Symbolism In The Wife Of Bath's Tale

Fedrigo’s Falcon and The Wife of Bath’s Tale were written by Boccaccio and Chaucer respectable. Both stories are told inside of their own larger story frames, each consisting of a group of people telling stories to each other. The stories themselves share a common thread, focusing on the significance of sacrifices in the search for love, but differ on the value of the person’s character who does the sacrifice.
In the pair, it is obvious that both stories like to make use of symbolism for their sacrifices. Chaucer symbolism is displayed in the argument between the knight and his new wife. By the end of it, the knight gives into his wife’s demands for power, and she decides to become a “fair and faithful wife” (Chaucer 382). The power struggle is Chaucer’s way to point out that
Chaucer wastes no time destroying the knight's character by having him “By very force” take a women’s “maidenhood”” (Chaucer 139). The knight committed a heinous which back then was punishable by death. He was doing something monstrous, but his later sacrifice was enough to scrub that sin off. Meanwhile, there is Federigo who was giving “far more than he could afford” and threw himself into poverty as “he lost his fortune” (Boccaccio 161). all in the pursuit of getting Monna’s attention. Federigo works hard and gives up everything, and even while in poverty, acts with grace. Those actions are the marks of a good man, not someone who within the first page already had his character tainted with the worst of sins. These differences show a difference in how the two authors viewed sacrifice. Chaucer believed it was all about the sacrifice with even such a vile act being just a footnote for love, while Boccaccio sees sacrifices as just a way to display character. Mona didn’t marry Federigo because he gave away enough money, but because he was a genuinely great man to which his generous gifts were a