Happiness and Love: Pursuits of Ancient Literature Essay

Based on the Chinese poems and excerpts from â€Å"The Canterbury Tales,† the driving forces of early and middle cultures are simple human desires- happiness and love. Characters in â€Å"The Canterbury Tales,† nevertheless, have different ideas of happiness and love. Chinese poems, in general, have their happiness hinged on honor, family, and nature. These differences in thinking of these ancient and middle-period authors lead them to make different decisions and have diverse experiences in life. What aided or guided decision making in the middle age were honor and love. In â€Å"The Knight’s Tale,† Arcite and Palamon set aside their friendship, so that they can fight for love and honor. On the other hand, â€Å"The Wife of Bath’s Tale† and â€Å"The Clerk’s Tale† demonstrate opposite views of a wife’s role and position in the family. These stories underscore different ideas of love, wherein â€Å"The Wife of Bath’s Tale† defines love as gender quality, while â€Å"The Clerk’s Tale† interprets love, as a wife’s complete submission to her husband. A number of stories also demonstrate happiness that comes from tricking the trickster, such as in â€Å"The Reeve’s Tale† and â€Å"The Pardoner’s Tale.† Several poems in early Chinese also describe the beauty of preserving honor and love. The family is presented ideally in early Chinese poetry, as a source of honor and happiness. Other poems illustrate Chinese reflection on nature. Tao Quian’s poems, for instance, are poems about nature. In one of â€Å"Returning to Live in the South,† he says: â€Å"My nature’s basic love was for the hills.† Early Chinese literature remarks of honorable driving forces that concentrate on bliss and love. â€Å"The Canterbury Tales† also represent characters that have noble ideas of love and pleasure, although pervading senses of trickery and justice are also dominant themes. Hence, the middle-period literature adds a sarcastic and comic twist to the dignified pursuit of human happiness. Work cited Quian, Tao. Returning to Live in the South. Web. 16 July 2010 .