s totally devoted to a beautiful and equally unfaithful wife. In the tale this beautiful woman is having an affair with a friend of her husband. In an attempt to get some time to be intimate with her lover, the woman and her lover orchestrate a plan to get the husband to go away. The woman and her lover tell her devoted and gullible husband that there will be a flood equaling that of Noah, and he must go to the roof, and make boats to save them. In a heartfelt attempt to save his wife, with whom he is totally in love, the husband goes to the roof and makes the boats as he was instructed; this action subsequently leads to his death. Again, the actions of an unfaithful wife lead to the unfortunate death of an innocently devoted man.In a third tale, the reading audience is able to see why women are the downfall of men. In the tale of the Pardoner, a male traveler, the characters in his tale give examples as to why women are the downfall of men. The characters speak of the age-old example of Adam and eve. They explain how if it werent for eve, Adam would have avoided the predicaments he was placed in. Even though Chaucer may not have believed it, one of the prominent themes in his literary work was the idea that women are the downfall of men. It is possible that Chaucer used his tales and book as mirrors of the times in which they were written; in that case, the fact that the theme is present in the book accounts for an obvious presence in society of the time....
