What was most important to people of this time?

People of this time were concerned with educating and bettering themselves. A Journal from the Plague Year is written in a way that shows how people reacted wrongly to the ideas surrounding the bubonic plague, as well as showing the horrors it caused in a analyzing type format to help explain the bubonic plague to people of his time. A Modest Proposal satires the problem with overpopulation by giving a proposal to breed our children for food rather than having to live in poverty to support them, and by writing this he helps bring up the growing population problem.
The events that happened during the Glorious Revolution such as removing King James II to ensure the advancement of British society.

From A Journal of the Plague Year

A journal of the plague year accounts the scenes of someone in London during one of the bubonic plague epidemics. He first explains one of the scariest aspects of the infection, the fact that they had no-clue how they could get it as explained in the first paragraph: "One man who may have really received the infection and knows it not, but goes abroad and about as a sound person, may give the plague to a thousand people, and they to great numbers in proportion, and neither the person giving the infection or the persons receiving it know anything of it, and perhaps not feel the effects of it for several days after." Many believed it was the fury of God and people would continue to look towards religion for help. He also says that the only time anyone was even aware that they had the infection was when they started seeing the rings and swelling in their skin. He also describes many of the horrific scenes people had to deal with, often being able to walk outside to find someone fall to the ground dead in the middle of the street or be awoken by the shriek of horror coming from the lady next door finding her husband or master had hung themselves: "O Lord, my old master has hanged himself!." The death caused by the plague was said to be so bad that when people realized they had the plague, they had no other choice but to give up "sit down, grow faint, and die." Death was also common enough that sometimes people were mistaken to already be dead when they were actually passed out from drinking as what happened to the poor piper in the story.
Many people would try to rid themselves with various cures that for one person involved stripping down immediatly and running into the river where he swam violently to the other side, ran all around the town, and swam back, which apparently cured him by wearing away the swelling and rings by physical activity and using the cold water to get rid of the fever in his blood.
The story ends with a stanza celebrating that he has survived the epidemic in "which swept an hundred thousand souls."
The story gives a very descriptive account on what it might have felt like to have to experience a situation like this over an extended period of time.

A Modest Proposal

A Modest Proposal is apparently a proposal on how to solve the growing population problem. With the ammount of poor having to take care of the growing number of poor-born infants, Jonothan Swift encourages the idea that children start being bred for food. By doing this he thinks that not only would they not have to worry about caring for the growing population, but would also end up having a surplus of food and the economy would grow rapidly. He also believes that not only would it help economic problems but it would help social problems as well, where husband and wives would care much more for their child because of the chance of it being for or be willing to breed their children to sell off to the masses. He thinks this would become a great practice everywhere.
This is a satire because rather than trying to support the growing population, Swift thinks we should use the growing population to support themselves. He also seems to be very enthusiastic about the idea, and that it would in no way be morally wrong to do so.

Satire

A satire is piece of literature or visual art that usually addresses some type of problem or situation going on in the world or in a certain area. It addresses the problem by making fun of it, so it is usually seen as a humorous thing, but often has a deeper meaning behind it to show a certain truth to the situation.
South Park would be one of the biggest satires in television. Almost every single episode is directed towards making fun of political ideas, racism, celebrities, and social groups. They often make fun of the events in such a way that is so rediculous that it shows you how stupid the person or situation really is.
Shows like Family guy could be considered satires as well since their main jokes are usually based off current events.

Ther Glorious Revolution

King James II was having problems agreeing with parliament and religious tolerance. Many of the political parties weren't catholic so King James II started filling in important positions with people who were Catholic to help make sure he could keep control. A group of people met and planned to overthrow this "tyrant race of stuarts." They wanted to replace King James II with his daughter and husband, who were both protestant, rather than the Kings son, who would have been able to help continue the Catholic rule. James the II eventually had to escape which made it easy for William the III to take over, creating a new order for the nation.

This was really important because it was the last catholic ruler. Being under Catholic rule for so long, the Glorious revolution probably made way for a new way of government. Rather than giving the king and his family so much power, William had agreed to not have absolute power and worked with parliament to make decisions. This must have been very important because it was the begining of England's modern day government.

Reflection of the Middle Ages

The stories relfect the middle ages by acknowledging certain beliefs and ideas carried on during those time.


People were not suprised at death in a few of situations in these stories, seen in the line "this world is now ticklish in truth: I saw a corpse being borne to church today, and just last monday I saw the man going about his business." Death became a common thing during these times because of things like the black plague, people were dieing all the time and when someone could not be found it was often reasonable to think they were sick or dead.


The characters in the Canterbury Tales show the distinction of class and nobility amongst different occupations. Every character in the story has a different occupupation and some have certain respect amongst communities, The reeve for example, although a servent to his own lord, had authority over other servants and was more noble because of this.



Religion is also a huge part of the middle ages. Wars were often waged because of religious ideas and would explain how people were so gullible to ideas revolving around them. In the Miller's Tale, Nicholas is able to tell the carpenter that a flood similar to Noah's Flood was coming and that God was giving them the chance to live by surving it. Along with this, keeping your faith was seen as important and in one point in the same tale, Allison explains that if her husband knew she broke her faith she would surely be killed.

Response to The Miller's Tale

The Miller's tale is about a carpenter, his wife, and the two guys who are in love with his wife. The carpenter lets a scholar, Nicholas, live in his house, who has a growing desire for the carpenter's wife. The carpenter had a wife, Allison, who was very young, who he kept around because he was jealous of her for her youth and beauty while he was old and ugly. Nicholas began to have feelings for the carpenter's young wife and decided to confront her in his desires. She at first wouldn't co-operate, but after pleading his love he was able to win her over. She knew she would be killed if her husband found out she was not faithful and so they came up with a plan to get rid of him. Another man has also fallen in love with Allison, Absalom, and he tries to gain her love by singing under her window, which Allison handled as a joke, only having love for Nicholas and having to appear faithful to her husband.

Allison and Nicholas come up with a plan to humiliate the carpenter enough so he will be seen as crazy and not have a chance with Allison anymore. Nicholas locks himself in his room to arouse suspicion of his where abouts. After a day or so, the carpenter confronts Nicholas, where he explains to his master that a flood is coming and that they would need a plan to make sure that he and his wife survive along with him. Nicholas tells him to get tubs and tie them to the roof to prepare for the flood, where they would sneak into them at night and wait till morning for the flood. That night they get into the tubs, and during the silence, Allison and Nicholas sneak out of the tubs and go back to the bed that Allison and the carpenter shared. Once again Absalom tries to win Allisons love by going to her window and begging her for a kiss. Rather than a kiss on the mouth she puts her arse outside the window and he kisses that and senses a beard and realizes the joke being played on him. He leaves the house and goes to the smiths house where he asked to borrow a hot colter and that he would explain himself the next day. Absalom returns to the house where he calls for Allison, asking again for another kiss. This time Nicholas hears him and instead of Allison, puts his own arse out the window, in which Absalom stuck the hot colter and burned Nicholas. Nicholas starts sceaming for water because of the pain, and is heard by the carpenter still lieing in a barrel above the house, who takes it as a sign of the flood. He cuts the rope the tubs are held up by and the tubs fall to the ground. Finding that there is no flood, the carpenter tries to explain himself, but is now forever seen as completely mad.