01-06-2010, 06:47 PM
Essays and graduate works in various fields.
Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” is not only his magnum opus, but also a towering achievement of the Western culture in general. This collection of short stories written in Middle-English at the end of 14th century paints an ironic and satirical picture of English society of the time, with a special emphasis on the Church. The structure of this work is mainly linear; however, the structure mostly depends on the character who tells a particular story. In the very beginning, "The Prologue", Chaucer describes his characters in detail…
Chaucer’s tales show an incredible variety of styles, thus creating a multi-layered story. Medieval schools of rhetoric used to divide literature into high, middle and low style, according to the use of rhetorical forms and the vocabulary, and all of them can be found in “The Canterbury Tales”. Chaucer does not target any particular audience or a class. Thus a character such as Miller, who is one of the “lowest” of the pilgrims, is able to show his rhetorical ability, despite his subject matter being lowbrow. On the other hand, the story narrated by the knight can appear to be extremely simplistic at times. When it comes to the classes, same words are often used to describe completely different things, often creating a humorous effect. For example, pitee represents a noble concept with the higher classes, while the lower ones use the same word to describe a sexual intercourse.
The Prologue
Apart from a unique style, “The Canterbury Tales” is a powerful social satire. In the General Prologue, Chaucer paints the sketches of each of the pilgrims subtly pointing out their good and bad sides. For example, the Monk is portrayed as a person who enjoys a good bite, however, all the evidence of his gluttony are give covertly and circumstantially. Like all the other satirists before him, Chaucer treats the traditional topic of clergy in a slanting fashion, however, his originality lies in the fact that he leaves the reader uncertain about the description. The Monk is also described as an avid hunter and hunting is often associated with the opportunities for seducing women. Again, Chaucer is not stating anything explicitly, he leaves the reader to enjoy his covert humor.
The Friar is described as “merye”, “swete”, “plesaunt” and “worthy”. Again, here the reader can recognize Chaucer’s subtle satire which continues in the way he treats the traditional feature of the mendicant stereotype, persuasiveness. The Friar is described as a smooth talker, who often uses his gift to deceive his clients, and therefore acts in a mendacious and hypocritical way. Chaucer continues to reduce his satire to a series of brief hints, thus making it even more effective and witty. In addition, he stresses the attractiveness of the Friar and his musical ability, which may be interpreted as portrayal of a womanizer. However, his pleasantness soon becomes its own parody, with the description of the Friar’s mercenary activities and blackmails.
When it comes to Chaucer’s covert satire, there is also a mystery concerning the use of certain adjectives when describing the pilgrims. For example, as Mann suggests, the word “worthy” seems to be one of them:
“The adjective “worthy” is used as the keyword of the Knight’s portrait, where it has a profound and serious significance, indicating not only the Knight’s social status, but also the ethical qualities appropriate to it. In the Friar’s portrait, the word is ironically used to indicate the Friars lack of these ethical qualities – but it can also be read non-ironically as a reference to social status… By the time we reach the Franklin’s portrait, the word is used with a vague heartiness which seems to indicate little beside the narrator’s approval.”
Fabliau
Apart from this satirical portrayals, the humor in Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” is mostly found in stories that belong to a specific genre – fabliau. Fabliau is a type of short story, most probably brought from the East by the crusaders. The closest literary genre seems to be the fable, however, in fabliau the emphasis is not on the moral lesson. A typical story of this kind consists of a variety of characters, often including cuckolded husbands, rapacious clergy, peasants, thieves and whores. The clergy and the women are two groups which are most criticized in fabliaux. Another such group is the peasants, but if the fabliau is intended for them, they are portrayed as better than the nobility.
The language of fabliaux is abundant in puns and other verbal figures. Apart from the subject matter, which is often connected to sex or contains such references, wordplay is an essential part of the humor in fabliaux. The most important tropes used are paronomasia and catachresis, since their main function is to displace ordinary meanings. For example, a common pun uses the similarity of sound: one can have “con” (cunt) and “conte” (tale) in the same word.
This type of bawdy tales became popular in the Middle Ages and continued to exist despite the strong disapproval of the Church. In fact, it can be argued that the disapproval of the Church was the very reason for their existence. They represented a popular literature of protest against the sexually repressive teachings of the Church. Fabliaux are basically people’s attempt to mock, satirize, resist or refute the restrictive sexual morality of the Church and Chaucer was perfectly aware of that while including such tales into his work.
The most famous fabliau in “The Canterbury Tales” is certainly "The Miller’s Tale". Some others, which either belong to the same genre, or have certain elements of it are "The Reeve’s Tale" (based on a famous fabliau, which was also the inspiration for one of Boccaccio’s stories in Decameron), "The Merchant’s Tale", "The Shipman’s Tale", "The Nun’s Priest’s Tale" and "The Canon Yeoman’s Tale".
Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” is not only his magnum opus, but also a towering achievement of the Western culture in general. This collection of short stories written in Middle-English at the end of 14th century paints an ironic and satirical picture of English society of the time, with a special emphasis on the Church. The structure of this work is mainly linear; however, the structure mostly depends on the character who tells a particular story. In the very beginning, "The Prologue", Chaucer describes his characters in detail…
Chaucer’s tales show an incredible variety of styles, thus creating a multi-layered story. Medieval schools of rhetoric used to divide literature into high, middle and low style, according to the use of rhetorical forms and the vocabulary, and all of them can be found in “The Canterbury Tales”. Chaucer does not target any particular audience or a class. Thus a character such as Miller, who is one of the “lowest” of the pilgrims, is able to show his rhetorical ability, despite his subject matter being lowbrow. On the other hand, the story narrated by the knight can appear to be extremely simplistic at times. When it comes to the classes, same words are often used to describe completely different things, often creating a humorous effect. For example, pitee represents a noble concept with the higher classes, while the lower ones use the same word to describe a sexual intercourse.
The Prologue
Apart from a unique style, “The Canterbury Tales” is a powerful social satire. In the General Prologue, Chaucer paints the sketches of each of the pilgrims subtly pointing out their good and bad sides. For example, the Monk is portrayed as a person who enjoys a good bite, however, all the evidence of his gluttony are give covertly and circumstantially. Like all the other satirists before him, Chaucer treats the traditional topic of clergy in a slanting fashion, however, his originality lies in the fact that he leaves the reader uncertain about the description. The Monk is also described as an avid hunter and hunting is often associated with the opportunities for seducing women. Again, Chaucer is not stating anything explicitly, he leaves the reader to enjoy his covert humor.
The Friar is described as “merye”, “swete”, “plesaunt” and “worthy”. Again, here the reader can recognize Chaucer’s subtle satire which continues in the way he treats the traditional feature of the mendicant stereotype, persuasiveness. The Friar is described as a smooth talker, who often uses his gift to deceive his clients, and therefore acts in a mendacious and hypocritical way. Chaucer continues to reduce his satire to a series of brief hints, thus making it even more effective and witty. In addition, he stresses the attractiveness of the Friar and his musical ability, which may be interpreted as portrayal of a womanizer. However, his pleasantness soon becomes its own parody, with the description of the Friar’s mercenary activities and blackmails.
When it comes to Chaucer’s covert satire, there is also a mystery concerning the use of certain adjectives when describing the pilgrims. For example, as Mann suggests, the word “worthy” seems to be one of them:
“The adjective “worthy” is used as the keyword of the Knight’s portrait, where it has a profound and serious significance, indicating not only the Knight’s social status, but also the ethical qualities appropriate to it. In the Friar’s portrait, the word is ironically used to indicate the Friars lack of these ethical qualities – but it can also be read non-ironically as a reference to social status… By the time we reach the Franklin’s portrait, the word is used with a vague heartiness which seems to indicate little beside the narrator’s approval.”
Fabliau
Apart from this satirical portrayals, the humor in Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” is mostly found in stories that belong to a specific genre – fabliau. Fabliau is a type of short story, most probably brought from the East by the crusaders. The closest literary genre seems to be the fable, however, in fabliau the emphasis is not on the moral lesson. A typical story of this kind consists of a variety of characters, often including cuckolded husbands, rapacious clergy, peasants, thieves and whores. The clergy and the women are two groups which are most criticized in fabliaux. Another such group is the peasants, but if the fabliau is intended for them, they are portrayed as better than the nobility.
The language of fabliaux is abundant in puns and other verbal figures. Apart from the subject matter, which is often connected to sex or contains such references, wordplay is an essential part of the humor in fabliaux. The most important tropes used are paronomasia and catachresis, since their main function is to displace ordinary meanings. For example, a common pun uses the similarity of sound: one can have “con” (cunt) and “conte” (tale) in the same word.
This type of bawdy tales became popular in the Middle Ages and continued to exist despite the strong disapproval of the Church. In fact, it can be argued that the disapproval of the Church was the very reason for their existence. They represented a popular literature of protest against the sexually repressive teachings of the Church. Fabliaux are basically people’s attempt to mock, satirize, resist or refute the restrictive sexual morality of the Church and Chaucer was perfectly aware of that while including such tales into his work.
The most famous fabliau in “The Canterbury Tales” is certainly "The Miller’s Tale". Some others, which either belong to the same genre, or have certain elements of it are "The Reeve’s Tale" (based on a famous fabliau, which was also the inspiration for one of Boccaccio’s stories in Decameron), "The Merchant’s Tale", "The Shipman’s Tale", "The Nun’s Priest’s Tale" and "The Canon Yeoman’s Tale".