Explain One Thing About Medieval English Culture And/Or Literature, As Shown Through These
Response 1:
As a Discussion Leader this week in Chaucer as a Window into Medieval England, I chose discussion point one as my subject. Choose one tale and its teller, and discuss the juxtaposition of the two. Does the tale seem to you to particularly suit this teller? Why or why not? Support your response with specific, well-explained examples from the tale and the description of the teller in the Prologue.
The Knight is introduced to us as "a worthy man" (722), who "loved chivalry, truth, honour, freedom and all courtesy." (722). He is well traveled, having fought in Alexandria (Egypt), Latvia, Russia, Granada, Algeciras (southern Spain), Belmarie (Morocco), Ayas (Turkey), Satalie (Turkey) andTramissene (northern Africa). The Knight is represented as all we have come to expect of an English knight being a chivalrousgentleman.
The Knight's Tale is based in ancient Greece and centered around two young Theban knights named Arcita and Palamon, cousins. The Theban army is crushed by Theseus of Athens and the two knights are captured and thrown into a tower cell for the rest of their lives. While they were lamenting their plight, the cousins noticed Emily,the sister of Theseus' wife, stroll through the gardens and they both fell in love with her and become jealous of each other.Arcita was released but threatened to never return or forfeit his life but he could not stay away. He disguises himself and is able to get hired on as a servant in Theseus' household so he can be close to Emily and over years works his way up to becoming a squire for Theseus himself.Palamon finds a way to escape and comes across Arcita alone in a grove speaking of his love for Emily and how he had weaseled his way into Theseus' household to be near her. They end up fighting and Theseus comes across them, halting their battle to the death.Theseus convinces the two to come back in 50 weeks with 100 soldiers each to battle for Emily's hand in marriage.
The tale revolves around a tragic love story of two men having fallen in love with the same woman. Of course, throughout the majority of the tale, the woman Emily, doesn't even know they love her.Palamon is first to see and fall in love with Emily. "It's not our prison that caused me to cry. But I was wounded lately through the eye down to my heart, and that my bane will be. The beauty of the lady that I see there in the garden, pacing to and fro, is the cause of all my crying and my woe. I know not if she's woman or goddess; but Venus she is verily, I guess." (743). Of course, Arcita takes a look and is smitten as well. "The virgin beauty slays me suddenly of her that wanders yonder in that place; and save I have her pity and her grace, that I at least may see her day by day, I am but dead; there is no more to say." (743).
This tale is a perfect fit for the Knight to tell; it has all the attributes that knights strive for represent.
Chaucer, Geoffrey.The Canturbury Tales.World Literature Anthology Through the Renaissance. Eds. William Overton and Linda Silva.Vol. 3. Charles Town, WV: APUS E-Press, 2011. 721-780. Web. 7 Jan 2013.
Response 2:
Explain one thing about medieval English culture and/or literature, as shown through these selections and/or the supplementary readings that surprised you. Why did it surprise you so much? Did it change you view of the time period at all?
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I always thought of medieval culture to be the rigors of war, hardship, and poverty. I never really considered much of the medieval culture to revolve around love or corruption between a man and a woman. It definitely caught me off guard after these weeks’ readings that many of The Canterbury Tales had to do with men trying to get the woman or a woman trying to trick a man. I also thought of medieval times to be a time when the male always dominated the story; I also found that to be untrue in “The Wife’s of Bath Tale”.<o:p</o:p>
In “A Knight’s Tale” we find two men who are in love with the same woman but do not have the means to get her. They are both prisoners who eventually get out of prison only to have to duel for her. In the end the loser of the duel ends up with the woman. I found this story interesting because of the inclusion of the “gods”. I have found that most literature that we have gone through while in this class includes some type of higher being and religion or beliefs play a huge part on the cultures of the past, just as they do in today’s day and age.<o:p</o:p>
“The Miller’s Tale” and “The Reeve’s Tale” both seem somewhat similar to me. They both encompass deception into their stories and the wives in both of the stories sleep with someone other than their husbands. While the Miller’s Tale is solely focused on the clerk having an affair with the carpenters’ wife whereas The Reeve’s Tale is a tale of two clerks who trick a carpenter by sleeping with his daughter and having his wife lay with the other. The outcomes to both of the stories were somewhat unexpected, especially in The Reeve’s Tale where the two clerks ended up just leaving with flour.<o:p</o:p>
In “The Wife’s of Bath Tale” we see that the story is told a bit differently. The woman from the story gives a brief description of her past husbands and the story is told from the view of essentially a woman trying to understand men. The story goes on about how a knight is being punished and must find the answer to what women desire most and eventually gives in and gets the answer from an old lady. He promises her one wish and he painstakingly finds out that that one wish is for his hand in marriage. He marries the lady and in the end she decides to be beautiful and faithful to the knight. <o:p</o:p>
Overall, I found the stories very interesting but from a different light than I am used to. I expected the stories to be more about war or fighting rather than love and deception. I think it definitely changed my opinion of the medieval time period. It showed me a lighter side of the medieval culture and a side that includes love and life into the hardships rather than death and war. <o:p</o:p>
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canturbury Tales. World Literature Anthology Through the Renaissance. Eds. William Overton and Linda Silva.Vol. 3. Charles Town, WV: APUS E-Press, 2011. 721-827. Web. 18 Mar 2013<o:p</o:p>