| Review of Chaucer's Work |
| The Canterbury Tales and More |
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We have read and discussed many texts in the Western Civilization course and it is interesting to note that the original texts, from the Epic of Gilgamesh to the Koran, were not written in English. Therefore, the subsequent translations to English are inherently problematic. The first text (read for the class) to highly diminish the translation problem is Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, which was written in Middle English, a close relative of Modern English. The narrative style that Chaucer utilizes makes this work easy to read and understand. For this discussion, the "Prologue" and "The Wife of Bath" will be analyzed.
The "Prologue" serves as an introduction to the characters who are embarking on the journey to the shrine of St. Thomas of Becket in Canterbury. Each "paragraph" presents a new character, such as a knight, friar, monk, nun, and a doctor. All the characters drew straws and the Knight was chosen to tell his tale first, and the rest of the text is devoted to each character narrating his or her story. The Wife of Bath was described in the "Prologue" as somewhat deaf and having talent for making cloth. In the "Prologue of the Wife of Bath's Tale," she immediately states that she has had five husbands and that there was nothing wrong with this. She cites the Bible and deems that God "bade us expressly to increase and multiply." In her actual tale, her stance on woman dominance in a relationship is made clear. The wife of Bath wants to dominate a marriage, have control over the economics, have control over sexual pleasure, and manipulate the relationship to her likings. This is contrary to the submissive, obedient, genteel, and inferior role that women played at the time. The Canterbury Tales was originally designed to include the tales of all the travellers; however, Chaucer died before his intentions were fulfilled. It would have been a great accomplishment if Chaucer were able to complete this work, for his insights into the characters read were very unique and interesting. The style of the tales is very easy to follow and understand-Chaucer employs the straightforwardness to make his points about the different societal classes clear. Peeking at the Middle English version in the text, it was seen that there is a rhyme scheme evident. Chaucer employs an AABB rhyme and an iambic ten-syllable per line scheme to set the rhythm. This adds to the challenge of the author trying to compose a story using these parameters. Chaucer attempts to describe each character in a realistic, humanistic manner, and he succeeds in doing so. He had a great perspective from the Middle class from which he was born into, and in the stories, he presents the troubadour tradition with irony and sarcasm. "The Wife of Bath" was such an attack on the troubadour tradition-more specifically, this tale is categorized as a fabliau (the cynical and earthly presentation of romance sagas). The 12th century brought forth a new social and literary movement and had impacts upon poetry, music, and romantic love. A woman was regarded as "lady love" and often was submissive to her suitor. In stark contrast, The wife of Bath seemed to break all social norms and mores as she manipulates relationships to her preferences. She can be compared to Antigone, but the wife of Bath is more "harsh" as she exploits the male-female relationship to her desires. The contemporary aspect of the tale is that in order to promote solidarity and fairness in a relationship, equality must be stressed-we have already seen the extreme situations and its consequences. |
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