MODF: In my AP class one essay option was a creative assignment- To mimic Chaucer's style in 'The Canterbury Tales', (not language but style) in creating a prologue for a character that I made up. I was meant to develop him in a short prologue, and write a tale that such a person may tell.
Info: Odd symbolism- Surface meaning not difficult to comprehend but deeper meaning below that quite difficult.
I got an A- on this!
Warnings: May cause depression- Not a happy tale.
Disclaimer: I do not own 'The Canterbury Tales.' I am neither that talented or that old. Duh.
'The Teacher's Prologue'
I came to join the group on the pilgrimage to Canterbury not long ago, and it was not too long after that another man came into our group (however briefly). He was a teacher at a school in a place far from where we were at the time. He was steady on his horse, taking control of the reigns with a harsh precision. He said that he often traveled, making pilgrimages of these sorts in search of something, although no one was quite sure what he was searching for.
The pilgrim's eyes were black and glittered like obsidian rocks beneath a dark brow. His nose was centered and defined; his skin quite dark. His body was muscled for a school teacher, more like that of one who takes part in vigorous exercise or perhaps large amounts of walking, and he was almost always covered in a long, black cloak, much like a death shroud, giving him the look of a reaper with a menacing air. When he smiled, or rather, if he smiled, it was a frightening sight, dripping with enough malice to make a grown man's skin crawl, even when the smile is meant well. He spoke not often, but when he did his voice was a deep baritone, accented by his childhood spent in Bulgaria and tinted with some sort of raw hatred for the world.
He sneered at members of the church who begged for collections, and children fled in fear of his stare. He was a chilling man, a dark man, a cynical and brooding man. It was with malice in his smile, and eyes as black and as empty as his heart and soul that he told us his tale.
'The Teacher's Tale'
"My tale will not make you laugh,' he said to us. 'It will not make you snicker or smile, or even chuckle. But it will make you think and wonder, and make you see what life really is.
There was a boy whose name was Amittai, whose long blonde locks were pulled neatly into a black ribbon, and whose eyes were grey as the worst of storms. When this boy was but the age of five, his mother left him, and he did not understand why. His father told him; such is the meaning of life- To love and to lose'.
When Amittai was but ten, his father left him, and once again he did not understand why. He was sent away to live with a farmer and his wife on their large farm. When he asked the farmer just as he had asked his father, and the farmer merely told him 'To live in pain, such is the meaning of life'.
Unsatisfied, Amittai left the farm in the middle of night with only a small satchel for his few possessions. He went in search of answers to a question; what is really the meaning of life? Why do people go away? Was the meaning of life to love and lose, as his father had told him? Was it to live in pain, as the Farmer had told him? Or was it as he had come to believe; life has no purpose. You live, and you die, and such is the meaning of life.
Amittai took a path through the wood, and before he knew, night had soon fallen around him, and he had lost himself to the trees. He wandered until morning, desperately searching for the way out of the endless forest until in the bright, gleaming sunrise he came across a small segment of stone wall with a heavy wooden door set into it. He walked all around the wall, and found nothing on the other side of the door; it was just a door to nowhere.
He thought this rather odd, but as he needed to get out of those woods, he began to walk. He stopped abruptly, however, when he heard the loud wail of a door creaking open. Turning around, he found the door had opened, and inside was a small, dark, stone stairwell. He frowned and walked around the wall again, only to find that the room he saw was not on the other side.
Now, Amittai's curiosity greatly overpowered his fear, and he entered the room. Looking up, the staircase went up for what seemed to be miles, with no end or ceiling in sight. The boy began to climb the staircase, wanting to see where it led. He climbed for what seemed to be only minutes without any signs fatigue, until he finally reached a flat stone landing. On the landing was a new looking door, much like the one he had just opened. He reached for the handle to open it when a large crumbling crash from behind startled him. He whipped around, only to find the staircase had broken, and was now rubble on the floor far below him. He could still see the floor when he looked down, however it was impossible to reach it. So, Amittai turned about and opened the door.
Inside the door was a plain, stone room, and in the center there kneeled a girl with a white-blonde hair and crystal blue eyes who was playing with a small rag doll.
'What is the meaning of life?' He asked her solemnly.
'The meaning of life, you ask? Er… It's… Dolls, right? Do you want to play with me?' She looked at him hopefully, but he only grimaced at her. Turning on heel, he left the room and continued up the stone staircase. After what again seemed like only minutes he reached another landing where a door much like the last was straight ahead of him. Next to him, the stairs went farther. The door on this landing, however, looked slightly weathered, and the hinges had begun to rust. He heard behind him the tell-tale rumble of the stairs falling to rubble on the floor below, and so he went and opened the door, which made a slight creaking noise. Amittai entered into a room not unlike the last, but this time in the center of the room there stood a young woman with long white-blonde hair and crystal blue eyes.
'What is the meaning of life?' He asked her.
'The meaning of life is… Love... Will you love me?' She asked in earnest. He merely scowled at her.
'Good day,' he said, and turning about he walked out the door and continued up the next set of stairs. When he reached another landing, the door in front of him was cracked and weather-beaten. He opened it and stepped inside, where he found a middle-aged woman with long white hair and ocean-blue eyes that were dim but still held a certain kind of warmth.
'What is the meaning of life?' He asked her.
'The meaning of life is family,' she replied to him with a warm smile. Once again unsatisfied he left to climb up to the next landing. On the landing he found the next door. This door was falling apart, cracked and graying, with rust about the hinges and the handle nearly falling off. With a bit of a struggle he finally managed to open the door.
Sitting on the floor of the room was an older woman whose white hair fell in wispy tresses over her shoulders and onto the floor.
'What is the meaning of life?' He asked her, staring into her cold blue eyes. She only looked at him. 'Why won't you answer me?'
'You are asking the wrong person. In the next room you will find the only person who can give you the answer you seek. In the room after, you will find that answer.' Amittai left in a rush without thanking the woman, but for some reason he found himself more and more fatigued than he had before. Each step weighed heavily upon his legs, and it was quite a trial to make it to the next landing.
When he got there, he found that there was door mostly off of its hinges that looked as though it had been chewed apart by some beast. He pushed it aside and walked into the room, where he found only a mirror in front of him. He looked at it, and walked all around it, however he did not find the person of whom the old woman had spoke. Looking into it, however, he found something very odd. The boy in the mirror was not himself. In fact, it wasn't a boy at all. It was a man, most probably in his late forties, with cold grey eyes and grizzled blonde hair and beard. Confused, the sight irritated him. Convinced the mirror lied, he was angered, and in his anger he smashed the mirror into a million pieces, shattering it to the floor.
Turning on heel Amittai made to leave, but in the doorway sat a rather large black dog with glowing crimson eyes and teeth that gave the beast an ominous grin. He could only scream as the black dog ran towards him. He braced himself for the creature's teeth however the pain never came. He only felt a chilling prickling sensation as the creature ran through him and through the wall behind.
This time he fled in fear of the dog's return, up thousands of stairs in what seemed like minutes, until finally he lay panting on another landing. The stairs crumbled below, and looking down he could no longer see the floor where he had begun. This landing had a door, just as all the others, but there were no stairs going further up, nor was there any sign of a ceiling. This door was black as night, and the handle was cold to the touch. Opening the door, he was hit by a cold gust of wind. The door slammed shut behind him, and to his dismay, there was no handle on the inside. The room he was in was plain and made of stone. There was no one to tell him the answer he was seeking, nothing to hint at that elusive answer; what is the meaning of life? He lay on the stone floor and laughed until tears flowed from his eyes.
'That's it, isn't it!? The meaning of life! I was right! Life has no meaning, no purpose, and neither does our existence!' He laughed and laughed, until finally he lay still. An odd feeling came into the pit of his stomach, and it was then that the Amittai, now an old man, died on that cold stone floor in a room with no exit. "
"And so ends my tale," he said to us, and turning away he walked off to continue on his way.
MODF: Depressing? Of course...