The Comedy of Chaucers Fabliaux Essay - 1945 Words

In a significant number of his tales Chaucer uses the comic genre of fabliaux, which are short, typically anti-intellectual, indecent tales of bourgeois or low life. The plot usually involves an older husband who is cuckholded by a younger man whom (often) the older man has himself brought into the house, and his often younger wife. The Miller, the Reve, the Merchant and the Wife of Bath all tell tales which are essentially amoral - in fitting with the genre; tales which would not have been acceptable had they been written in an aristocratic setting, but which were accepted as suitable depictions of lower class life. Furthermore, the women in these tales (with except to the Wife of Bath) are portrayed as goals to be attained or as†¦show more content†¦Indeed, none of the men show any consideration to the fact that the women they hotly pursue are already bound in marriage to another man; for example, Absolon, a cleric-cum-self-styled courtly lover, is so determined to woo Ali son that even the fact that she is sleeping beside her husband, John, does not prevent him from syngeth in his voys gentil and small (3360). Thus Chaucer presents peasant life as a life regulated by a morality existing only on a temporal and physical level. Chaucer makes it very clear that he does not wish to condone the bawdy and uncouth actions of the lower classes in his fabliaux, and in the Millers Prologue makes an obvious disclaimer for his more high-brow members of the audience: The Miller is a cherl; ye know wel this. So was the Reve eek and othere mo And harlotrie they tolden bothe two, Avyseth yow, and put me out of blame (3182-3185) He also tells the reader to turne over the leef and chese another tale (3177) should they find the tale of the Miller too bawdy for their liking. Chaucer highlights the chasm between the moral standards of the aristocracy and the peasantry in an episode in the Millers Tale in which Absolon profred meede (3380) to Alison. Chaucer presents Abosolons offering of money to Alison, with its obvious connotations of prostitution, as acceptable in this bourgeois tale, whereas it would beShow MoreRelated Chaucers Canterbury Tales Essay - The Strong Wife of Bath1112 Words   |  5 Pagesherself ready to welcome. Alison certainly ranks high among women able to gain control over their mates.    The Wife of Baths personality, philosophy of sexuality, and attitude toward sovereignty in marriage obviously are offered as comedy. When Chaucers short poem addressed to Bukton, who is about to marry, recommends that he read the Wife of Bath regarding The sorwe and wo that is in mariage (ed. Benson, p. 655), he has to mean the domination, real or attempted, or the nagging, of theRead MoreHistory of British Literature3343 Words   |  14 Pagesworks of Geoffrey  Chaucer  mark the brilliant culmination of Middle English literature. Chaucers  The Canterbury Tales  are stories told each other by pilgrimsÂâ€"who comprise a very colorful cross section of 14th-century English societyÂâ€"on their way to the shrine at Canterbury. The tales are cast into many different verse forms and genres and collectively explore virtually every significant medieval theme. Chaucers wise and humane work also illuminates the full scope of medieval thought. OvershadowedRead More Divine Comedy - The Trinity in Dantes Inferno Essay2097 Words   |  9 Pageslast upon a towers base (VII, 127-130). More important than the devices with which to compose Dantes language is his language itself. Brucker explores the implications of Dantes revolutionary use of the vernacular:    Yet his Divine Comedy was written in the local Tuscan dialect; not in Latin. And although this work contains the universal concepts of the classical and Christian traditions, it is also a Florentine poem, replete with the particular values, emotions, and concerns ofRead MoreFigurative Language and the Canterbury Tales13472 Words   |  54 Pagesencompasses the smaller ones. Often this term is used interchangeably with both the literary technique and the larger story itself that contains the smaller ones, which are called framed narratives or embedded narratives. The most famous example is Chaucers Canterbury Tales, in which the overarching frame narrative is the story of a band of pilgrims traveling to the shrine of Thomas a Becket in Canterbury. The band passes the time in a storytelling contest. The framed narratives are the individual stories