Canterbury Tales (Barron's Book Notes)

by Canterbury Tales (Barron's Book Notes) [lit]

  ^^^^^^^^^^CANTERBURY TALES: THEMES

  1. WHO ARE THE GODS?

  Fortune, as we have seen, plays a large part in the tale. The gods act as agents of that fortune at the same time that they represent the order of God. ("Jupiter" is named as the First Mover, God, since after all this is supposed to be pre-Christian Greece.)

  How, you might ask, can it be a poem about God's plan if there are pagan gods running the show? Chaucer gets out of this potentially sticky problem brilliantly by subtly changing the gods to their respective planets. They still talk and act like gods, but the influence they exert is in the form of astrological influences, which many in Chaucer's audience would accept. It's not Saturn the cruel god who topples Arcite from his horse, it's the influence of Saturn an evil planet. The gods/planets also embody abstract ideals, Venus representing both good and bad love, Diana showing cruel as well as proper chastity.

  2. SOCIAL ORDER

  An ordered society represented by ceremony and ritual is crucial to a smoothly running world. Theseus also shows this by conquering the Amazon society, run by women, and Creon, who is not ruled by reason. Another symbol of the importance of society is the stress on "compaignye," which is the opposite of death where man is alone, as Arcite bewails in his dying speech. The marriage ending shows the ultimate victory of the social world over the solitary one.

  3. VOWS

  Arcite and Palamon break their vow of kinship and knighthood; they vow faithfulness to the gods of their choice; they vow undying love for Emelye. These promises made and broken show the conflict of ideals and the difficulty of keeping them, because of fortune's turns and humanity's nature. The only one who's different is Theseus, who changes his mind only when he tempers his vows with mercy. You must look at the two knights' vows and determine which ones are the most important to keep.

  4. FORTUNE

  The wheel of fortune image was very familiar to Chaucer's audience. The wheel of fortune spins, making paupers kings, and vice versa, but behind it is the stable, unchanging providence of God, which we can't see or understand. So there are two levels of understanding, one in which men blame fortune for their ever-changing lives, and a higher order where destiny is decreed. Arcite lives on the lower level and believes fortune rules everything, while Palamon accepts that whatever is ordained will happen.

  ^^^^^^^^^^CANTERBURY TALES: POINT OF VIEW

  Chaucer brings us closer to the Knight's Tale by occasionally switching into an "I" narration, such as when he describes the altars Theseus has built to Mars:

  There saw I first the dark imagining

  Of Felony, and all the compassing [planning]

  (lines 1137-1138)

  He also changes his point of view from telling of first one person, then another; from telling of human exploits to the arguments of the gods. This makes us feel like we ourselves are gods, able to see more than any individual character.

  ^^^^^^^^^^CANTERBURY TALES: FORM AND STRUCTURE

  Some believe the Knight's Tale is a pure romance, filled with knights and lovely ladies and battles for the sake of love. At several points it's clear Chaucer is making fun of the courtly love conventions of the French romances, with the lovesick Arcite going "up and down" in his moods. Duke Theseus, too, treats the love battle like a game, making light of love and offering the joust as a solution.

  Others think the tale, which Chaucer changed greatly from Boccaccio's original, starts out as an epic before it becomes a conventional romance in its style. Another irony is that Theseus' speech at the end, would not have appeared in a conventional romance tale.

  ^^^^^^^^^^CANTERBURY TALES: PLOT

  The Miller's Tale is not supposed to follow the Knight's Tale, for the Monk, who is next to the Knight in the social order, should go next. But the drunken Miller cuts in, insisting that he will tell a tale first or else leave the group. The Reeve tells him to shut up, but the Miller insists.

  A well-meaning but stupid carpenter named John has a lodger, a poor scholar named Nicholas. Nicholas buries himself in astrology books, likes to play music and mess around with women, and lives off his friends. John, meanwhile, has a young wife, only eighteen, named Alison, of whom he's extremely jealous.

  Not surprisingly, Nicholas starts to make a pass at Alison one day while John is away. She protests only a little before agreeing that if Nicholas can find a way to keep John from finding out, she'll sleep with him. Don't worry, says Nicholas, a clerk can surely fool a carpenter.

  Meanwhile, a parish clerk named Absalom, who is as particular as Nicholas about his appearance and his appeal to women, sees Alison at church and decides to woo her. He sings under the bedroom window that night, waking up John in the bargain. He tries everything he can think of, but Alison is so infatuated with Nicholas that she pays no attention.

  Nicholas comes up with a plan that will let him and Alison spend all night together. He stays in his room for days, until John gets worried and breaks down the door.

  Nicholas warns him, in confidence, that he has seen a terrible omen in his astrology books. There will be a flood that will make Noah's flood look like a drizzle. In order to be saved, Nicholas tells John that he must get three large tubs and hang them from the roof until the flood reaches that high; then they can cut the ropes and float away.

  But you must not sleep with your wife that night, Nicholas warns, because there must be no sin between you.

  Gullible John believes every word. On the appointed night he strings up the boats and falls asleep in one of them. Needless to say, Nicholas and Alison live it up.

  But Absalom, having heard that John is out of town, hightails it to the house and stands under the window again, begging for a kiss. As a joke, Alison agrees, and under cover of night she sticks her rear end out the window for Absalom to kiss.

  He gets furious and his love for Alison evaporates. He runs to a blacksmith and takes a hot iron back to the house, calling to Alison that he wants to give her a gold ring. This time Nicholas decides to put his rear end out the window to be kissed.

  "Speak, dear," says Absalom, since it's too dark to see. Nicholas farts.

  He gets a hot poker where it hurts, and shrieks, "Help! Water!" The cry wakes up John, who thinks the cry of "Water!" means the flood has begun. He cuts the rope and crashes to the ground, fainting and breaking his arm in the process. The tale ends with John the laughingstock of the town, Nicholas amply repaid for his deceit, and Alison having gotten the "plumbing" she desired.

  NICHOLAS is the sliest character in Chaucerian literature. He is "hende," a word that means "nice" and "pleasant," but also carries hints of "sly" and "handy," in other words, ready for action. He knows all about love, sexual pursuits, and astrology. He's amazingly creative, devising a complicated scheme to sleep with Alison and to make John believe his wild story.

  NOTE: Chaucer's emphasis on the creativity of rogues in his tales is something brand new to the Middle Ages. Before this it was unheard of to grant anything like cunning to any evil character except the Devil himself.

  Chaucer's audience would recognize his name from plays about St. Nicholas, who is the mysterious guest at the home of evil hosts. Here, it's the other way around.

  ALISON is charming. Some think she's not terribly bright, while others see Chaucer's portrait of her as a wholehearted endorsement of youth. Her description is filled with animal and nature images: her body is graceful as a weasel's, she's softer than sheep's wool, and better to look at than a pear tree. (Remember this image. In the Merchant's Tale the pear tree becomes a symbol of adultery.) She's skittish as a colt, and the apron around her loins is white as morning milk. That sounds sweet and pure, but her eyes are wanton under her plucked eyebrows. The Miller calls her by flowers' names--a primrose and a "piggesnye," which also means "pig's eye." So the suggestion of pastoral innocence is offset by a sense of natural instincts and unthinking passion.

  ABSALOM is a real dandy, as anxious as Nicholas to hop into bed with pretty women. But where Nicholas is a
man of action, taking what he wants, Absalom does things the polite way, singing songs under Alison's window and following proper ceremony. He's immensely particular about his appearance and his scent, which could explain why he's squeamish about farting. Chaucer's description is more appropriate to a romance heroine than to a man, with his prettily curled hair and rosy complexion. He's not "hende" like Nicholas, he's "jolly," which could explain why he's useless in getting anywhere with Alison. Because he's so exact about his clothes, some see him as a typical small-town lover boy, without intelligence. But he's not unlikable. When you're in love, it's sometimes hard to think of anything but the object of your desire.

  JOHN is someone we don't really see, in the sense that he's not physically described. There's a reason for this: he stays in the background while Nicholas, Alison, and Absalom fill the stage. Yet John, even though he's stupid, is a nice guy. He's truly concerned about Nicholas when the schemer is in his "fit," and his first thought is for Alison when he hears the end of the world is at hand. Significantly, his name reminds us of St. John, whose gospel describes the next "flood," or Doomsday. The irony to Chaucer is that the carpenter's knowledge is not true, as opposed to the knowledge revealed in the Bible.

  ^^^^^^^^^^CANTERBURY TALES: STORY LINE

  After the Knight's Tale, the Host remarks, "unbokeled is the male" (line 7), meaning the pouch containing the tales is unbuckled, but also meaning a man's pants are undone. This sets us up for the crudeness of the drunken Miller's tale, in which double meanings abound.

  The Miller promises a tale to get back at the Knight.

  NOTE: This isn't a personal rivalry, like the Miller's with the Reeve, but reminds us that the tales work on two levels: presenting different points of view from tale to tale on various issues, and setting the actual pilgrims against one another.

  The Miller also lets on he'll parody religious themes by saying he will tell "a legende and a life" (line 33), which usually means a life of the saints. But this one's about a "clerk" (scholar) who makes a fool of a carpenter. This infuriates the Reeve, a carpenter by trade.

  The "Chaucer" who's narrating the pilgrimage apologizes for repeating the Miller's vulgarity, but emphasizes he has to repeat what he hears. If you want, you can turn to another tale that's more morally uplifting. But whatever your choice, don't blame him!

  Right off we're told that the carpenter is a rich scoundrel, and a poor scholar lives under his roof. This leads us instantly to be sympathetic to the scholar. He knows so much about astrology that he can predict when it will rain (it is this talent that later makes John believe him), and also, like a joke on God, knows what the future will bring. Nicholas knows about love that is "derne"--discreet and private, but also meaning secret and sinful. He looks meek as a maid, but appearances are deceiving, an important point to keep in mind.

  The old carpenter, who doesn't know he should marry someone his own age, has a young wife because he fell into the "snare" of love. This will cause him trouble, as we shall see.

  Alison is compared to a gold coin, a valuable piece of material goods, but she is vividly human. We even know how far up her legs her shoes are laced. She's "noble" (a kind of gold coin), fit for a lord, and also fit for a yeoman (servant). This prepares us for the humorous contrast throughout the tale of the courtly with the common.

  NOTE: There is also a contrast between this and the preceding Knight's Tale. Both deal with two men after the same woman, and both concern the issues of love and what is beyond man's control, though on very different levels.

  When Nicholas makes a bold pass at Alison, the sexual references come hot and heavy. He grabs her "queynte" (lines 89-90), which can mean strange, or sly, or a woman's genitals (here it's used in the last two senses). He must have her or he will "spille" (die or ejaculate). He adds that his plan will work because a clerk can fool a carpenter any day. This class distinction is humorous in the circumstances, since all the characters are common even though they're trying to be noble and courtly.

  Right after planning adultery, Alison is off to church, juxtaposing the profane and the sacred in a way some might find sacrilegious. By the same token, "jolly" Absalom shouldn't, as a parish clerk, be hanging out in every tavern in town. He goes to church to check out the wives, Alison among them.

  He falls for her, offering her things as befits the conventions of courtly love. But there is an undercurrent of foolishness and lechery: instead of rich gifts, he woos Alison with pies and ale, and he offers a bribe. He even plays Herod as in a mystery play, a role that involves exaggerated language and contortions. But Alison prefers Nicholas.

  When Nicholas disappears for two days, John gets genuinely worried. When he discovers Nicholas' "fit," John says it's not men's business to know about God's "privetee" (secret affairs), a word that will appear again, in reference not to God but to the affair of Alison and Nicholas.

  John tells Nicholas to "look down" (line 291), i.e., away from God's business, and think about Christ's passion instead. But the silly carpenter then falls for Nicholas' scheme, believing that Nicholas is indeed as knowledgeable as God. He's put his money on the wrong spiritual horse. Nicholas says he won't tell "God's privetee" (again, an ironic usage), as if he knows what God's plans really are.

  Hypocritically, Nicholas tells John that he and Alison must not sleep together because they will be awaiting God's grace. The joke here is that Nicholas doesn't realize that God sent Noah the flood because man had become corrupt and lecherous. The same sins are causing this phony "flood," even though the plan this time isn't God's.

  John tells Alison his "privetee" (secret), although of course Alison knows exactly what the "queynte" plan is, in both senses of the word. She tells John she is his faithful wife--another word that John accepts as Gospel--and John follows Nicholas' instructions and makes the preparations, just as Noah obeyed God even though everyone laughed at him.

  Alison and Nicholas have a merry time of it until the morning church bells ring. The reference to the couple's sex in the same breath as the church is meant to shock, and to show that man's plans often unintentionally mirror God's order.

  Absalom goes to the house, believing Alison is alone, and performs a parody of a morning prayer, asking for Alison's grace and mercy instead of God's. The "kiss" she gives him brings him down to earth in a hurry. His love is "all y-queynt," all quenched, but again this is a pun. Like someone in the Old Testament, he vows revenge. It's interesting that he chooses to come back with a hot "colter" (a plowshare), a backward use of the Biblical adage about turning swords into plowshares.

  Nicholas gets what he deserves. And Absalom, because he is squeamish of farting," gets what he deserves also, for wishing for something he shouldn't have. And their whole world comes crashing down with John when Nicholas cries for water to cool his burned behind. Justice is served and God's order is reestablished at the expense of a lower kind of plan.

  ^^^^^^^^^^CANTERBURY TALES: SOURCE AND STRUCTURE

  There's no source for the amazing complications of the Miller's Tale except Chaucer's own amazing mind. However, the idea of a woman sticking her backside out a window for an unwanted lover to kiss comes from a raucous Middle English song called "Old Hogan's Adventure."

  The form of the tale is the French fabliaux, earthy folktales that involve a wife cheating on her husband. (The church disapproved of such tales, which probably was one reason why they were so popular.) This kind of tale joins profane elements with references to sacred teachings, but Chaucer combines them so successfully that they're almost impossible to separate.

  ^^^^^^^^^^CANTERBURY TALES: LANGUAGE

  One of the best jokes in Chaucer's funniest tale is the way the characters use the language of courtly love to gain their selfish, lustful ends. Nicholas and Absalom call Alison "lemman," sweetheart, and Alison speaks of Nicholas' "courtesy," which we certainly don't take seriously. This is a humorous contrast to the seriousness of love in the Knight's Tale, and also reminds us that the ultimate purpose of courtl
y love, no matter how noble it sounded, was sexual conquest.

  ^^^^^^^^^^CANTERBURY TALES: THEMES

  1. NOAH AND THE FLOOD

  In the Bible, Noah saves the best left on earth when God sends the flood to destroy the world for its corruption. Typically Noah was seen in the Middle Ages as the precursor to Christ, who also saves. By referring to the Noah story, Chaucer uses the idea of man following God's plan, even though he doesn't know what the plan is.

  2. DESTINY AND IDEAS OF ORDER

  There's a right way and a wrong way to do things, as we learned in the Knight's Tale, to which this tale is an answer and a parallel. The earlier tale deals with destiny that men can't change or know about; here it takes the form of everyone getting his or her just deserts. All the individual plans backfire and God's proper order is reestablished.

  Also, we're meant to see, even in this humorous tale, that some things belong to a natural order: men should marry women their own age, young people will be attracted to each other and let their sexual instinct override their sense.