be false to his origins” He warns us that change is bad and you have to keep faithful to your origins, it is a very conservative…show more content…
I hope my arguments and proofs have been strong enough to support my thesis. My bottom line in this essay was to be able to show that my opinion about the narrator is solid: He is the ruler of the story. This point of view about the role of the narrator can be easily applied to the real life if we think about it, the narrator is the most powerful tool in the main story, and we, the audience have to be able to discover the truth of the tale. We can enter the game, or just keep outside of it. It is up to the reader, and of course this depends on the knowledge we have, but also on the background we live. Because as Anaïs Nin said; “We don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are” and we are what we know. These stories were Christian and their moral was according to the religious values of the Middle Ages, so people at that time did not question anything, they just believed what they were said. That is the reason why discussing the role of the narrator is important nowadays, because he used to shape the mentality of the audience, and he still does at the moment indeed. As you can see, I talked a lot about ignorance, because it is a real issue that concerns me, and I also think is one of the biggest problems in human mentality. I have decided to apply it to the literature this time and I wish it is at least not too tedious for
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