Sunday, October 19, 2008

Argumentative Paragraph

We read two very different stories; The Knight's Tale and The Miller's Tale. Yet in both stories we read the deadly sins of lust and greed were present. I will tell you how these two stories, yet very different, both included these two factors. In The Knight's Tale two willful knights fight for the love and hand of one fair lady named Emily. This shows lust in the fact that they didn't know anymore about Emily than how she looked. Greed is shown in by the way how Arcita and Palamon go about getting her, Artica wants to win the war that has precipitated between them and Palamon just wants her regardless. The king came up with the idea of this war when he came upon the two of them in the forest he said,
"That each of you shall follow his own quest,
Free of all ransom or of fear of me;
And this day, fifty weeks hence, both shall be
Here once again, each with a hundred knights,
Armed for the lists, who stoutly for your rights
Will ready to battle, to maintain
Your claim to love."
pg 49 lines 810-816
Then there is The Miller's Tale which shows greed and lust in a less honorable light. There is a woman who has a husband but is not faithful to him. This wife, very superficial, shows greed in that she wants more than just her husband and is unfaithful to him which also shows lust. There is a carpenter, he husband, an astrologer, and a priest who all fall for this fair young lady. The astrologer is the sliest of the pursuers makes a heinous story to get to the carpenters wife. He says there is a major flood to come and that only the three of them will be saved he says,
"Your wife and you must hang apart, that in
The night shall come no chance for you to sin
Either in looking or in carnal deed.
These orders I have told you, go, God speed!
Tomorrow night, when all men are asleep,
Into our kneading-tubs will we three creep..."
pg 81 lines 403-408
In these two very different stories we see how both lust and greed are present. Although there are some similarities it shows how there very different people about how they go about getting things and committing these deadly sins in these two stories.


1 comment:

Brian said...

-Replace semicolon with colon to introduce the stories in the topic sentence; You introduce your argument well within the first few sentences

-Nice job incorporating two quotations within the paragraph

-Really focus on keeping voice to third person in this type of writing i.e. take out "I will tell you"

-Nice use of delayed adjectives

-Try to use active voice i.e. "greed is shown"- passive

-After the quotation from the Knight's Tale, wrap up ideas by connecting tale back to greed and lust more; then move on to the Miller's Tale

-rephrase transition between the stories to make them flow more smoothly; don't begin a sentence with"there is", "there are", or "here is"--It's just a weakly structured sentence
-Good explanation of the events in the stories; have more explanation after quotation from Miller's Tale

Nice wrap up in the end of the paragraph to put focus to the argument again.

Grade: 24/25