The General Prologue in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer - Essay Example

The General Prologue In ‘The Canterbury Tales’ by Geoffrey Chaucer 2008 The General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales plays a significant role within the collection. Serving as a framework of the collection, so that it is referred to as the Frame Narrative, it is often viewed as an independent piece. Like all the tales of the collection, the prologue serves the purpose of representing some literature genre existing in the times of Chaucer. Consisting of strictly distinguished parts the prologue seems to be an example of such popular genres as medieval lyric poetry celebrating the revival of spring and the so called Estates Satire. However, reader’s expectations are not confirmed. Chaucer merely uses the features of the genres to communicate the messages of his own, to establish the themes and motives he is going to elaborate in his tales. The general prologue introduces the range of the thematic and stylistic elements developed in the collection. The reader can misunderstand the author’s message, misled by the generic forms represented in the prologue. At first, a reader is likely to concentrate on the gallery of portraits, perceiving them as a satirical representation of different social classes contemporary to Chaucer. Ian Johnston (1998) suggests that it is necessary to distinguish between character and thematic analysis. As a rule, critics focused on the character analysis of the prologue, ignoring the thematic approach, which is the consideration of ideas and leitmotivs and the way how they are ‘presented, modified, challenged and resolved by the end of the work’. From thematic perspective characterization plays a primary role in the presentation of coordinating ideas. However, one is to bear in mind, that, unlike philosophical works, works of fiction do not offer rational arguments (though may contain them to some degree). Thus, it is not right to reduce a work of fiction to some simple ‘moral’. By this Johnston must mean that interpreting the general prologue as purely a work of satire we are likely to miss an opportunity to understand the real message of the author. First of all, it is necessary to focus on the famous opening lines (1-18). These lines imitate the opening of the thirteenth-century French Romance of the Rose, an allegorical dream vision and love romance which was the ‘best-seller’ of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. All the educated readers were familiar with that work, partially translated into English by Chaucer himself. Imitating the opening of the Romance, Chaucer plays with the reader’s expectations, suggests Debora B. Schwartz (2006). Everyone knew what was to happen in spring. The description of the nature, in fact, seems to be a parable of humans making love, where rain that washes “the droghte of march” (2) and causes the birth of life (4) stands for the sexual act and conception. Springtime is the time when humans long for love. However, Chaucer prepares a surprise. His characters long to go on pilgrimage, “Of engelond to caunterbury they wende/The hooly blisful martir for to seke/ That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke” (16-18). This way the passage, presenting “a unified and ideal hierarchy”, leads us from the natural to divine, from the natural/divine to the anthropomorphic/sacred (Delahoyde 2004). The opening lines divide into two equal parts, the first focusing on the spring and the second on the holy duty of pilgrimage, underlines Ian Johnston (1998). One is to pay attention to the language of the lines, which to Johnston’s mind “can alert us of what is going to emerge as an important part in the characterization of the pilgrims”. The first half emphasizes the erotic energy of spring. Such words as “engendred”, “Inspired,” “priketh,” “Ram”, etc, denoting penetration and fertilization, the movement of the lines, the short vowels in some of the words are the devices helping to create a sense of erotic energy. The nature is filled with it to such an extent that even birds sleep with one eye open, “so priketh hem nature in hir corages “(9-11). The second half is focused on people’s desire to give their thanks to God and the sounds and movements of the sentences become much softer and gentler. Thus we can approach the study of the society depicted by Chaucer on the basis of two motives: “the irrational push of Eros and the spiritual pull of Thanatos,” as Johnston puts it using Freudian terms. This way the opening sentence introduces a powerful theme running throughout the general prologue and elaborated further in the tales: there exist two essential forces of life and they must be held in balance, suggests Johnston (1998). This theme, marked grammatically in the opening sentence, becomes particularly obvious in relation to the ideal portraits. The first pair of portraits is that of the Knight and Squire, the one uniting “virtues of active Christianity” displayed by the Knight with “the exuberant vitality” embodied in his son, “an erotic love of life” combined with knowledge of one’s duties. Analyzing the first pair of portraits in the light of this theme we get a glimpse of “a standard of human conduct” other portraits to be compared with. The Knight reveals such features as “Trouthe and honour, fredom and curteisie” (46). His clothes are humble and only horses are good. Having just returned to England he joins the pilgrims to give his thanks to God. The Squire, displaying the virtues of youth, is full of erotic energy. His gown is short and pants are tight, and he stays out all night, knows how to act courtly and can ride well (93, 98-100). Committed to the ideals of chivalry, he possesses a creative spirit and abilities to sing and dance, write lyric poetry and celebrate the joy of youth. However, he doesn’t forget his respect to father. Another ideal pair is met near the end of the prologue represented by the Parson and the Plowman, displaying the virtues similar to those of the Knight and the Squire. They are hard working and charitable, ready to stand up against injustice, their lives dedicated to the service to people. The energies driving them through life seem to be in harmony with the “standard of human conduct”. Starting with the ideal standard and reintroducing it near the end, Chaucer enables his reader to more easily make moral judgments about the rest of characters. Johnston concludes that a central theme of the General Prologue can be distinguished as “an exploration of the full range of the moral qualities of late Medieval Christianity as they manifest themselves in the daily life of the people” (Johnston 1998). It is preferable to consider the general prologue as an epic poem rather than as estates satire. As you classify the characters it is a bit difficult to place them within strictly three estates (nobility, clergy, and commoners) as it is done in the Norton Anthology (2000). The Prioress and the Monk can be suspected to be once aristocracy. The Sergeant of Law and the Franklin are landowners. Most of laborers are the representatives of the emerging middle class, wearing fine clothes and possessing enough money to set on the pilgrimage. The Plowman and the Parson, however, are the representatives of the lower class. Chaucer is rather conservative in his views on the society, praising only the nobility and poor servants of God. On the other hand, he attempts to provide the reader with a holistic vision of his epoch, which is the time of tensions and rapid changes bringing the Renaissance. The general prologue acquires epic quality, having “a social breadth and a narrative scope which provide a much wider and all-inclusive canvas than an ordinary fiction” and exploring “not simply particular characters in a particular setting, but an entire cultural moment” (Johnston 1998). By the end of the general prologue Chaucer lays out the set of moral features to be used by the reader in measuring the characters’ moral. He points out to the seven cardinal virtues (prudence, fortitude, temperance, justice, faith, hope, and charity) and the seven cardinal sins (pride, envy, covetousness, sloth, anger, lust, and gluttony), developing his portraits around this scheme. At that Chaucer relates human virtue to one’s social position and to the way one treats his fellow creatures. Drawing the reader’s attention to the major points, Chaucer resorts to repeated details providing us with an opportunity to compare. These details appear in most of portraits, including: the characters’ attitude to money, clothes and horses, things they love (God, food, women, gold) (Johnston 1998). The double narrator and irony helps Chaucer to develop his major theme. Being a part of the group the narrator reveals the details he could not know about people he has just met, which means that Chaucer unnoticeably switches from inner narrator to the outer one. On the other hand, Chaucer endows his narrator with prejudices and naïve perceptions he himself could possibly not possess. This provides him with an opportunity to resort to irony, built on the ambiguity of the moral language and the action. Through irony, Chaucer invites us to explore the real nature of his characters ourselves, his descriptions giving no direct judgments. Comparing characters to each other, the reader is able to interpret the author’s message properly. Simultaneously, the double narrator makes the satire of the prologue “extremely gentle”. Many of the descriptions indicate that the narrator really likes those people on journey. He brings us very close to them, making us understand their weaknesses and enjoy their erotic energy. This is especially evident in the portraits of the Prioress and the Wife of Bath, the Friar and the Monk. Though the narrator indicates their hypocrisy, his liking of some of the character’s qualities reduces the satiric tone to almost a zero (Johnston 1998). Chaucer warns his reader to be careful with judgment, when he dwells upon the matter of truth at the end of the prologue: “Thogh that I pleynly speke in this mateere/ To telle yow hir wordes and hir cheere/ Ne thogh I speke hir wordes properly” (727-29). The General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales introduces the themes and leitmotivs of the collection, the major being the balance between the forces of life and exploration of qualities of the Medieval Christianity. The prologue acquires epic qualities capturing “the entire cultural moment” and drawing the precise portraits of different representatives of that time. Providing the reader with a scheme of moral qualities and resorting to such devices as repeated details, double narrator and irony Chaucer makes the reader analyze and interpret on his own. References: Delahoyde, Michael, Dr. The Canterbury Tales: The General Prologue. Washington State University. 2004. Available at: http://www.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/chaucer/GP.html Johnston, Ian. Introduction to “The General Prologue” of The Canterbury Tales. A lecture delivered, in part, in English 200, Section 3, on October 5, 1998 at Malaspina University-College, Nanaimo, BC, Canada. Available at: www.mala.bc.ca/~johnstoi/Eng200/chaucer.htm - 54k Schwarz, Debora B., Dr. The Canterbury Tales: The General Prologue. ENGL 330 / ENGL 512: Medieval Literature English Department, California Polytechnic State University. 2007. Available at: cla.calpoly.edu/~dschwart/engl512/gp.html - 19k The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 8th Edition, Vol. 1. Ed. by M. H. Abrams, W W Norton & Co Inc, 2006. Read More