SOURCE: "The Crucial Passages in Five of the Canterbury Tales: A Study in Irony and Symbol," in The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, Vol. LII, No. 3, July, 1953, pp. 294-311.
Owen is renowned for the textual criticism in his works, Discussions of the Canterbury Tales, Manuscripts of the Canterbury Tales and Pilgrimage and Storytelling in the Canterbury Tales. In the following essay, Owen analyzes symbolic passages in the "Franklin's Tale," the "Merchant's Tale," the "Wife of Bath's Tale," the "Pardoner's Tale," and the "Nun's Priest's Tale" to show how they foreshadow and unify their plots.
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Read the rest of this Criticism with our Geoffrey Chaucer 1340?–1400: Critical Essay by Charles A. Owen, Jr. Access Pass.
