Jane Eyre vs. Wide Sargasso Sea

VS.

Comparing Novels:

These two novels have quite a bit of similarities, yet they differ a lot as well. Similarly, they are both on the same type of story just with point of view from a different character. Jane Eyre is from the view point of Jane who eventually marries Rochester. Rochester was originally married to Bertha. Wide Sargasso Sea is the story of Antoinette who is really Bertha. It was really interesting to read these two stories and to see it from the perspective of differing characters. I thoroughly enjoyed reading both of them, although I was sort of disappointed with the ending of Wide Sargasso Sea, because I wanted everything to work out for her. Some other similarities I saw, were that Rochester was pretty much still the same person that he was in Jane Eyre. He was still the same rude, indifferent man in WSS that he was in Jane Eyre. The way that Bertha did in Jane EyreI was the same way that Antoinette died in WSS.

There were several differences that were quite noticeable as I read both of these books. First off was the name difference. I wonder why Jean Rys decided to change her name, it just seemed wierd to me. Secondly was the time change. WSS's setting was set before emancipation, which differed to Jane Eyre. Lastly, was my perspective as a reader. When I read Jane Eyre I didn't feel bad for Bertha because I really believed that she was crazy. When I read WSS, my opinion was completley changed. After reading it, I felt as if she was not crazy until the end and that Rochester was really the one that made her turn crazy. In Jane Eyre I totally thought that Bertha was really crazy, but after reading WSS, I felt that it was the complete opposite. These were just a couple of the differences that I noticed as I read both of these books.

Overall, I was glad that I read both of these books, because reading WSS helped me to better understand Jane Eyre. They were both really interesting and actually kept my attention as I read both of them. Also, they were fun topics to discuss in class, because we could relate the two books to the same story. Even though I was left with disappointment after reading them, I still really enjoyed reading both of them!!!

Explotation vs. Exploration

This picture shown above I really liked and thought that it would be perfect for this topic. I picked this picture of jelly beans because it describes our race, ethicity and gender. It shows that everyone is different, for we all are different sizes and our skin types. I just felt it was a perfect symbol for this topic.

Race/Gender/Ethnicity:

In Jane Eyre and Wide Sagrasso Sea, there are some prominent relationships between race, gender and ethnicity. For starters Bertha also known as Antoinette is mix of english and native. Throughout Wide Sagrasso Sea she seems to be lost with her identity for she doesn't fit in with neither the english nor the natives. This seems wierd to me because nowadays it is more prominant and completely accepted. Back then it was looked down upon, therefore noone would consider you part of their race. Also, the fact that she is a female doesn't help her one bit. The discussion of gender can go back to some of our earlier books such as Robinson Crusoe which is a great example of gender differences. In this novel girls are portrayed upon as objects that are used by the men when they want them. Throughout the whole book women are mentioned a total of 2 times. The first time is a good mentioning with the widow holding on to Crusoe's fortune, but the second time is for prostetution. In Jane Eyre, Jane is portrayed as this innocent girl who is not very cute, and who is fragile. Just gives off the vibe that all girls are this "stereotypical" girl, which is beyond true. This just goes to show the time, and the manner of what people felt was womens jobs and placement in the world. As for ethnicity, it makes me think back to Othello, and how we had a huge debate about whether or not O was thought to be different because of his race and ethnicity. Overtime these attributes about people are more excepted by our society. This just goes to show that exploration and explotation is more cleary understood, and can more can be exlpored because people have more rights and liberties.

Jane Eyre: Novel vs. Movie

The story of Jane Eyre is a unique and different story that was written by Charolette Bronte. In the novel Jane was described as a young orphan who lived with extended family that didn't want her. They would store her away in the "red room," if she didn't do exactly what they said or was being punished for any reason. The family also beat her as well, and they just showed no care or support for her at all. This was shown through the movie as well. Although I would prefer the novel over the movie anyday, because it is easier to understand and not as boring. Overall I thought the movie was fairly boring considering that it was nearly 4 hours long. It showed alot of the charactersitics of Jane from in the book. It was basically an overview of her life, just less descriptive and not as well told. Although the movie did help me to understand the novel just a little bit more, I still felt like it was nowhere near as good. Its kind of just like Othello, because i thought that the novel was much better, but the movie helped to put everything together and to just make it all that much more clear. I liked how Jane was shown as a strong girl who was searching for her independence all throughout her life. She strived to better herself, and didn't want to settle for less. For example, by her not marrying him because of his first marriage with Bertha. Therefore she went out on her way to make something more of herself. Although it made me happy to see that in the end she got what she wanted and her and Rochester finally got together. I feel this way because I could sense that deep down Rochester was good, and that he had all the right intentions, but they just seemed to come out the wrong way. I really did enjoy reading and wathing these two versions of the novel, all in all, I feel that this was an interesting story and it is one of my favorites out of the novels that we have read thus far.

Robinson Crusoe Thesis

Thesis: Robinson Crusoe seems to have not changed throughout the course of the novel for he is still sef-centered, rude and controlling.



"I sent seven women." p. 220
This quote just goes to show that at the end of the novel he still has litte respect for women. In this quote he just speeks of women as a object that is just for the men to use on the island. This is a perfect example of how much Crusoe didn't change throughout the novel.



"When the captain was gone, I sent for the Men up to me to my apartment." p. 199
Basically this shows that he is in charge and that is controlling. This quote is shown at the end so it just goes to prove that he only cares about himself and wants service to himself.



"I order'd Friday, and the Captians Mate, to go over the little Creek Westward." p.190
All that I have to say about this quote is the word "ordered." Who is he to think that he can just boss around everyone and just order them around. He is no higher rank in life than any of these men, therefore I just dont understand where he gets it from.



"O, Master." p. 181
This is Friday calling him his master. Friday is a savage and there is no reason why he should be calling Crusoe his master. It just makes no sense. This just proves that he wants all attention on him, and that he wants everyone to follow only him and to do him service.




"I ask'd him how he throuhgt they would recieve a Proposal from me, which might tend towards an Escape?" p. 176
In this quote he is talking about Friday when he is scared that he is going to run away from him, but he says that he is his slave and that he will not allow him to. This just goes to show how controlling he is over a person. This quote really does make me believe that he really hasn't changed one bit.






"I had secur'd my two weak Prisoners."
Here he is speaking of the other natives in which he is taking in to be his slaves. This just continues to bother me that he simply just doesn't care. I think that my biggest problem with this would be that he treats all of them as his slaves, but he thinks that they are all just best friends only because he provides them shelter.



"The next day I set him to work." p. 154
Crusoe talks about the continuous work load he gives for Friday to complete. Just another example of how much he has not changed.




"I return'd to my Castle." p. 152
Here he is referring to the island as his castle and that he is the king of it, and that Friday is just one of his servants. I guess that maybe 28 years on an island could make one go a little crazy and his was that he thought that he was king.



"first i made him know his name should be Friday." p. 149
Basically Crusoe names him based on the day that he finds him. This sounds more like a pet name and is not a normal human name. It is a good symbol for how he treats him throughout the book, because he basically treats him as his pet.

Shipwrecked

The Queen Anne's Revenege:

http://www.qaronline.org/archaeology/QARSiteMap1.pdf

This website listed above shows a map of what is remaining of the Queen Anne's Revenge. This map is shown in great detail and gives a great showing of where everything is located on the bottom of the ocean floor. Edward Teach, mostly known as Blackbeard was the pirate in charge of this ship which was sailed during the year of 1718. It was considered to be the largest pirate ship to sail the Spanish Main. It wrecked June of 1718 at Beaufort Inlet, North Carolina. Blackbeard used his ship to win over nearly 18 other ships. The Queen Anne's Revenge was considered to be his biggest and most useful weapon. Some say that she was most likely launched in Great Britain in 1710, during the War of the Spanish Succession known as The Queen Revenge's War. Although it is not for sure, it is documented that this ship was once known as the Concord, until it was captured by the French in 1711. The Concord, was one of the ships that Blackbeard had stolen and then renamed it to The Queen's Revenge. He used her in the blockade of Charelston in May of 1718. It is said that this victory was his greatest achievement as a pirate. Not much information is known on the actual wrecking of the ship, but it is said that a couple of days after the victory at Charleston she was taken aground and was to be never seen again.

http://www.unc.edu/depts/cmse/science/Blackbeard.html

http://www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/sections/maritime/Blackbeard/flute-black2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/sections/maritime/Blackbeard/qar.htm&h=330&w=261&sz=30&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=oVdBWfUmvJKouM:&tbnh=119&tbnw=94&prev=/images%3Fq%3DThe%2BQueen%2BAnne%2527s%2BRevenge%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den

Columbia River Shipwrecks:

During the 1700's there was several ship wrecks which occured near the Columbia River. More than 200 have been documented shipwrecks which occured in this specific area. This is tremendously large amount considering that it is just a river. During 1776-1777, there were several missions which included the crossing of this river, leading to the large amount of shipwrecks in this area. There was one shipwreck which was known to have survivors which landed is nowaday Oregon and were attacking by Indians. Supposidly they hid their treasure along the shore. This is spectical because none of it has been found, well at least not reported. Basically this is saying that the buried treasure chests could have been found by people who just decided to not report it. Though most dont believe that this could happen, but nowadays you just never know.

http://www.nwcouncil.org/history/images/shipwrecks.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.nwcouncil.org/history/Shipwrecks

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

After reading The Rime of the Ancient Mariner I was sort of interested in learning a bit about the life of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. I wanted to see what led to his writing of this interesting poem, and to learn a little bit about him. I decided to do something a little different this time, and look up one main website. From these websites I will try and find out as much information about him that I possibly can. This will not only help me to understand more about the author and his lifetime, but how to compare good and not so good websites.

Sameul Taylor Coleridge:

Coleridge was born October 21, 1722 in Ottery St Mary, Devonshire. Believe it or not he was the youngest of 10 children. There seems to be not enough information about his childhood years. Information is very scarce and is lacks several key years. From these several websites stated below I found an okay amount of information. There was little to none about his childhood. Basically what was already mentioned is all that was in the text. I could find a goood amount of information about his learning experiences and how he became a literature writer. He went to a Christ's Hospital School located in London and later transferred to Jesus College. After this he got married to Sara Flicker who sadly, he was not in love with. Coleridge's first writings came out in 1776. These were known as the Poems on Various Subjects. His brothers helped out with the money situation and helped him to get on his feet and be able to do his literature. It is known that he had a start of a good relationship with Dorothy and William Wordsworth. Meeting these people helped to lead him to his writing of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. After this he started to secretly fall in love with Sara Hutchinson and ended up writing a couple of literary poems on her. It was later found that he was addicted to opium and was debating to commit suicide. Even though some of his work was left unfinished, it was still later published. He ended up dying for what seems to be an unknown reason, but his death occurred in London on July 25, 1834. This is just a little bit of the information that I was able to gather up about him. It seems he was a pretty interesting fellow. Although websites really seem to lack in information; the first website shown below gives a pretty good analysis of his life through a timeline.


http://etext.virginia.edu/stc/Coleridge/resources/time_line.html
http://www.online-literature.com/coleridge/

Othello Thesis

My Thesis:


Even though Othello wrongly accused Desmonda, she still showed great love for him by not ratting him out for her soon to be death, by sticking up for him, and being faithful.


I picked this topic because it was of my interest as to why she still loved him so, after all of the hateful things he had said and done to her. After all of this she still managed to show great love for him, and let everyone know it during her final words. To me there is only so much that you can take of verbal abuse and accusations. She didn't even seem to care about that fact that he just listened to his friend, and didn't even bother to go and ask her for himself. This astonishes me, because I know that if I was in her position, I wouldn't feel as if I was in a marriage, but in a high school fling. It just makes no sense to me at least. Then again, maybe she had such strong feelings for him that nothing he could ever do would ever change the love that she had for him. That is something so rare that it is rarely found in modern today. Here are some examples that prove that Desmonda was still in love with her husband despite his accusations:

Act 4, scene 2, 176:
Desmonda says,
"What shall I do to win my Lord again?"

This is a really good example of how she loves him so. First off she is proving that she would do anything to win him back, and to prove that she is innocent, and is completely faithful to him.

Act 4, scene 3, 12-15:
Desmonda says,
"He says he wil return incontinent, and hath commanded me to go to bed and (bade) me to dimiss you."

This is just another example showing how she would follow anything that he tells her to. She would do anything for him, because he is her true love.

Act 4, scene 3, 59-61:
Desmonda sings,
I called my love false love, but what said he then?
Sing willow, willow, willow.
If I court more women, youll couch with more men-

Basically, this is a song that Desmonda is singing to Emilia about her relationship with Othello. Even though she loves him so, she is worried as to why he is acting wierd to her.
Act 4, scene 3, 88-89:
Desmonda says,
" Beshrew me if I would do such a wrong for the whole world."

Right here Desmonda is talking about when she was called a whore by Othello. She is asking Emilia if she really is this, and if she is then to "breshew" her.

Act 5 scene 2, 49:
Desmonda says,
" They are loves I bear to you."

This is talking about when Othello asks her about the sins in which she has commited, and she states that the only sin of wrong would be that she has loved him too much.

act 5, scene 2 , 51-55:
Desmonda says,
"That death's unnatural that kills for loving. Alas, why gnaw you so your nether lip? Some bloody passion shakes your very frame. These are protents, but yet I hope, I hope they do not point at me."

This shows that she believes that if he does love her as she loves him then he would not point his sword at her.

act 5, scene 2, 73-76:
Desmonda says,
"And have mercy too. I never did offend you in my life, never loved Cassio but with such general warranty of heaven as I might love. I never gave him a token. "

Here she is trying to convince him of her love for him, and to prove that she never did anything with Cassio, and that he himself is the only one who she has ever given herself to and has loved.

act 5, scene 2, 151-153:
Emilia says,
"O, who hath done this deed?"
Desmonda says,
"Nobody. I myself. Farewell. Commend me to my kind Lord. O, farewell."

This is the moment in which Desmonda could have told on her husband for killing her, but instead she told Emilia that she did it herself. Therefore sticking up for her husband. This is where I find it every interesting and is one of my favorite parts of this act.


Act 5, scene 2, 165-166:
Emilia says,
"Thou art rash as a fire to day that she was false. O, she was heavenly true."

This is after the fact that Desmonda is dead, and is when Othello is finally finding out that his wife was truly faithful to him. Here Emilia tells him that she was only just heavenly true to him the whole time.

Overall, these are just a few of the examples that help to support my thesis. I could say that from this it is easy to conclude that Desmonda was truly, truly in love with her significant other, and would do absolutely anything for him. It's just sad how everything had to work out in the wrong for her, because she was total faithful and a good wife to Othello.

O v. Othello

O: Summary(my opinion)

The movie O, is a more modernized version of Othello, that was made for students like us to be able to better understand the writings of William Shakespeare. In this version, all of the characters are in high school, and it is portrayed through a basketball team. Basically, there is deception, lies, betrayols, several murders, and a suicide. This all occurs behind due to one student, Hugo. He is jealous of his friend O, who is the only african american student at his school, yet his father seems to show more love for this young man, than for his own son. To hugo, this is hurtful. Hugo decides to manipulte all of his friends into ruining O's life. He does this by using O's girlfriend Desi. O and Desi are a pretty close couple, viewers know this by the scarf that O gives her. Hugo starts up this lie saying that she is not a virgin and was sleeping around with one of their buddies. At first O doesn't believe it, but after a while, his mood changes and he finally believes his buddy. Together Hugo and O plot against Desi and their basket ball buddy. Their plan ends up messing up and several others are killed including: Desi, her roomate, Hugo's accomplise, and then O commits suicide. Overall, this movie really helped me to take in the Othello story and apply it to todays lifetime. It really did help me alot to put everything together, and made everything make much more sense.

Othello: Summary(my opinion)

The story of Othello is alot like the movie, just in the historic times. The difference is that it is placed on an island and they are in the military. It basically shows the same deception that Iago does upon Othello, as well as all of his other friends too. The one big difference is the hankershief and that everyone in the play are already married. In the movie the hankerchief was O's grandmothers and he was supposed to pass it down to the one that he loves. In Othello, the hankershief symbolizes virginity I believe. At least this is what Shakespeare leads his readers to believe. Cassio, which is was the lutienant who had his job taken away is the guy in which Othello believes is sleeping with his wife. One of the reasons that Othello believes Iago's manipulative lies are because he steals the hankercheif and gives it to Cassio. This instantly makes Othello believe all of Iago's comments about them sleeping together.

In Comparison:

Overall, I feel that watching the movie really helped me to better understand the Othello play. Without help, it is pretty hard to understand, but the movie helped to clarify anything that I was having problems with. I still feel sort of unsure of why exactly Othello believed Iago over his wife. If someone is your wife then you should at least respect them enough to come to then with any conflict in which you may have. The play leads me to believe that maybe they didn't have that strong of a relationship to begin with. If you truly love someone you will abide in their trust and not believe others over them. It doens't hurt at least ask, but accusing without even speaking a word to your significant other show complete disrespect. Why did Othello not have enough trust in his wife?

Another question that I have would be that why did Shakespeare decide to write suck a sorrowful story. I know that all of his plays portarys sorrow, but why? Also, I wonder what the deal is with the birds in the movie? It just doesn't make any sense to the plot or purpose of the story. Maybe there is something that I'm just missing, but it sort of confuses me. It could be possible that maybe the birds are Hugo's symbol of how he feels. I believe that at the end of the movie, that his final speech included the talk of the birds. He mentioned that he would fly away like the birds and be free. It could be a possibility that the birds are his symbol, and are his way of relating to something.

For the most part these are my only questions that I have thought of thus far. Overall, I feel that Othello and O are very close versions, just one is made to the modern day, so we can better understand what Shakespeare was really getting at in his play.

The Life of Sir Thomas More

http://www.wf-f.org/

This specific website helped me to find major events that occured in More's lifetime. Sir Thomas More was born on February 7, 1478 in Milk Street, London. More went to Oxford to contiue his education under the instruction of Thomas Linacre, and William Grocyn. At Oxford he studied Greek and Latin literature. He became a barrister in 1501, which is considered to be a lawyer of England. More's lifelong friend was Desiderius Erasmus. Together they did many different writings of literature. One major thing that More did was help Henry VIII in the writing of Defence of the Seven Sacraments. He resigned from the law in 1532 because of ill health, but some say that it is because of his dissaproval of Henry VIII view on the church. For the most part this is a summary of what I learned by reading about More's lifetime. Although it was a good website, I still felt like I could have learned alot more. Overall this was a pretty good website, just left me a little uninformed. Overall, I would rate this website a 5 out of 10.
http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/morebio.htm

This next website had a very helpful timeline. It listed all of the major events in More's life through a timeline, and for a reader that is a lot easier to understand than reading about each of these events all jumbled up. Fromt this website I learned that he was married to a girl named Jane Colt, in 1505, who he has 4 children with. She passed away in 1511, and he married again a month later to Alice Middleton. Also, this site gives me a little more information as to why More really did resign. It states that he didn't support Henry VIII's divorce from Catherine and Anne Boyln. More was convicted of treason and was beheaded on July 6, 1535. As you can tell it seems that I learned quite a bit from this website. I liked this one alot better than the first one. Once I finished reading, I felt as if I had recieved just enough information about More. Overall, I would have to rate this website a 8 out of a 10.

http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/philosophers/more.html

This website was fairly plain and boring, but had great amounts of information. Unlike the other first two, this website talks a little bit more about his personality, and actually describes him as a person. For instance they mention that More is "a man of singular virtue and of a clear unspotted conscience." After reading the information on this website I felt as if I knew him better as a person and not only as someone who was well known for his writings. Even though this website is sort of bland and is alot of reading, I enjoyed it mostly because I felt better informed about More's actual personality, and what he was really thinking when he did his writings. Overall, I would say that I rate this website a 7out of 10.

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/16Croper-more.html

This next website was also very helpful in the sense that it was about More's trail against treason. Even though the other websites talk a little about his trial, this website only really talks about the trial, and goes into great detail. I also learned that right before More was executed he said his closing statment: "I very well remember the case and if I were to decide it now, I would make the same decree." This statement was mentioned in the other websites, but the actual quote was not said. This website was quite interesting, because it helped me to find out the real reasons to More's trial and issues with Henry VIII. Overall, I would rate this website a 8 out of 10.

http://www.duhaime.org/LegalResources/LawMuseum/tabid/345/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/112/The-Trial-of-Sir-Thomas-More-1535.aspx

My Thesis

While reading the Wife of Bath(WOB) Prologue and Tale, I have learned quite a bit about the WOB's personality. I feel that Chaucer wants his readers to be confused about his writings, therefore he makes it so people have to come up with their own opinion about the WOB. Sitting through the British Literature class, and hearing everyones different opinions, and how they felt about her, helped me to come up with my own opinion. I have come to a neutralized conclusion, for I feel that she should be considered both good as well as bad.
Throughout the Tale and Prologue, I came to find several lines that could help to support my opinion that she is a "bad" person. One of which is where Chaucer gives evidence to support that the WOB is a cheater. She states, "Have though ynogh what thar reache or care. How myrily that othere folkes fare?"(ln. 329-330). Basically in this line the WOB is telling the readers, that as long as she gives her husband all that he wants, then why should it matter if she gets more? Also she brags quite a bit about her classy look and her clothing style(ln. 356). The WOB states in the beginning of the Prologue that she likes to give charity, but only if she is the first to give (ln. a450-a451). If she is not the first to give, then she gets angry and doesn't want to give any money anymore (ln.a450-a451). Pretty much what she is saying here is that she cares about her image and wants to make sure that people see that she is doing good. One of the biggest reasons that most readers could have a set opinion on the WOB being bad would be the simple fact that she was married five times. Even after her five marriages, she still continued on to find another one. These are just a couple of examples that I found to support that the WOB could be looked at as a "bad" person.
On the otherhand, there are several lines which show that the WOB should be considered a "good" person as well. First off, it must be taken into consideration that she was wedded for the first time at age 12 (ln. 4). This is a ligitamite excuse for her having as many husbands as she did, for maybe marriage is where she found comfort, because it was all she was known to. Although there is reason to believe that she is a liar, there is just as much evidence to show that she was truthful as well (ln. 194-195). The WOB states that she does not go and sleep around with other men, because she is faithful. She states, "That in his owene grece I made him frye, For angre and for verray jalousye," (ln. 487-488). Another example of her being a "good" person would be where she states that her and Jankyn were in love, and had redemed their love for one another (ln. 718). These are just a few of the many examples that exemplify that the WOB was indeed a "good" person.
Overall, this is how I have come to my own opinion on the WOB behaviors and characteristics. With this evidence that I have shown great reason to believe that she is neither good nor bad person, but both. Not everyone is perfect, and the WOB is definitely not perfect that is for sure, but she still has her moments when she shows that she actually does care. The WOB is a different character for sure, but I believe that is exactly what Chaucer wanted. I feel that he wanted his readers to be have to sit down and look at the good and the bad of her personality. Therefore, I feel that with my information I have fully informed and backed up my own personal opinion on this matter.

Chaucer and the 19th Century Women

Throughout my search for information on the women of the 19th century and Chaucer, I ended up finding some quite useful information. In the website shown below, I was able to find out a little bit of information about Chaucer. Though he was an amazing writer, it seems that he left most of his work incomplete. To the public, Chaucer led an unfinished life as well, for we seem to not have much information on him at all. Chaucer tends to leave all of his readers left hanging and likes to confuse them by portraying two different sides to the story. It has also been said that he never completely finished the Canturberry Tales, he still one of the most historically well known writer of the past times. Reading over this website helped me to learn just a little bit more about Chaucer and his life. It helped to show me that although he seemed unfinished, made it through great accomplishments in his lifetime.

www.universalteacher.org

This website shown below gave me alot of different insights on the treatment and lives of the 19th century women. I learned that the women back then are like day and night compared to the women presently. Back then women were known as the housekeepers, and were for the most part not aloud to hold a job. The literature that was published back then was known to provoke the stereotypical house wife portral of women. Also, I learned that most women then had health disasters and were considered to be lacking in keeping up a healthy lifestyle. Overall, I found out some really interesting information from this website.


http://www.connerprairie.org/historyonline/1880wom.html

This website helped me to also locate more information on Chaucer and his life. It states that not only did Chaucer not finish the Canturberry Tales, but most of his work was incomplete as well. This astonishes me, for I believe that maybe he did this on purpose. Maybe he wants his readers to feel as if they need to use their imagination and to finish the story themselves. This is a unique style of writing, but it seemed to work out in his best interests. Also I think that it is pretty cool that people still have some of the oldest manuscripts dating back to the 15th century, which is pretty interesting. Overall I feel that I have learned alot from these three resources, and I feel pretty informed on the life of Chaucer and the life of women in the 19th century.

http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/chaucerbio.htm