blog




  • Essay / Analysis of the narrative in Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales

    Literary styles, methods and forms greatly influence the reader's perception of the text as they read the composition. For example, works from the 18th and 19th centuries are perceived differently compared to those written in the last hundred years. This difference becomes even greater when we read the tales composed in the 14th century. One of the good examples of such a distinction is “The Canterbury Tales” by Geoffrey Chaucer. Some of its fragments were written before the holistic narrative was even explored. The central part of this composition was written between 1386 and 1389. The work itself belongs to the ancient traditional genre of the collection of stories and novels united by a single plot. One theory states that the idea for this composition was taken from Boccaccio's “Decameron”. Rhyming couplets are best for characterizing the style of “The Canterbury Tales,” because two lines rhyme with each other. There is also iambic pentameter, with each line containing ten syllables, and a heavily stressed syllable following a less stressed syllable. The dynamic and figurative plot gives Chaucer a chance to use or parody almost every literary genre written during this era. For example, one of the main parts of “The Canterbury Tales” is written in novel form. At the same time, this work also contains elements from other medieval genres. The knight tells an adventure in the corresponding style novel and the prioress tells the legend of a tortured Christian boy. The Carpenter, however, gives the obscene story the spirit of urban folklore, and the tales of the Brother and the Franklin, at the same time, are written in a fable style. The merchant's tale contains elements of folk tale and parable. It is also important to mention that each of the stories told appears spontaneously during the characters' conversation. Some of them complement or enhance the previous ones, which gives the “Canterbury Tales” the appearance of a solid composition. This is what makes Geoffrey Chaucer an innovator in literature, it is the synthesis of several different and opposing genres that creates a unique work of its kind. By having a style specific to each individual, each distinct story of the tales contributes to the creation of a particular encyclopedia of medieval genres. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get an original essayBased on crossing different forms and mixing his individual and traditional ways of telling stories, the writer creates a new type of story. Overall, the "Canterbury Tales" are told in a way in which each story is a parody of the previous one or the exact way of telling the story that was popular in medieval times. Most of the 24 tales in Chaucer's work are taken from other books of the medieval period. These are the stories of the knight, the lawyer, the monk and several other characters. Others draw inspiration from well-known folk tales. The only one that differs is the one told by the priest since it is the sermon. Chaucer relies on "estate satire" for his portraits, which are essentially stereotypes based on the profession people have or the social class they belong to. Another idea invoked is that of “anticlericalism,” which is another set of stereotypes about priests, monks, nuns, brothers, etc. In “The Canterbury Tales,” the characters perceive life as it is from a practical point of view, which is not the way it should be. The reproduction of truthsobsolete of the golden age of chivalry is based on the views of the younger generation contemporary with Chaucer appearing in the image of the squire, on the traditional adventurous heroics of a genre, one which is witty, contagious and suitable only for the joyful. maximalist natures. This is how the character of the Squire appears, receiving finishes and, apparently, unexpected features in the story. Sybaritic, the clodhopper in a portrait of a general prologue, as a storyteller he arouses sincere sympathy. In essence, he represents a parody of the conservative type of knight operating in a time that is new and uncharted to him. The story lays bare the conventions of the ideal hero who has always been unattractive and whose immersion in life, on the one hand, crushes him, on the other hand, actually changes him. This fall creates a controversy with the genre of the chivalric tale in which the departure into the other, after death, of life “humanizes” the hero. Overall, by describing a portrait gallery of a general prologue and creating characters from static faces, Chaucer adds drama to the “Canterbury Tales.” Pilgrims reveal their essence not only in the stories and characterizations made by the author, but they prove it in dynamic disputes and dialogues, in quarrels saturated with dramatic content, in discussions and observations that people make the for each other. This is where the objectivity of the characters' traits comes from. Personal characteristics and the responses associated with them also mostly directly follow the actual characters of the people in the story. The author jokes with the Monk, revealing his moral buffoonery while the Miller attacks the Host, and vice versa, and this opens up the most unpleasant features in the nature of the satellites. Moreover, by offending the Cook with obscene expressions, Franklin shows himself from the bad side. In this case, nothing contradicts psychological credibility. Considering the image of the Knight as the ideal figure embodying dignity, nobility and honor, but at the same time possessing some flaws, it is appropriate to conduct research into its history in view of its structure and the poetic means used. by the author to create the entire image of the character. The story tells of the love of two cousins, Palamon and Arsita, for the Duke of Athens' daughter-in-law, Aemilia. The cousins, being the princes of the enemy country, are imprisoned in a dungeon on the orders of Theseus. There, from a high tower, they both see Aemilia and fall in love with her. Hostility arises between cousins ​​and when Theseus finds out, he organizes a knights' tournament, promising to give Aemilia to the winner. Through the intervention of the gods, Palamon wins and Arsita dies by accident. The story ends with the marriage of Palamon and Aemilia. It is worth mentioning here that the knight's story is one of the longest presented by the pilgrims. This legend creates a feeling of solemnity and grandeur in the narration because the storyteller often moves away from the main action to present listeners with large fragments of detailed descriptions that often have no relation to the development of the plot ( the description of the women of Thebes). , mourning for the death of husbands, representation of temples, festivals and battles). Knowledge of Chaucer's life is not just a detached observation of the researcher. His love for people is neither sentimental nor maudlin and his laughter is not heartless mockery. Such a combination of love towards human beings, laughter and knowledge of life puts a sympathetic and understanding smile on Chaucer's face. “To understand everything is to forgive everything” goes the saying. In fact, Chaucer is very forgiving. The Wife of Bath's Tale,the tragic story of an aging and living woman, as well as the stories of the Miller and the Merchant about the young wife of an old husband, are humanistic in this sense, although the author does not ignore the harsh reality. . By letting an Oxford student tell the story of a resigned enthusiast named Griselda, Chaucer questions the act of a mother who sacrifices her children in the name of marital obedience. Griselda is dead, as is her patience, And both buried together in Italy; This is why I shout in everyone's ears. No married man is bold enough to test his trusting wife's patience to find Griselda, because he will certainly fail. All medieval ideas about marriage, obedience, divine justice, rights, obligations and human dignity are turned upside down and profoundly disrupted. The Wife of Bath's confession is written as a crude farce, but at the same time it is actually tragic. It cannot have been written by any other medieval writer. Fabliau's situations are often risky and require "vile language", but Chaucer enriches them with the naive but fresh crudeness of the popular mores of his century. As the author tells the reader: “Keep the grain and throw away the skin.” This fabliau skin, through its anecdote and its roughness, is a tribute to the genre and to a century. The healthy grain, however, is the novelty that we find in them: the well-focused and juicy national language, the common sense counterbalanced by sober and derisory criticism, the luminous, lively and energetic narration, the salty joke that takes place , sincerity and freshness, sympathetic smile that justifies everything and victorious laughter. The skin that falls off easily cannot hide a naughty and vigorous enthusiasm and a joke that mocks its worth. All this serves Chaucer as a means for the image of the contemporary earthly man who has already inhaled the first trends of the coming Renaissance, but not always capable of realizing and consecrating the "joyful free thought" peculiar to him in abstract terms and concepts. Chaucer offers everything in a contradictory contrast. The harshness and dirt of life underline the budding love, the withering accents the thirst for life, the vital uglinesses form the beauty of youth. This all borders on the ridiculous. The laughter cannot yet calm down, the tears do not have time to dry, causing this mixed and positive feeling which will later be defined in England as humor. Chaucer's talent for composition first manifests itself in his ability to connect the unreachable. He depicts the various satellites with magnificent ease, and gradually from the separate features the living image of the person appears, and from the accumulation of the separate portraits the picture of the whole medieval society of England is formed. “The Canterbury Tales” is a heterogeneous and multicolored work, identical to real life. Sometimes it is bright and other times it is dark and uninviting. Several stories that are invaluable as separate stories take on meaning and find their place through contrasting comparison in the overall context. Chaucer's composite innovation allowed him to admit all the contradictory characteristics of the book into a realistic dominant. For this reason, even fantastic, allegorical and moralizing stories are justified as realistically as possible by the storyteller. The writer creates the main plot accurately, concisely, vividly and quickly. These are examples at the end of the tale of Pardon about three rakes or that of the chaplain's story about a pursuit of wood. The whole complex fable fabric and quick end to the miller's story can be an example of this. Chaucer is a reserved and miserly storyteller, but when he is,.