Parallel Between Poet’s Insomnia and Knight According to the medieval dream theory and its classification system, the dream experience by the poet in The Book of Duchess seemingly belongs to that variety wherein the impression and concerns of the previous day are recycled during sleep (Macrobius 88-90). The poet’s own feelings of lethargy, in combination with particular motifs from the story of Ceyx and Alyzone, manifest itself into the externalized form of the grief-stricken knight. Therefore, the knight’s state of mind is foreshadowed in the sorrow of Alcyone and in the strange insomnia experienced by the poet. Moreover, this particular ability of the characters to emerge from their emotional paralyses establishes a pattern of consolation throughout the poem. In this regard, unlike the Boethian mode, this Chaucerian consolation works towards a transformation of worldly enthusiasm and seeks to reverse the effects of sorrow rather than to transcend the causes. The prologue, in Book of Duchess, not only serves as a introduction to the vision that is to follow, but also gives the reader the atmosphere and the mood of the poem, which is love, sorrow and lament. The prologue illustrates that the Dreamer has complete psychic sympathy with the subject; as what could be more natural than the Dreamer should dream of longing while his mind is full of the piteous tale of Alyzone, and the background of his thought was his own suffering founded in hopeless love. In Book of the Duchess, Chaucer chooses to draw close parallels between the poet’s insomnia and the knight’s grief. In showcasing the knight’s complete lack of interest in the hunt coupled by his general lethargy, Chaucer effectively alludes to the apathy experienced by the poet hi... ... middle of paper ... ...e Dream and the Book: Chaucer's Dream-Poetry, Faculty Psychology, and the Poetics of Recombination." 2004. Print.Boethius, and P. G. Walsh. The Consolation of Philosophy. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999. Print. Fichte, Jeorg O. "The Book of the Duchess - A Consolation?" Studia Neophilologica: A Journal of Germanic and Romance Languages and Literature 45 (1973): 53-67. Print. Lawlor, John. "The Pattern of Consolation in the Book of the Duchess." Speculum 31.4 (1956): 626-48. Print. Quinn, William A. "Medieval Dream Visions: Chaucer's Book of the Duchess." , 2005. 323-336. Print. Symons, Dana M., Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages, and Western Michigan University. Medieval Institute Publications. Chaucerian Dream Visions and Complaints. Kalamazoo, Mich: Medieval Institute Publications, College of Arts & Sciences, Western Michigan University, 2004. Print.
The Parliament of Fowls and the House of Fame are closely related to each other and to the Book of the Duchess, as all three of the poetry share several similar themes. Written between 1368 and 1380 they are some of Chaucer’s earliest works in which aspects of some of the great writers of his time are evident. There are three major themes intertwined within the three works, which Chaucer has added to the Dream Vision genre.
Boardman, Phillip C. "Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343-1400)." Enduring Legacies: Ancient and Medieval Cultures. 6th ed. Boston: Pearson Custom Pub., 2000. 430-54. Print.
Lambdin, Laura C. and Robert T. Lambdin, ed. Chaucer's Pilgrims: An Historical Guide to the Pilgrims in the Canterbury Tales. London: Greenwood Press, 1996.
When comparing the epic poem of The Song of Roland to the romantic literature of Ywain, the differences between the early medieval period and the high medieval period become evident. Both The Song of Roland and Ywain depicts the societies from which each story derives its fundamental characteristics. Through close observation, one is able to see the shifts in customs and mentality that make the move from the epic to the romance possible. In his chapter 'From Epic to Romance', R.W. Southern shows how this transformation manifests itself through changing ecclesiastical and secular thoughts and feelings.
5. Howe, Helen, and Robert T. Howe. From the Ancient and Medieval Worlds. N.p.: Longman, 1992. Print.
The Wife of Bath Prologue and Tale. Geoffery Chaucer. The Middle Ages, Volume 1A. Eds. Christopher Baswell and Anne Howland Schotter. The Longman Anthology of British Literature. Fourth ed. Gen.eds David Damrosch, and Kevin J. H. Dettmar. New York: Pearson-Longman, 2010. 375-408. Print.
A five page paper which analyses a passage from Le Diable au Corps at the beginning of the liaison between the narrator and Marthe, showing how the descrip...
Stanbury, Sarah. (1997). Regimes of the Visual in Premodern England: Gaze, Body, and Chaucer's Clerk's Tale. New Literary History 28.2, (pgs 261-289)
“The Wife of Bath’s Tale” is written in an entertaining and adventurous spirit, but serves a higher purpose by illustrating the century’s view of courtly love. Hundreds, if not thousands, of other pieces of literature written in the same century prevail to commemorate the coupling of breathtaking princesses with lionhearted knights after going through unimaginable adventures, but only a slight few examine the viability of such courtly love and the related dilemmas that always succeed. “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” shows that women desire most their husband’s love, Overall, “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” shows that the meaning of true love does not stay consistent, whether between singular or separate communities and remains timeless as the depictions of love from this 14th century tale still hold true today.
The duke, who was thus driven from his dominions, retired with a few faithful followers to the forest of Arden; and here the good duke lived with his loving friends, who had put themselves into a voluntary exile for his sake, while their land and revenues enriched the false usurper; and custom soon made the life of careless ease they led here more sweet to them than the pomp and uneasy splendour of a courtier's life. Here they lived like the old Robin Hood of England, and to this forest many noble youths daily resorted from the court, and did fleet the time carelessly, as they did who lived in the golden age. In the summer they lay along under the fine shade of the large forest trees, marking the playful sports of the wild deer; and so fond were they of these poor dappled fools, who seemed to be the native inhabitants of the forest, that it grieved them to be forced to kill them to supply themselves with venison for their food. When the cold winds of winter made the duke feel the change of his adverse fortune, he would endure it patiently, and say: 'These chilling winds which blow upon my body are true counsellors; they do not flatter, but represent truly to me my condition; and though they bite sharply, their tooth is nothing like so keen as that of unkindness and ingratitude. I find that howsoever men speak against adversity, yet some sweet uses are to be extracted from it; like the jewel, precious for medicine, which is taken from the head of the -venomous and despised toad.' In this manner did the patient duke draw a useful moral from everything that he saw; and by the help of this moralizing turn, in that life of his, remote from public haunts, he could find tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.
Roger Babusci et al. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1994. 115-136. Print. “The Medieval Period: 1066-1485.”
1. & nbsp ; & nbsp ; & nbsp ; & nbsp ; & nbsp ; This paper will try to analyze the growth of consciousness of the Lady of Shalott. Ranging from her state of mind in total isolation, her 'childhood', to her changing 'adolescence' and eventually reaching 'adulthood' and death, all in a sort of quick-motion. It will further deal with the development of tension throughout the poem. By making a distinction between tension through formal aspects, such as rhyme scheme, and tension through content, it will try to show the interconnection between both of them. Additionally, the paper will deal with the possible effect of tension on the reader and how the poem might be perceived by him/her.
The form of the poem is that of dream vision, a form in which the author presents the story under the guise of having dreamt it, which was common in medieval literature. The dominant features of dream vision were of love and also of spiritual or religious themes, and Chaucer’s first three major pieces were dream visions. The dreamer and narrator is the same person, which gives the poem an intensely personal edge, even though the personality is fictional. The dream vision involves allegory, not only because when one dreams we expect the unrealistic and fanciful, for example events taking place which would not be feasible in normal life, but also because of the common suspicion that dreams portray the truth in disguised form, and are therefore natural allegories. La...
Two of the greatest masters of British literature, Shakespeare and Chaucer, tended to look to the classics when searching for inspiration. A lesser-known example of this lies in an ancient tale from Greece about two star-crossed lovers. There are many variations on the names of these lovers, but for the purpose of solidarity, they shall henceforth be referred to as “Troilus and Criseyde” for Chaucer and “Troilus and Cressida” for Shakespeare. Chaucer’s “Troilus and Criseyde” offers up a classic tale of love that is doomed, whereas Shakespeare’s “Troilus and Cressida” is not only tragic but also biting in its judgment and representation of characters. This difference may be due to the differences in time periods for the two authors, or their own personal dispositions, but there can be no denying the many deviations from Chaucer’s work that Shakespeare employs. Shakespeare’s work, by making the characters and situations more relatable, builds upon Chaucer’s original work, rather than improving it or shattering it.
Chaucer is not some unknown literary author who is known only by a dozen people in the English field. Besides Shakespeare, Chaucer is probably one of the most well-known contributors to English literature, if not the most well-known. His name is instantly recognizable, and many a high school student learned of him through the oftentimes-painful reading of his most famous work, The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer’s work is an extremely important text in terms of the evolution of the English language; The Canterbury Tales set itself apart from other literary works at the time by being one of the first pieces of literature to be written in English instead of French, and its extreme popularity spurred the creations of even more English literature, allowing the language to regain its prominence and evolve into the English we know today (“Chaucer”; Kemmer). Today, it’s the most prominent example of Middle English work, and is studied not just for its literary worth but as evidence of what the language was like at the time. The Canterbury Tales and Chaucer’s importance are extreme, and the author enjoyed his fame during his life as well as long after, largely due to his abilities to make sound decisions, take risks, learned to learn as a professional, and transfer knowledge, skills that people even today can utilize to be successful.