Chaucer - critic and context Flashcards
(21 cards)
what did Aykroyd say about the medieval taste
‘A reflection of the medieval taste for the marvellous’
what did Aykroyd say about female sorrows
‘Chaucer seems preoccupied with the sorrows of the female and their revenge in the most bawdy and explict manner’
what did Thorne say about January
‘January’s bending of religious authority to his own selfish purposes leaves religion untouched but adds to out sense of his delusion and error’
what did Harrington say about self-deception
‘We are left with a disturbing notion that a level of happiness is possible through folly and self-deception’
what did Tolliver say about the narrator
‘A psychologically complex fiction in which the narrator acts out his own senile delusions and lecherous self-indulgence without holding himself morally accountable’
what did Pearsall say about human behaviour
‘The cynical reduction of all human behavior to lust and greed’
what did Varnam say about the courtly lover
‘Chaucer’s garden in this tale is no longer a place of courtly love or intellectual debate but of lust and sexuallity’
what was Boethius ‘Fortune’s Wheel’
- the book as influential as the bible. - fortune’s gifts are unpredictable and ‘seducing’
- fortune’s crulety remind us of the fleetingness of earthly things.
what did Boethius say about fortune
‘All fortune is good fortune: for it either rewards, disciplines, amends or punishes.’
New mercantile was in accent, Chaucer demonises the Merchant to appeal to his contemporary audience (the aristocratic) there is a subtext that implies…
concern about the restrictive practices of a corrupt, greedy aristocracy. The previous king had destroyed the wool export.
‘because of Eve’s sin, women were thought to be carnal and deceitful […]…
and the source of the world’s problems.’ (Hoffman)
what were St Jerome’s anti feminist ideas
women are plagued by vanity and unfaithfulness
in the wife of bath’s tale how does Chaucer combat St Jerome’s ideas about women
a polemic - she wilfully misunderstands Jerome’s passages there’s great irony of Jerome’s words in the mouth of a woman, where she uplifts female sexuality
Chaucer had a ‘career marriage’ with…
Phillipa Roet
on the occasion of their marriage chaucer and Phillipa Roet gained…
- Philipa may have been granted a lifetime annuity of ten marks as Domicella to the Queen
- Chaucer’s status moved up from the Bourgeoisie class
who wrote ‘Roman de la rose’ (which chaucer translated to english)
De Gulliaume and De Meun
how did ‘Roman de la rose’ influence the tale
Jaunuarie’s replication of the garden comes from a place of sinfulness and hubris - originally the garden represented a pure relationship with the church
what was the inspiration for the marriage debate
Eustache Deschamps’ ‘Le Miroir De Marriage’ - a long epistle full of misogynous undertones
define Cuckold
a man who wife had been unfaithful to him. Everyone knows it apart from him. The symbol for one is horns upon the head that all can see but him.
define Gentillesse
a mode of behavious characterised by loyalty, respect for women and selflessness. Exclusively for the noble blooded
define Courtly love
usually involved a man who pines over an unattainable women - usually because she was married. In the literary convention, the courtly lover who try to woo their love, on rejection they would become bed-ridden or dead
