AO2 Chaucer and Ford - Language Analysis

AO2 Chaucer and Ford - Language Analysis

1. The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale

   • Form
     • Poetic narrative
       • Layered narrative also, which means that information is unreliable as no convential 'omniscient narrator'
         • The issue created is how far we should interpret the Wife's views as Chaucer's and how far he is using her to represent views opposite to his own
     • Rhyming couplets of iambic pentameter
     • One small part of a whole collection of 'The Canterbury Tales'
     • Unusual because Wife's prologue is twice the length of the tale - other pilgrims have either no or short introduction
       • Even Pardoner only takes 100 lines to himself
   • Sources
     • Chaucer blends a confessional style narrative with quotation from literature which demonstrates the extent of his knowledge and scholarship
     • The character he places his knowledge into is very unlike himself - self-obsessed, coarse and ill-informed
     • Main sources
       • St. Jerome (saw women as temptation to sin as devoted life to extreme asceticism) and Theophrastus (Greek philosopher who's misogynistic material is adapted by Chaucer)
       • La Vieille (The old woman) by The Roman de la Rose allegorical poem from 13th century
   • Structure
     • At first glance it seems unstructured and rambling - this is an illusion
       • Only surprise for modern day audience is 100 line digression on 'gentillesse' - but that would have been expected for contemporary audience as they were used to moral 'sermoning' during stories
     • Prologue: 1-162 Wife's views on marriage/163-193 Pardoner's interruption/194-451 her first 3 hubs/452-502 4th hub/503-828 Jankin/829-856 Friar and Summoner
       • Interruptions of pilgrims serve as a reminder that its a dramatic monologue and the Wife's 'preamble' is long
     • Tale - crisp and tighter structure as Wife switches from personal reminiscence to conventional narrator of traditional story
       • Clear narrative line - intro sets story in Arthurian literature 'in th'olde dayes of the King Arthour.' which leads the reader to expect a courtly tale of knightly endeavour but this expectation is broken because Wife makes knight guilty 'By verray force he rafte her maidenhead.'
   • Language
     • Iambic pentameter
       • Used for formal description 'In th'olde dayes of the King Arthour'/ fast-paced action 'Al sodeynly thre leves have I plight/out of his book'/representing speech 'Wy, taak it al! lo, have it every deel!'
       • Marks Chaucer's maturity as a poet as used to use octosyllabic line
     • Heroic couplets
       • 'I laughe whan I thinke, how pitously a-night I made hem swinke!' playful rhythm shows glee and unashamed
     • The WOB is a very believable character because she uses conversational and colloquial language which contributes to naturalistic speech
       • e.g. Addresses audience directly 'Lo,heere'/'I pray yow, telleth me.'/Ye knowe.'
       • e.g. Use of rhetoric: 'Where comanded he virginitee?'
       • Colloquialisms: 'nat worth a leek'/I hadde alwey a coltes tooth.'/'Queynte.'/'Bele chose.'/'Pissed.'
         • Chaucer links the formal and informal to give us the impression that the Prologue and Tale are a unified piece
         • Bawdy
     • Humour
       • Situational: Her behaviour during 4H funeral 'me thoughte he hadde a paire of legges and of feet so clene and faire.'
       • Satire: Wife's outrageousness and outspoken manner, self-defeating attack on men and her name which ironically means 'noble.'
       • Irony 'Deceit, weping, spinning God hath yive To wommen kindley (pun or double-meaning in 'kindely' which could mean in their nature or kindly - either way WOB is treats anti-fem statement as a gift

2. Tis Pity She's a Whore

   • Imagery
     • Heart - moment in play that attracts most attention
       • Giovanni's outrage could be evidence of his solipsism - according to Wymer, as 'Giovanni clutches the bleeding heart, he thinks he possesses Annabella but in fact he is left in a world of his own.'
       • Could signal a tragic right of passage - according to an interpretation of Ian Mckellan's Giovanni in 1972 with Actors' Company he changed 'from a passionate boy to an unassailable angel of death, stalking into the banquet hall with Annabella's heart.' - Irving Wardle, The Times
       • Dagger could be at once phallic and destructive
         • Dorothy M.Farr the dagger is 'a gathering together in a strong visual impact of the sense of physical ,moral and spiritual violation which runs through the entire action.'
     • Unifying imagery to encourage incest 'If a young wench feel the fit upon her let her take anyvody all is one (putana) links with Giovanni's attempt 'Ever one one soul one flesh one blood one heart one all? '
     • Animal - 'wretched creature ' used to degrade her
   • Logos 'Say that we had one father, say one womb/Are we not therefore to each other bound?'
     • Pathos, 'Must I not do what all men else may -love?'
     • Contradicted by Pathos in next line 'One soul, one flesh, one love, one heart, one all?' - devalues credibility of Logos
   • Deontic modal verbs
     • Tis my destiny that you must either love, or I must die - expresses certainty and show's Gio's dominance
     • 'To make you mine' possessive - to share one beauty to a double soul - this links with the neaplatonic idea of 'the one' or finding 'your other half.'

3. Asyndeton - Acknowledge what tho art, a wretch, a worm, a nothing.' Friar

4. Transactional: If he can thrive, he shall win her love' Florio

   • Winne whoso may, for al is for to selle

5. Love's measure is extreme, the comfort pain - oxymoron love causes pain

   • Fits in with Wife's love being painful 'I loved him best/he was of his love daungerous to me.'

6. 'Get thee to thy chamber' - imperative verbs show how women viewed as incapable of independence

7. Vasques not banished 'since what thou did was done