Instincts/Six Sense
The Nuns priest tale could also be categorized as a beast tale or beats epic. Beast tales consist of an allegorical story in which the animals are represented as being human. The idea is to get these creatures to symbolize certain ideas the author may be trying to get across without making to easy to reveal, and trying to purse a deeper meaning. One main theme in the Nuns priest tale would be to trust be trust your instincts. Our instincts are a gut feeling and our inner-voice that could be considered a six sense that emerges through our dreams, our hopes and perhaps even through dejavu. The dilemma is what to do with these thoughts or emotions do we use them to guide our choices and actions or do we ignore them. In this case Chanticleer the rooster takes his wife's advice to ignore it instead of listening and trusting his six sense.
Anti Feminism
The Nuns priest tale also consists of anti feminism. During this time Geoffery Chaucer demonstrates the fact that woman were seen to make men unworthy of making the right decisions. Woman were clouding mens decisions and giving them very poor judgment. I see this theme through out the poem as Chanticleer does allow his wife to tell him what he should do about his dreams, and allows her to control his choices. Chaucer also does clarify that he does not think this way of woman but it is of the character Chanticleer who these thoughts of woman come from. In my opinion I would think that he used woman to hide from his own mistakes, being able to blame his actions on what his wife has told him or said. This helps him because he can then accuse her of her thoughts, to become completely innocent of his own doing, this is antifeminism.
Irony
There is a sense of irony in the poem the nuns priest tale. It continues all through the poem but a certain irony that stands out would be, Starting with the fact that Chanticleer the rooster is also seen as representing the priest, and also the author in this poem. An example of this would be that fact that the author says he is not anti feminist, the character of the rooster is. Yet we see him as the rooster, this is very ironic and superstitious. Making you think twice about what you are reading, and leaving you a little confused at the same time. At the end of the poem Chanticleer end’s up getting away from the fox’s grip, and the author says to never listen to woman because they cloud a mans judgment. In his dream he was killed and by the end of the poem he had escaped from the fox, which puts the woman in the place that she was nor wrong or right.