Geoffrey Chaucer Research Paper Examples

Introduction

The works of Geoffrey Chaucer in the unanimous opinion of scientists is considered as the top achievement in English literature of the period, which is called "High Middle Ages, or mature." However, over the last several centuries of literary terminology trying to determine the specific nature and method of presentation of the poetic material that distinguishes the author's style of Chaucer, is the essence of his narrative art. By now it is obvious that the uniqueness of Chaucer's poetry is difficult to fit into any clear boundaries and definitions of terminology. The fact that the poet is experimenting with traditional genres, significantly altering them to create their own unique style of writing, sometimes subtly or elusive balancing between seriousness and irony, including irony like no other contemporary English writers Chaucer activates the reader's consciousness, prompts him to associations, debate, dialogue with the author and his characters, carries narrative passages and unexpected philosophical and moral ideas.
XIV century in many ways during the rising of England, and it is not surprising that this crest development had such a great poet, which will take its rightful place in the history of English and European literature. The era is reflected in problems, pathos works of Chaucer and his predilection for certain genre forms. Creativity of English writer Geoffrey Chaucer continues to be the subject of close scrutiny of scientists, both domestic and foreign Peak special activity study of his work was in the middle of the XX century. As for the last few decades, creativity Chaucer at this stage continues to be studied more in detail many aspects and that suggests the formation including in domestic literary criticism such areas as choserovedsnie. To date, there is an extensive foreign literary series of monographs, the theme of which was the study of the cultural heritage of the author. (Brewer, D., 1984).

Body

Chaucer's narrative works can be roughly divided into three groups: love poems, visions, meetings stories and poem. These three literary forms completely fit into the medieval English narrative tradition.
"The Book of the Duchess" stands apart from the other three poems attributed to its strukgure to visions, the "House of Fame", "Bird's Parliament" and "The Legend of Good Women." This work is devoted to Chaucer Blanche, Duchess of Lancaster, wife of John of Gaunt. Narrative form used Chaucer, not only raskrp lyrical image, conveying his feelings, but also to show the character of the existing relationships between the characters by their more detail the example of some events that took place. Of course, in the Black Knight's monologue about his beloved occur and descriptive elements that are not typical of the narrative, but the presence of such elements in the text is much smaller than the event-related situations.
The plot of the "Book of the Duchess" is a linear structure comprising a series of scenes, the combined experiences of the protagonist, and two detachable complicated narrative episodes. "I" of the poem is the narrator, who suffers from insomnia for eight long years, perhaps because of love. One night he begins to read a poem by Ovid "Metamorphoses" and the attention it attracts one of the stories, the myth of Keiko and Altsione. Keiko dies at sea, and his wife asked Mr. Altsiona god of sleep lull her to see in a dream, what happened to her husband Struck read previously plagued by insomnia, the narrator still asleep and dreaming May morning, he was lying in his bed, range birds are singing, the walls in the room are covered with frescoes depicting scenes from the "Romance of the Rose," and on the windows - stained with clasped the Trojan War. Suddenly, he hears the sounds of hunting. The narrator follows the hunters. He is deep in the woods, trying to catch in the net blossoming spring Grave (classical locus) dog. There, leaning against a large oak tree stands dressed in black knight, grieving for his dead lady. Noticing the next person, he asks his forgiveness. The protagonist tries to talk about hunting, but Knight says that his thoughts are far from this. Knight complains that Forguna turned away from him, taking his "queen", about which the narrator reminds us that Socrates despised Fortune and suicide due to love. And then the Black Knight tells her story of love. He concludes his story asking, "Where is she now?" At this point, the protagonist hears that the hunt is over; he wakes up and finds himself in bed with a book about Keiko and Altsione hands and decides to clothe his dream in verse form.
It should be noted that after reading the "Book of the Duchess," the reader is left feeling ambivalent. On the one hand, it is obvious to us that the writing of this vision was a certain poetic intention Chaucer. But the strong and the feeling that it was a dream inspired the poet to create his work. Analysis of "looped" structure of the work suggests that this repetitive cycle - the first comprehensive measurement of the poem, in which Chaucerian formula "old books - experience - a vision" is being implemented for the first time. This version, in which the author and the narrator are united by the fact that the situation with the death of the Duchess (the death of Blanche of Lancaster) is close to Geoffrey Chaucer.
It is obvious that such a novelty approach distinguishes "Book of the Duchess" from the previous cultural and poetic tradition. This position in the image of the events is based on two different stylistic techniques, which combine at the end of the work, give a unique fabric of the narrative. The first is a technique typical of visions. Thus, certain scenes directly correspond courteous forms of vision as a literary genre. But some passages that connect these scenes reproduce fragments describing the vision as a mental state of a person, for example, this occurs when the protagonist hears sounds of hunting, jumps out of his bed, sits on a horse that is in his bedroom. Or when the main character makes his way on foot, there is the sudden disappearance of a dog, a rapid change of scenes from the bedroom to the garden, and then to the forest, meadow, the castle. It is obvious that such a dynamic change of the bedrooms can be carried out only in a dream. B.Bronson, however, said in a vision Chaucer more significant reception, which acts as a central mechanism in the poem. Insomniac reader as soon as it becomes a dreamer forgets oppressive sorrow that burdens him before he went to sleep, and as it brings grief to the Black Knight. In his work of foreign scientists and says that the dreamer forgets sorrow, because after a dismal story of Keiko and Altsione his dream begins with an extraordinary singing birds, which he had never before heard, and again there is sadness when he was rebuking a figure distressed Knight. Thus, Black Knight is a kind of double of a sleeper.
Analysis of the proposed narrative techniques suggests that these mechanisms are the basis of all the "Book of the Duchess": one character is a projection of another event-one situation - the projection of the other (the hunting of deer, which sees the dreamer is parallel, symbolizing the hunt Black Knight, his courtship his lady). And it parallels that are key in determining the whole structure of the poem. Reading stories of Ovid and Keiko Altsione, which includes her husband's death and the vision of his wife, built a bridge between the vision of a narrator-reader and A Knight's Tale and Blanga that ends with the death of her history ducal couple becomes a projection of history and Keiko Altsiony.
Just listening to the story of Knight, sleepless narrator can understand the true nature lovers, as he does not consider himself a connoisseur of fine amorous feelings. Final of the poem seems to us gumannym- consolation offered to the knight.
The sample structure that Chaucer uses in "The Book of the Duchess," "Bird's parliament," is seen in the "House of Fame", although we note that this is some variation of it. Chaucer inserts episodes of "Aeneid" in the scope of vision, thus enriching the literary tradition. In this he seems to be attached to the poem greater certainty, tying it with "Aeneid" by Virgil reading which was so common in the Middle Ages. But at the same time taking it pushes the boundaries of the text, affecting not only the themes of love and glory.
When reading the "Bird's parliament" after the "House of Fame" seems extraordinary stage and the form and content of the work of Chaucer. The poem is completed, and it is very small in volume. The structure of the poem is simpler than in the "Book of the Duchess" and "House of Fame". After accession to the theme of love narrator seems like an avid reader He briefly describes the passage and the theme of the book he was reading all day - "Dream of Scipio." When night falls, he falls asleep and has a dream. Here Chaucer returned to the original structural stereotype poems-visions: the book before seeing -Need impetus for creation of the vision. The poet, who in real life is inexperienced in love, but careful to get acquainted with its literary manifestations of reading to enrich their experience, and the apparition helps him.
This poem is better than the previous two, in the tradition of loving vision we find in it, and the traditional locus ("And the park was paradise "), and exquisite temple of Venus. But at the same time in the second part of the poem there is a metaphorical similarity birds to people in hierarchical feudal and courtly society and discuss all sorts of questions in Parliament, in parliament, similar to a real English Parliament. Using the tradition, Chaucer changes their race, in order to give them a broader meaning.
In the "Bird's parliament," the author largely builds its narrative through hints and tricks. This technique he uses in describing the interior of the park, where we can see how the atmosphere changes according to a greater or lesser significance of a particular item. The deeper we go to the park or the Temple of the more noticeable changes: spachala traditional garden of love is in direct context with the natural world, with a garden of Eden. A little later, these features are separate from nature and are identified with the created world, with the scope of people, myths, with courtly civilization different from the nature of Chaucer founded on a passage verses - maybe even crib - Books seventh "Teseida" which Boccaccio described the temple of Venus, a place of sensuality and lust But Chaucer rather enriches this interpretation. Love him represented not only as lust, but as the basis of the entire world order.
New humanistic views on man and his earthly life Chaucer reflected in the "Canterbury Tales" - a large realistic work, which is valid in literary criticism called "human comedy of the XIV century. This work reflects the humanistic ideas of Chaucer to the fullest extent. And it's not just because the "Canterbury Tales" - one of the last works of the poet that absorbed all the experience of Chaucer the poet, in which the author of "The Canterbury Tales" appears mature creator and mature person. There is an objective reason to treat "Canterbury Tales" to the era, situated on the border between the medieval feudal literature and the literature of the Renaissance, "The Canterbury Tales" were written in 1387. This is the time Chaucer, in the service of the royal court, has twice visited Italy for business purposes and met with Petrarch. Adopting the ideas of humanism, Chaucer, already matured to express them, puts them in his most famous, significant and the last of his major works - in the "Canterbury Tales." It should be emphasized that under the new humanist tradition that Chaucer introduced in English literature. Chaucer with confidence and rightly called the "father of English realism" that managed to reflect the colorful national environment and the people of his day, and perhaps one of the first English poets of the time to enter into a literary work a real image of the peasant, a man from the lower strata of society. Chaucer lays the foundation characterological tradition in literature, painting a psychological authenticity of each character's "Canterbury Tales." Bold and completely new step is the following method Chaucer: it uses traditional forms and genres of literature, filling them with new content.

The most important issues highlighted in a new light Chaucer humanistic ideas are:

1) The vision of man as a free being, the ability to have their will and with its help to produce their own happiness;
2) The pursuit of happiness as a result of the use of earthly goods, denying asceticism;
3) The attitude to love and marriage as natural and not ordained by God phenomenon. A striking example is the stories in the genre fabliaux with their livestock and somewhat coarse language;
4) The attitude to a woman as self-identity, the idea of ​​moral usefulness women. For example, in "The story of Franklin" is a list of loyal wives to their husbands, who preferred death to treason;
5) Attitude to the true nobility, which is not inherited, but depends on the person.

Conclusion

Each narrator has his own world, his own stock of stories. They take a lot, but they are most readily related to the love theme, occupy a large place in the novellas of the Renaissance. Chaucer's vision is beyond of traditional loving vision. Vision of Chaucer is the way of development and understanding of reality and shape the conversation with the reader. In Chaucer's vision departs from the everyday world, immersing yourself in your favorite book.
Thus, the main ideological content of the works of Chaucer suggests that Chaucer belongs to the Renaissance and, in fact, is its founder in English literature. Since most significant his work, "Canterbury Tales", the poet expresses views that are contrary to the ethics of contemporary society, revealing a supporter of humanism. All he wanted to Chaucer their society - is mutual love between all people, without differences and mutual respect.

Works Cited

Brewer, Derek. An Introduction to Chaucer. London: Longman, 1984. Print.
Chaucer, Geoffrey, and F. N. Robinson. The Poetical Works of Chaucer. Cambridge ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1933. Print.
Chaucer, Geoffrey, and Philip Madoc. The Canterbury Tales. Unabridged ed. Naxos, 2002. Print.
Thomas, Nigel, and Richard Swan. The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1985. Print.