t is, does the institution serve the people and the State?

Women do not marry before they are 18 and men before 22. Those who indulge in
forbidden embraces, whether before or after marriage, are severely punished. They
believe that if such liberties were condoned, it would discourage people from marrying.
The choosing of a mate is treated as a matter of the greatest importance. Before the
two parties give their final consent, the young woman, accompanied by a sedate
matron, is presented naked to the prospective groom, and under similar circumstances
the young man is exhibited naked to the prospective bride. They consider it strange
that in other countries the parties to a marriage are not permitted such an inspection in
choosing a mate for life. No one, they say, would buy a horse that was covered by a
blanket so that only its head and hoofs were visible.
Divorce is not permitted except in cases of adultery or "insufferable perverseness" of
one party. Provision is made for a couple to separate if they find themselves
incompatible — provided they can obtain the consent of the Senate, but that is
permitted rarely and only after serious deliberation.
If one party in a marriage is found guilty of adultery, he or she is sentenced to slavery,
while the innocent spouse is free to marry again.
It is evident throughout Utopia that the family relationship is emphatically advocated
and that the permanence of matrimony is supported. The concept of romantic love or
the "grand passion" is not brought into the discussion, but it is clear that it was
considered important that the parties should be companionable. Obviously the
Utopians had no use for marriages of convenience because they would have been
based on considerations involving wealth or possibly family titles.
The importance placed on making an educated choice of mates is shown in the
practice of arranging for the exposure of the candidates naked. It is difficult not to
suspect that More was being halfway humorous in his treatment of this passage, and
yet it must be admitted that the practice conforms to the Utopians' habitual emphasis
on a life guided by rational principles.
The difficulties placed in the way of obtaining a divorce conform to the plan for
insuring a high degree of permanence in marriage. More, as a Catholic, would be
expected to treat divorce as a dangerous, last-resort proposition. His views here, if we
may suppose they are his views, may seem conservative by modern standards, but he
makes some surprising allowances for exceptions to the strictly orthodox regulations of
his church. The fact is that the divorce laws have caught up with More's proposals only
in this century and then only in certain countries.

4. What is the status of religion in Utopia? It religion closely connected to the State,
or is it independent? How might Utopian customs imply criticism of European religious
practices?
Hythloday's account of the state of religion in Utopia reveals numerous points of
resemblance to Christianity but also some striking differences from certain religious
practices in 1516. His remote islanders believe in one supreme and omnipotent deity,
and their belief in immortality is very strong. Other resemblances to Christianity are: their
high standard of morality, their priestly caste, their ascetics, their prayers, and their

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hymns. It is not surprising that, when they were instructed in the teachings of Christ, they
found them appealing and were readily converted. The similarities between the two
religions are in matters of ethical teachings and metaphysics, not in those practices
which were criticized most frequently as church abuses.
The points of difference between the Utopian religion and the Christian are sometimes
startling. At the outset, we learn that the Utopians were granted religious freedom and
that a variety of sects were extant, each with its particular doctrines and special
ceremonies. No such liberality was to be found in the Roman Catholic world, which was
firm in its insistence upon the principle of one church and one authoritative doctrine.
The elimination of superstition from the Utopian scene represents an improvement for
which the Christian reformers had long been clamoring.In discussing the priests in
Utopia, Hythloday's first point is that they were men of eminent piety. That remark, under
ordinary circumstances, should be taken as a matter of course; but, considering the
outcries against laxity and corruption among the clergy in Europe, it sounds suspiciously
like an indirect thrust at the Christian priesthood. Then, too, the fact that a relatively few
priests serve the Utopian nation adequately, 13 in a large city, marks a contrast to the
situation in Christian countries. The fact that Utopian priests could marry represents a
departure from the Catholic rule of celibacy. Another surprising contrast to the Christian
rule was that in Utopia, women were sometimes appointed to the priesthood. Finally,
the service of a priest was not required for making confession in Utopia, as was the
absolute requirement in Europe. Hearing confessions was, in Utopia, a family affair.
The ways in which the Utopian religion differs from orthodox Catholicism happen to
conform to modifications recommended by reformers for the Catholic church. The
question naturally arises as to whether or not More was recommending those
modifications along with other reformer-critics, like Erasmus, for example. It is not
possible to prove either that More did or did not subscribe to those changes on the
basis of textual evidence. One group of readers will be convinced that he subscribed
to those "improvements" found in the Utopian system. Other readers, reasoning on the
basis of More's demonstrated loyalty to his Church, will discount the idea of his
supporting those practices and argue that this passage, like the rest of Utopia, should
be considered a fantasy which More did not take seriously.
It is hard to reconcile the almost absolute toleration advocated by Utopia with the
fact that as Chancellor, Sir Thomas More played a central role in intensifying the
persecution of Protestants. Perhaps all that can be done is to quote Hythloday's
comment on the likelihood that a Utopian priest might become unjust or act
irreligiously, "for human nature is subject to change." It is interesting to note, that Utopia
preached toleration in a time just before the Reformation, while Thomas More began to
persecute Protestants after the Reformation had attained full flower. Biographical
information aside, the toleration described in Utopia has a corollary in the writings of

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Erasmus, who went so far as to claim a sort of brotherhood with Muslims, claiming them
as half-Christians and seeing in them less corruption than he often saw in Christians.
The Utopian priests are quite obviously meant to criticize European priests. Utopia
gives two related reasons why there are so few Utopian priests. First, as a means of
keeping up respect for the office, the number of priests is limited. Second, Utopians did
not believe many people were moral or just enough to fulfill the priestly role, and so not
many were made priests.
In Europe, the venality, corruption, and often poor education of priests was a matter
of public knowledge, humor, and criticism. The friar in Hythloday's story of dinner with
Cardinal Morton is a perfect example, a man who barely knew Latin and who was
subject to intense and uncontrollable personal rages. The face of the church was its
priests, and Utopia implicitly claims that the face of the Catholic Church was covered in
numerous warts.
The religious treatment of women is also rather interesting. The practice in which
women must prostrate themselves to their husbands and admit their failings while the
husbands must do nothing in return but forgive seems highly unfair, and demonstrates
an assumption of superiority in the men. This is not all that surprising given the gender
situation in the sixteenth century under which women were subservient to first their
father, then their husband. However, women in Utopia can become priests, and this
would have been shocking to Sir Thomas More's contemporaries. Even today, the
Catholic Church does not allow female priests. At once, Utopia holds an implicit
disregard for women, and offers them the chance at equality.
5.The narrator "More" admits to being dubious about the prospects for actually
achieving the reforms suggested by Raphael's his admiring presentation of Utopian
customs.What,then,is thethe point of writing a story that compares a non-existing
society with real ones?If the point isn't necessarily to change the real societies ,what is
it?What danger lies in not constructing Utopians and making the kinds of comparisons
More offers?
ln Utopia, Sir Thomas More presents to his readers an idealistic portrayal of a nation
employing an egalitarian government sagacious and well traveled Raphael
Hythloday, More describes and evaluates Utopian politics and social values, including
attitudes toward money, work, land ownership, punishment of crime, and poverty. The
author creats a parallels between Utopian society and the sociopolitical structure in
16th century England during the reign of King Henry VIII. Through his description of
Utopia, the reader may discern More's attitude toward contemporary political
situations as well as social laws and customs in Tudor England. The author writes, for
instance, about the dangers of enclosures (which inevitably led to poverty,
unemployment, and crime), the unfairness of capital punishment for theft, the

3
problems that might ensue from capitalism, and the inequitableness of the wide
disparity that existed between the wealthy and the poor. Although More writes about
an idealistic and fictitious nation (Utopia) and 16th century England, his ideas
transcend time and are thus valid in today's society.

III.Wife of Bath

1.How does the Wife of Bath(Alison) objects to the way in which the scriptural authorities
–most of them priests with no direct knowledge of marriage –denigrate what she sees
as an essential feminine „estate” worthy of respect.To what extent is her Prologue (and
even her Tale) a response to clerical attitudes toward marriage and virginity?

In Chaucer's time, the antifeminism of the church was a strong controlling factor.
Women were frequently characterized as almost monsters; they were sexually
insatiable, lecherous, and shrewish, and they were patronized by the church authorities.
Women were not allowed to participate in church doctrine in any way. Likewise, in
Chaucer's time, a second marriage was considered suspect, so the Wife of Bath
carefully reviews the words of God as revealed in scripture. And her knowledge of
scripture (although confused at times) reveals that she is not simply an empty-minded
woman. Nowhere, she confesses, can she find a stricture against more than one
marriage, save the rebuke Jesus gave to the woman at the well about her five
husbands. But this, she confesses, she cannot understand. Furthermore, in Chaucer's
time, perpetual virginity received considerable praise; some of the saints were
canonized because they preferred death to the loss of their virginity, or some struggled
so fiercely to retain their virginity that they were considered martyrs and were
canonized.

After the Wife of Bath departs from the holy scriptures, she appeals to common sense —
if everyone remained a virgin, she offers, who would be left to give birth to more virgins?
The Wife's arguments, in all cases, go against the authorities of the church and that she
is a woman who prefers her own experiences to scholarly arguments. In her "Prologue,"
the Wife of Bath starts out by saying she is a believer in experience rather than authority.
She says, "Experience, though noon auctoritee Were in this world, is right ynough for me"
(Chaucer 117). The Wife of Bath has been married since the age of twelve and has had
five husbands. So she definitely has a lot of experience in the area of sex and marriage.
Therefore, she says that she is a strong believer in experience as opposed to written
authority such as the Bible. She does not see anything wrong with the fact that she has
had five husbands, because she says that even God wants man to increase and
multiply: "God bad is for to wexe and multiplye: that gentil text can I wel understonde"
(Chaucer 117). In fact, she is going on this pilgrimage to Canterbury with the hope of
finding her sixth husband. Even though the Wife of Bath says she is a believer in
experience rather than authority, she often quotes and uses the Bible to support her
ideas and beliefs, though she misquotes more often than not.
The Wife of Bath argues that if God had condemned marriage and wanted people to
be chaste, then where would people come from? If everyone was supposed to be
chaste, then there would be no people and hence, no seed for virginity to grow from.

4
The Wife of Bath believes that everyone has a gift from God, and she thinks her sexuality
is her gift. People are called to different works by God, and hers is her sexuality. She
believes that God has given man sexual organs for both reproduction and pleasure. In
her opinion, God has given her this great sexual instrument, and she will use it as often
as she can. She does not envy virginity, but believes that virginity is perfection and is not
meant for everyone. She says, "I nil envye no virginitee: Lat hem be breed of pured
whete seed, And lat us wives hote barly breed--" (Chaucer 120). The Wife of Bath is
extremely proud of her sexuality and has no regrets; she is perfectly happy being barley
bread. In an age when men had superiority over women and women were totally
dependent on men, the Wife of Bath claims that men owe women the debt of sex in
marriage. The Wife of Bath believes that the husband is his wife’s slave and owes her for
life. She believes that as his wife she has control and power over him and owns his body
and flesh. This is a serious inversion of Church teachings, in which women were
subordinate to men, but oddly enough, the idea of the husband owing the wife the
marriage debt of sex and financial support is found, from an early date, in Jewish
religious texts and law for example; It is, thus, the husband’s duty to pay his wife his
sexual debt for life according to the Wife of Bath. The Wife of Bath is extremely blunt
and open about her ideas and her sexuality. The Pardoner is offended by what she says
and interrupts her to tell her that he was considering marriage, but after what he has
heard, he is grateful that he is still single.

2.In the light of the Wife of Bath’s Prologue, consider Alice’s tale of the rapist kight
condemned to determine „what thing it is that wommen most desiren”.What is the
answer to this question?
In "The Wife of Bath's Tale" the knight is charged with raping a young madien. The king
decrees that his punishment will be death for his crime, but the queen convinces her
husband to change the punishment. Instead, she wants the knight to find out what it is
that women want. She gives him a year and a day to go on a quest to determine what
it is that women most desire. If he can come back and answer the question, she will
grant him his freedom. Luckily, after asking many, many women, the knight is able to
find a woman who knows and tells him that women most desire control over their own
lives.
3.What is Courtly Love?How does it manifest itself in the tale?
While this idea of daring exploits and melodramatic ideals is intriguing, in reality, courtly
love is more of a literary invention. Through works such as Chrétien de Troyes’s Lancelot,
Guilaume de Lorris’s Roman de la Rose, and Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde, courtly love
has evolved from an adventurous race towards love into one of the most important
literary influences in Western culture (“Courtly Love”). While the ideals of courtly love were
highly accepted and almost idealized in medieval society, the origin of these ideals
remains a mystery because the very definition of courtly love is debated among modern
and ancient literary scholars (Wollock 32). Since courtly love is not specifically defined, it
exists in many spectrums.
Geoffrey Chaucer, a poet of the period, comments on courtly love in his work The
Canterbury Tales. Through the use of satiric elements and skilled mockery, Chaucer

5
creates a work that not only brought courtly love to the forefront of medieval society but
also introduced feministic ideals to the medieval society. At times, Chaucer even makes
readers question his beliefs by presenting contrasting elements of principle in The Knight’s
Tale and The Wife of Bath’s Tale, both tales told in his profound, multifaceted The
Canterbury Tales. Many tales of courtly love are also tales of chivalry. Chivalry began to
develop in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and since then, chivalric literature has
existed as one of the main sites of human rights and social criticism (Wollock 266). In
chivalric theory, an honorable knight gives respect to others in all matters of action and
of speech (267). Chaucer describes the knight in The Canterbury Tales by saying, “He
nevere yet no vileynye ne sayde / in al his lyf unto no maner wight. / He was verray, parfit
gentil knyght” (Chaucer 70-72). While Chaucer’s knight is not a true example of courtly
love, for Chaucer assigns the Squire that trait, he does possess the qualities of chivalry,
which allow him to present a story of courtly love in his tale. While courtly love may seem
like a fixation of the ancient past, the model courtship, in which two young people fall in
love and eventually get married after a series of personal trials and tribulations, still exists
today (Wollock 213).

V.Everyman

1. What are misteries; what are moralities? What is psychomachia psychomachia?

Mystery play, one of three principal kinds of vernacular drama in Europe during
the Middle Ages (along with the miracle play and the morality play). The mystery
plays, usually representing biblical subjects, developed from plays presented in
Latin by churchmen on church premises and depicted such subjects as the
Creation, Adam and Eve, the murder of Abel, and the Last Judgment.

Morality play, also called morality, an allegorical drama popular in Europe

Psychomachia is the conflict within the soul, or between the soul and the body;
an instance of this; a literary or artistic representation of such a conflict.

The Ars Moriendi, or "art of dying," is a body of Christian literature that provided
practical guidance for the dying and those attending them.

2. How is allegory used in Everyman? How many different categories of allegory do

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 The premise is that the good and evil deeds of one's life will be tallied by God after
death, as in a ledger book. The play is the allegorical accounting of the life of
Everyman, who represents all mankind. In the course of the action, Everyman tries
to convince other characters to accompany him in the hope of improving his
account. All the characters are also allegorical, each personifying an abstract
idea such as Fellowship, (material) Goods, and Knowledge. The conflict between
good and evil is dramatised by the interactions between characters. Everyman is
being singled out because it is difficult for him to find characters to accompany
him on his pilgrimage. Everyman eventually realizes through this pilgrimage that
he is essentially alone, despite all the personified characters that were supposed
necessities and friends to him. Everyman learns that when you are brought to
death and placed before God, all you are left with is your own good deeds.

3. With what new companions does Good Deeds tell Everyman to replace his
original companions? What is the difference between these two sets of friends?
What message are we meant to draw from the substitution? What is the message
given by the play concerning the value of human qualities such as strength,
beauty, intelligence and knowledge?

When Everyman's friend Fellowship hears of the true nature of Everyman's journey,
he refuses to go. Everyman then calls on Kindred and Cousin and asks them to go
with him, but they both refuse. In particular, Cousin explains a fundamental reason
why no people will accompany Everyman: they have their own accounts to write
as well. Afterwards, Everyman asks Goods, who will not come: God's judgment will
be severe because of the selfishness implied in Goods's presence.

Everyman then turns to Good Deeds, who says she would go with him, but she is
too weak as Everyman has not loved her in his life. Good Deeds summons her sister
Knowledge to accompany them, and together they go to see Confession. In the
presence of Confession, Everyman begs God for forgiveness and repents his sins,
punishing himself with a scourge. After his scourging, Everyman is absolved of his
sins, and as a result, Good Deeds becomes strong enough to accompany
Everyman on his journey with Death. Good Deeds then summons Beauty, Strength,
Discretion and Five Wits to join them, and they agree to accompany Everyman as
he goes to a priest to take sacrament.

4. Everyman is about to embark on a long journey repeatedly referred to as a

God laments that humans have become too absorbed in material wealth and
riches to follow Him, so He commands Death to go to Everyman and summon him
to heaven to make his reckoning. Death arrives at Everyman's side to tell him it is
time to die and face judgment. Upon hearing this, Everyman is distressed, so begs

7
for more time. Death denies this, but will allow Everyman to find a companion for
his journey.

The play is the allegorical accounting of the life of Everyman, who represents all
mankind. Everyman tries to convince other characters to accompany him in the
hope of improving his account. The conflict between good and evil is dramatised
by the interactions between characters. Everyman is being singled out because it
is difficult for him to find characters to accompany him on his pilgrimage.
Everyman eventually realizes through this pilgrimage that he is essentially alone,
he learns that when you are brought to death and placed before God, all you
are left with is your own good

After the sacrament, Everyman tells them where his journey ends, and again they
all abandon him, except for Good Deeds. Even Knowledge cannot accompany
him after he leaves his physical body, but will stay with him until the time of death.
Content at last, Everyman climbs into his grave with Good Deeds at his side and
dies, after which they ascend together into heaven, where they are welcomed
by an Angel. The play closes as the Doctor enters and explains that in the end, a
man will only have his Good Deeds to accompany him beyond the grave.

The cultural setting is based on the Roman Catholicism of the era. Everyman
attains afterlife in heaven by means of good works and the Catholic Sacraments,
in particular Confession, Penance, Unction, Viaticum and receiving the Eucharist.