chaucer essay

8/10/2019 Chaucer essay

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E!erything is seen from a court point of view.

Chaucer adopted a na$!e% simpleton narrator in order to a!od gi!ing offence.

The Wife of Baths Prologue and Tale

&t is made up of two elements/ a sermon and a confession

+he ife of 9ath clearly sets out to gi!e a full:blown sermon to the other pilgrimswith all the traditional trimmings% e. g. biblical ,uotations% illustrati!e stories anddirect appeals to the audience% as well as a long moralised story (eemplum#.

Her sermon is mock or anti:sermon since her preaching is a defence of womens

powers within marriage% as well as attack on male clerics. -he also gi!es an intimate account of her life and lo!es to date.

+he main issue is womens power.

He first three husbands are grouped together as types rather than indi!iduals.

+he other two husbands are more indi!idualised.

Howe!er% all fi!e husbands illustrate the same basic point/ ich or poor% old or young%

stupid or cle!er% they are all eamples of powerless husbands% men whom the ifefinally succeeded in taming.

+he knight in her story is a character type/ a lusty bachelor. +he significance of thesecharacters lies in the ideas they represent.

+he old wyf has no name and is not described in detail% which makes her a type as

well rather than indi!idual.

1n the one hand the ife of 9ath comes across as an asserti!e and independent:minded

woman. 1n the other hand she is also aggressi!e and blatantly dishonest% and freelyadmits that she herself has often told lies.

+here is a per!ading irony in the story whose upshot is that it presents how women

should and should not be.

+here is a fundamental tensionin the ifes nature. -he is both amorousand aggressi!e

and it is the constant mo!ement between these two states which makes herparticularly formidable. e might say that she functions on a lo!e:hate principle.

e should also remind oursel!es that the ultimate narrator is not a woman but a man.Perhaps it is "ust a piece of male propaganda designed to draw attention to thepotential independence and asserti!eness of women * only to undermine their positionby re!ealing that the ife is really a rogue.

Historically medie!al marriages were fre,uently fraught and sometimes !iolent.

5arriages of con!enience were much more common.

ife:beating was allowed as long as you did not maim or kill your wife.

Economic power was !ested on men.

ith all this in mind the beha!iour of the ife becomes understandable.

-he gets economic power of her own by a combination of cunning and eploiting of

her main resource% her body. -he can be seen as an eaggerated representati!e of medie!al women.

The Merchants Tale

&t is a miture of two main story types/ the court romance and the fablieau.

&t is an eploration of lo!e from different points of !iew.

+here is idealised lo!e% straightforward se% di!ine lo!e and human lo!e.

+here is a tension or conflictin the knights character. &t is not clear whether he wants

to get married for pious reasons% to a!oid sin% or simply to ha!e a woman at his disposalall the time. 5arriage is seen as something spiritual and acceptable% but it is also seenas an arrangement whereby more sinister and selfish forces can come to play. +he o!erall impression of the knight is of a man locked into his own !iew of things.

Almost e!erything is seen through the eyes and mind of the old knight. +he passage of the bedroom scene is full of images of food% drink and animals% as

well as a knife% which add to our sense of


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+he conclusion of the Merchants Taleis comple.

&n the wrangle between Pluto and Proserpine Pluto is upholding the traditional !iew

of women as deceitful and sinful% while Proserpine is defending the se againstmale propaganda

&t seems that 4outh and Age are finally reconciled but only after 4outh and 4outh

ha!e got together.

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+he ,uestion of so!ereignity in marriage is only one of the many raised by the Prologue.

&t is itself part of a bigger ,uestion * are women a 0ood thing% or not)

A rather different issue is the ,uestion of tet !ersus gloss% of literal meaning against

the interpretation it can be twisted to fit. +he ifes use of glossing to make her tetsser!e her own seual inclinations intrudes in metaphor to the se act itself. =>?@:B

The Wife of Baths Tale

0enre

&t borders between folktale* e!en fairy:tale * and romance. 9y gi!ing her a romance%

Chaucer adds another side to her character/ she is incurably romantic2 it also offers afulfillment not only of the ifes conscious desires for mastery and a young !irilehusband% but of the desire she can epress only as a regret% for the restoring of her lostyouth and beauty.

&t is also a narrati!e eemplumto illustrate the argument de!eloped discursi!ely in her

Prologue.

-tructure

+here are three digressions that ha!e little to do with either the story or the theme ofso!ereignity in marriage. +he first% the passage of satire on friars% is primarily a cue for the following tale%

the 6riars and her response to his interruption. +he second% the story of 5idas% is a digression for its own sake% a match for the

ramblings of the ifes Prologue. +he third% thegentillesse speech% is not strictly a digression2 it shifts the balance of

the tale from story for its own sake towards the story for the sake of a moral.

+hemes

+he central theme is the ,uestion of what women most desire2 the hags pressing of

seual attentions on the unwilling knight% and his final handing o!er of free choice toher% are the comic aspects of the same theme.

+he dis,uisition ongentillesseis important2 +he loathly lady is out to teachgentillesse

to her husband% but most of all to assert her own claim to the gentillesseof !irtue% toassert a human ideal transcending seual difference "ust as it transcends distinction ofrank or wealth.

+he stress to inner !irtuehas a congruence with the !ery end of the tale. &t concludes

not with the womans being boss% but with the romance achie!ement of blisse and%most surprisingly% with obedience. +his% in turn% is in marked contrast to the malesubmission to female seuality desired by the ife in her concluding prayer.

&R*+ &* TH' W&"' " B)TH( T)'+ony -lade (Casebook -eries#

-lade takes 6. 0. +ownsheds argument that the tale illustrates the character of 8ame

Alison% and that moreo!er the tale cannot be properly understood unless we rememberthat it is Alison who is telling the story% which is the epression of her hopes anddreams. -lade claims that it is important to remember that although the tale is anepression of the ifes character% it is ultimately told by Chaucer himself.

At times Alison is commenting ironically on the story she is telling while at other times

Chaucer himself is commenting ironically on her !iews and reactions.

-he is telling the story because she wishes to make a moral pointwhich has rele!ance

in the world as she sees it% but in telling it in the way she says it she eposes much ofher own character.

&n the ifes eyes it is the domination of the man o!er the woman which is the knights

real offence% and it is for this that he has to undergo his test.

'ing Arthur is a shadowy figure who gi!es in to his wifes demands.

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+he readers pity for 5ay% who is bought with scrit and bond is undermined at the !ery

moment it should be most intense =@>D because Chaucers good wi!es would ne!erindulge in such implied comparisons% or cash e!aluation% of seual eperience.

Howe!er% the detail of the narration% the choice of words and images% instists that

chaucer essay

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