The Variety of Ways in Which Chaucer Treats the Subject of...

Write an essay on the variety of ways in which Chaucer treats the subject of love. Within ten stories in the Canterbury Tales, men and women on the way to, or in marriage provide the ostensible subject, with six tales expounding largely on love and its counterpart in marriage. In comic tales, sexual activity is constantly relished, especially in the Miller’s Tale and the Reeve’s Tale, where love is defined and motivated by animalistic physical desire and relationships clouded with lies and deceit. In contrast, romances like the Knight’s Tale and the Franklin’s Tale have a high ideal of relaxed and trusting harmony, â€Å"Thus been they bothe in quiete and rest†, relying also on the poetics of courtly love. Then we have the blend of†¦show more content†¦This of course scandalized the Clerk- he was unworldly and an ascetic, he â€Å"looked holwe and therto sobrely†, and thus he becomes the mantle of a corrector of false views about love and matrimony after the Friar and Summoner and gives a view of love as pure and sacrificial, with Griselda as the epitome of patience and ungrudging obedience. By use of the same term, ‘Boweth your nekke under that blisful yok of soveraynetee’, clearly the Clerk, through his tale, is answering the Wife of Bath, through a character who was the exact antithesis of hers. The Merchant, coming after the Clerk, upsets the balance again, painting a cynical view of love in contrast, and once again continues the love debate in his own fashion and pattern (â€Å"And let him care and wepe and wringe and waile†- â€Å"Weping and way ling, care and other sorwe†). The Host then once again comes interrupts, and requests to turn the debate away from marriage to love â€Å"Squier, set somewhat of love†, where pure romance, in the medieval sense is now introduced, reminding us of the beginning of the Knight’s tale, and illustrating the charm of a variety of tales depicting the various illustrations of love. However, Chaucer’s plan in this Act is not yet finished- there is still the gap of the relations between husband and wife, a certain superficiality of love not yet mentioned, the love whichShow MoreRelated The Bourgeois Social Class in Chaucers Canterbury Tales Essay5130 Words   |  21 PagesIt is clear that Geoffrey Chaucer was acutely aware of the strict classist system in which he lived; indeed the very subject matter of his Canterbury Tales (CT) is a commentary on this system: its shortcomings and its benefits regarding English society. In fact, Chaucer is particularly adept at portraying each of his pilgrims as an example of various strata within 14th century English society. And upon first reading the CT, one might mistake Chaucers acute social awareness and insightful characterizationsRead More The Rich Diversity of Meanings of the Pardoners Tale Essay5609 Words   |  23 Pagesact of holy reverence, but the Tales take a darker turn when the Pardoner is brought to the foreground. The whole Canterbury Tales is a collected set of performances, stories told about telling stories. As Joseph Ganim has written, theatricality, by which he means a governing se nse of performance, an interplay among the author’s voice, his fictional characters, and his immediate audience, is a paradigm for the Chaucerian poetic (5). This paper shall endeavor to show that the major effect of theRead MoreEnlightment of Education in Pygmalion and Educating Rita9449 Words   |  38 Pageslearning of one demands the learning of the other one. | | |English literature has passed great and complicated way of development. It gave to the | | |treasure of world literature such great names as Shakespeare, Chaucer, Byron, Shaw, | | |Hemingway, Twain and so many others. | | Read MoreWilliam Shakespeare and Macbeth8813 Words   |  36 Pagesall the correct virtues for a king. Macbeth  exhibits elements that reflect the greatest Christian tragedy of all: the Fall of Man. In the Genesis story, it is the weakness of Adam, persuaded by his wife (who has in turn been seduced by the devil) which leads him to the proud assumption that he can play God. But both stories offer room for hope: Christ will come to save mankind precisely because mankind has made the wrong choice through his own free will. In Christian terms, although  Macbeth  hasRead MoreA Picatrix Miscellany52019 Words   |  209 Pagesoften disorderly book. A glance at the table of contents is enough to show that the sequence of chapters is erratic and closer inspection reveals that the scope of individual chapters is far wider than appears at first sight. Philosophic doctrines (which, according to the author, are the basis of the talismanic art), theory of magic, astronomical, astrological and physical lore, extensive directions for the practice of the art, and accounts of the peoples by who m it is employed are jumbled together