Our questions this month concern the women's issues raised by the two tales under examination, "The Wife of Bath's Tale" and "The Clerk's Tale."
Interpretive Questions
1. What common, timeless themes reflecting life and reality appear in both the "Wife of Bath's Tale" and "The Clerk's Tale"?
2. Does Chaucer's portrayal of the Wife of Bath (in the "Wife of Bath's Prologue") reflect a perceptive view of women (cf. pp. 17, 23, 31)?
a. The Wife of Bath and Griselda, at least on the surface, seem to have very different ways of relating to men and the power structure. Which does Chaucer seem to favor (p.40, 80)?
3. What is Chaucer's attitude towards the clergy? Towards religion in general (p.65)?
4. Is Griselda's submission to the king a metaphor for the submission of God's creatures to God (p.62)?
Evaluative questions
1. Can it be said in general that Chaucer liked women? People in general?
2 Do you agree with the moral of the Wife of Bath's Tale, i.e., what women want most is "sovereignty"?
Monday, September 15, 2008
Friday, September 12, 2008
Johnny's Fireside Book
In the Wife of Bath’s Prologue, part of this month’s selection from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the Wife of Bath, “Alisoun,” relates the following about her fifth and latest husband, Johnny:
He had a book, he kept it on his shelf,
And day and night he read it to himself
And laughed aloud, although he was quite serious
He called it Theophrastus and Valerius. (Coghill, trans.)
Johnny’s book was a collection of stories from classical and biblical sources about “wicked wives” (which, by the way, contained the story of Agamemnon’s death at the hands of his wife Clytemnestra and her paramour, a story told in next month’s reading, Aeschylus’s drama "Agamemnon").
Johnny enjoyed the narrative of wicked wives, until his wife sets him straight.
And when I saw that he would never stop
Reading this cursed book, all night no doubt
I suddenly grabbed and tore three pages out
Where he was reading, at the very place
And fisted such a buffet [punch] in his face
That backwards down into the fire he fell
Johnny then hits his wife on the head and knocks her unconscious. When she comes to, he promises never to lay hands on her again. He gives her full authority over their house and land. Alisoun makes Johnny “burn that book upon the spot.”
Who published Johnny’s book? It was no doubt self-published in Chaucer’s imagination. Insofar as it confirmed Johnny’s preconceived notions about the “wickeness of women,” Chaucer tells us it provided fine fireside reading for Johnny. Then life (er, wife) intruded.
Professor Mark Edmundson writes in his book Why Read? that one function of education is “to use major works of art and intellect to influence one’s Final Narrative, one’s outermost circle of commitments.” Johnny enjoyed the narrative of his book. His wife didn’t. She revised Johnny’s narrative for him in a book discussion of unusual physicality.
He had a book, he kept it on his shelf,
And day and night he read it to himself
And laughed aloud, although he was quite serious
He called it Theophrastus and Valerius. (Coghill, trans.)
Johnny’s book was a collection of stories from classical and biblical sources about “wicked wives” (which, by the way, contained the story of Agamemnon’s death at the hands of his wife Clytemnestra and her paramour, a story told in next month’s reading, Aeschylus’s drama "Agamemnon").
Johnny enjoyed the narrative of wicked wives, until his wife sets him straight.
And when I saw that he would never stop
Reading this cursed book, all night no doubt
I suddenly grabbed and tore three pages out
Where he was reading, at the very place
And fisted such a buffet [punch] in his face
That backwards down into the fire he fell
Johnny then hits his wife on the head and knocks her unconscious. When she comes to, he promises never to lay hands on her again. He gives her full authority over their house and land. Alisoun makes Johnny “burn that book upon the spot.”
Who published Johnny’s book? It was no doubt self-published in Chaucer’s imagination. Insofar as it confirmed Johnny’s preconceived notions about the “wickeness of women,” Chaucer tells us it provided fine fireside reading for Johnny. Then life (er, wife) intruded.
Professor Mark Edmundson writes in his book Why Read? that one function of education is “to use major works of art and intellect to influence one’s Final Narrative, one’s outermost circle of commitments.” Johnny enjoyed the narrative of his book. His wife didn’t. She revised Johnny’s narrative for him in a book discussion of unusual physicality.
Friday, September 5, 2008
Group to Discuss "The Canterbury Tales" on Monday, September 22d
Our next meeting will take place on Monday, September 22d, in the Village Library Meeting Room, at 7 p.m. We'll discuss several of the "Canterbury Tales," by Geoffrey Chaucer (ca. 1340-1400), the towering figure of English literature before Shakespeare. By turns pious, romantic, and bawdy, these tales reward readers with their humor and insight. Our selection this month includes the "Wife of Bath's Tale" (and its famous prologue in which she discourses on her five marriages) and the "Clerk's Tale."
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