Question

Which of the following lines best presents the dominant moral of "The Monk's Tale"?

A. He was a soldier with a manly heart / So dear to him was honest decency
B. Thus Fortune with a light / Turn of her wheel brings men from joy to sorrow.
C. He swore to sin no more, until the hour / Of death when at last he was interred, / He recognized God's mercy and his power.
D. And then he saw that of his own perdition / He was sole author and he fled away.

Answer 1

I believe the correct answer is B) Thus Fortune with a light / Turn of her wheel brings men from joy to sorrow.
Because the point of the Monk's tale is that fortune is fickle, one day you are the luckiest man alive, the next you lose everything and you die.

Answer 2

The correct answer is B. Thus Fortune with a light / Turn of her wheel brings men from joy to sorrow.

The Monk's Tale is a bit different from all other plays in the Canterbury Tales - it is rather a collection of very short stories (17 of them) about various characters from literature and history who were played by Fortune. The moral of his story is that fate is fickle, and that you cannot control it. Your destiny decides what will happen to you, and there's nothing you can do about it.