The unadorned truth or a dishonest truth? Reflections about the poem “Truth” written by Geoffrey Chaucer

The following paper will be devoted to the analysis of the poem written by Geoffrey Chaucer , Truth with the purpose of discuss the elements included in the poem, which make it contemporary and applicable to today’s world. Besides, this paper will discuss if there is a genuine intention of being honest, just like the poem asks everyone who reads it.

This paper will have the following structure, as a way of presenting the ideas and arguments in a clearer and more organized way. First, it will be presented the central argument of this work, which declares that the poem Truth and its content, still is contemporary and if it can be applicable to today’s world. Second, it will be discussed if the term “truth” and everything that involves it is needed now and why. Then, in the third part of this work will be presented a discussion about the meaning or hidden message of the poem providing current examples regarding to some fragments of the poem, as a way of comparison between today’s life and Chaucer’s poem. In fourth place, this paper will discuss the possible moral contained, in order to provide facts that support the idea of the lesson of the poem. In the fifth part it will be exposed the reason of why this poem was chosen. Moreover, it will be presented the implication of being aware of the content of Truth and its applicability to an EFL classroom. Finally, this paper will present conclusions about the development of this essay.

Now, having exposed the structure of this work, it is significant to start its development. Then, the first question that needs to be answered is presented in the following way: is Truth contemporary? Can we apply it to today’s world? First of all, it is necessary to know what truth is, in order to say if it contemporary or not. Truth is “the quality or state of being true (…) a fact or belief that is accepted as true” (Oxford, 2004). So, one aspect that can be extracted from this quote is that Truth cannot be classified into any specific time or period of time. It is the same to talk about truth two centuries ago than now. For instance, in the time of the old Greece, in the medieval times, twenty years ago or even today, people have the same understanding about the concept of truth. Maybe there are some differences regarding to the assertions of the term itself but its meaning, in the deepest understanding, remains the same. So, this is the first argument that supports the idea of the contemporary of truth. Now, it is necessary to reflect on the idea if we can apply Truth to today’s world. According to the arguments presented above, it can be said that it is applicable for the reason that Truth is timeless and that way, it can be applicable in our current society.

Truth is timeless but that does not mean that our society needs it. So, do we need truth in our world? Why? The answer to this question might be quite intriguing for, if we are living in a world that is corrupted and full of liars, full of people who want to cheat others, where it seems that the only way of surviving and getting someone else’s acceptation is through presenting a friendliness mask, which hides the real and dishonest face, because just very few people are prepared for facing and listening to the truth. So, according to these facts we do need more truth in our lives but, is everybody prepared for it?

After presented the necessity of truth in today’s world, it is relevant to mention the two implications regarding to the meaning given to truth in the poem. The first meaning is related to find it, profess it but as a way of obtaining salvation for a future life in Heaven, which is explicitly in the poem and, the second is to find the truth, profess the truth but not for obtaining the salvation but, for being honest just because. For example, the poem says: “stick to the high road and let your spirit lead you”. Here, Chaucer is explicitly calling people to follow the correct and honest side of truth for; their spirit will lead them to Paradise and also when the poem says: “leave this world from which you are enslaved. Cry mercy to Him” it is, again, calling people to act and behave like good citizens in order to save their souls. However, this assumption may lead people to be false because it would be a dishonest truth, in the sense that people will only try to be honest and good citizens just because they want to be saved from falling in Hell and, consequently they will not be honest just for the reason of being honest. In this sense, the author is presenting Truth as a path to Heaven and not as an end itself.

Subsequent to the explanation of the meaning and the message of the poem Truth, the paper will discuss about the moral implicit on it. When Chaucer, in the first line of the poem, wrote: “Flee from the crowd and dwell with truth”, he is teaching and calling to the reader to follow the path of being honest, he saying that people need to stay away from the unkind crowd. In other words, he is requesting to follow the difficult and lonely road of being honest.

Following to the explanation of the moral, it will be presented the reason of having chosen this poem regarding to its applicability to an EFL classroom as a way of bringing this topic closer to the education field. It was chosen because teaching values in this postmodern society, where personal interests are more important than collective interests, where our fast consumer society has led people to be very individualistic, it is compulsory to humanize the teaching-learning process and, presenting these kinds of poems is appropriate.

As a way of conclusion, it can be said that Chaucer, with his poem Truth, is calling people to be honest but with a purpose; obtaining the salvation. In this way, it is not an honest truth. People should be honest just because, for the reason that just trying to get something in exchange for something it is not the way honesty should be. Our society needs more truth and teaching this inside the classroom, it is a good starting point and that is why Truth is so contemporary and applicable to today’s world.

REFERENCES

Oxford University Press, “Concise Oxford English Dictionary” 11th. Edition 2004

You and I….are two of a kind?

OUTLINE!
1. Introduction about how Jew people were treated in the time the film was settled.
2. Summary of the film.
3. How the otherness and empathy is reflected in Shylock.
4. Opinions about the film.
5. Conclusions about the otherness’ topic that still is a current issue in our society.

The following paper will discuss how Jew people were treated everywhere they lived in order to contextualize the latter arguments that are going to be presented in the text. The film that I saw was The Merchant of Venice. The following arguments of this paper are going to be narrated through the character of Shylock, which is one of the main characters of the film.

When the film starts the first shot that is shown is where a text appears with the following passage: “The Jews were forbidden to own property. So they practiced usury, the lending of money at interest. This was against Christian law”. This opening immediately show us that the only way of living that Jews had was living from lending money because they cannot do anything else but this. So they were forced because of social restrictions and force law to live from the interests obtained from this lending. This helps us to contextualize our understanding of the way of living of Jews in order to not fall into prejudices against Jews.

Then, after this introduction, the films shows the plot which is going to be the developed through different actions within the film. Here, the main struggle is revealed: Bassanio needs money for his conquest because he is in bankruptcy. He needs to travel to another place with the purpose of marrying a lady who owns a huge fortune. So Bassanio decides to borrow money to his best friend Antonio, who is an important Merchant of Venice, but the problem is that Bassanio needs a large amount of money, reason that leads to Antonio to borrow this amount to Shylock, the Venice’s Jewish moneylender. In exchange for the loan Shylock asks for one pound of Antonio’s flesh in case he can’t pay back his debt.

After many events happen, Antonio’s deadline for paying his debt to Shylock came but he can’t pay it so Shylock decides to levy that was agreed. So the case is taken into a court where is decided what Antonio and Shylock must do to solve their contract.

After having summarized the film I am going to discuss how otherness and empathy is reflected in the character of Shylock. This character was always basing his actions according to his beliefs. Shylock represented himself as a resigned person who is almost accustomed to be bad treated by everyone just for being a Jew. In fact, in the film he says: “that’s how our people are used to live, resigned to be badly treated by you, Christians”. In this way, he is declaring his condition but not accepting it. These words implied his odiousness to the way Christians treated Jews.

Shylock was surprised when Antonio asked for his monetary help, he argued Antonio, who used to call him a dog, that: “how a dog can be owner of money? How was it possible that a noble Christian was asking for money to a wicked Jewish?” with this speech Shylock tried to make Antonio understand that now he was considering a person who was not worthy of compassion, according to his Christian beliefs.

When Antonio was not able to pay his debt, Shylock decided to fulfill his part of the contract and he to protested for was he deserved; a pound of Antonio’s flesh. The arguments that Shylock used were that the way that Christians treated Jews taught him to treat Christians, an eye for an eye. If Christians showed him what mercy was, he was going to be merciful with them in the same way that they were.

Through these arguments we can see that Shylock supported his actions in the fact that Christians had their own ways of behaving and thinking, according to their beliefs and that was commonly accepted by everyone. So, in the same way, the way of thinking and behaving of Shylock should be accepted and tolerated by everyone in Venice.

I really enjoyed the film because it made me see the Jews point of view. Unfortunately, it is very common to associate Jews with moneylenders because our assumptions and prejudices about them. But this film taught me that if they were living of the lending, it was because they were forced to do so, they couldn’t do anything else just because they were Jewish. I know that maybe this was not the purpose of the movie but as there are different ways of seeing, there are also many ways of interpreting films.

As a way of concluding this paper I would like to mention that Shylock was always reminding others how they behave and the way others think in order to support his acts reflecting himself in the other. In other words, Shylock pointed out the bad things in others, which was very unpleasant for many people. This is important because many times we do not accept the bad things in ourselves, we tend to think that we are almost perfect but, when someone tells us something against what we believe we tend to criticize that person without accepting the other’s point of view. We should accept what the other thinks about us in order to improve and grow as a person. So, if you and I are two of a kind, why don’t we accept the bad and good things about us?

Comments about the letter to the Faery Queene

First of all, it is important to know that this letter was written with a non-explicit intention. If the reader only follows what words say, he or she can easily loose the attention point and can misunderstand the function of the letter readily. Not everything that it is written must be seen literally but the reader should read between lines in order to get the real meaning of the epistle.

This letter is an allegory which leads us immediately not to rely on what it is explicitly written but we ought to be aware of its intended meaning. The author wrote this with a clear point; get from the Queen the support needed for his resourcefulness. What Spencer is trying to convey is his critique about the social and politic issues of his time. But, he is aware that criticizing directly to the dominant power was a suicidal act. So that is why he decided to write this letter with an intended connotation but that it was hidden behind kind and nice words.

After presenting some aspects of the allegory written by Spencer I am going to give my understanding about what a moral virtue is, in order to discuss my point of view from this term.

Moral virtue has to do with consistency, if a person declares that he or she is going to act according to the moral rules of his/her time this person is bound to the words pronounced by him/her. In other words, the person must do what he/she has said; otherwise this person is not going to be consequent with his/her thoughts and beliefs.

Women... do we really know about them or we just think we know them?

If I’d start thinking about this question without knowing anything about women I would say that women want to be loved above all things. However, this assumption of mine has to do with all the prejudices that we, as men, tend to have towards women. So the first thing that I should do before trying to answer this question is to throw away all kind of preconceptions and wrong thoughts about women. Then I could respond, free of misassumptions.

What women love most is that men know exactly what they really want. Girls hate being almost shouting to men’s faces what they need. They want to have a sensitive but, at the same time, a strong and mature man, who always be there when they need. But not as a way of protecting them but, a man who can be respectful about their thoughts and beliefs without looking down one's nose at them.

Regarding to Chaucer’s tale, the woman described, tried to find all what it was written before. The only problem was that her society was not able to recognize what she really deserved or wanted. She was not an advanced woman, she only fought for what she deserved; her own happiness.