It is inevitable that Chaucer bases
inner quality upon outer appearance. You can tell what kind of person someone
is by looking at them. He thoroughly examines this with each character in the
general prologue and even more so in their personal prologues.
The knight and squire seem to be
similar characters in terms of their duties and positive qualities. Both are honorable
and upstanding, however the squire comes off quite dainty. Chaucer’s
description is that of a typical modern day 20 some year old male: attractive
with hair that I would probably be jealous of (you know what I’m talking about.
Perfect natural curly locks free of heat damage.) He’s lusty, active, strong,
multi-talented, and in search of landing a lady, but certainly in no rush to do
so. So what does Chaucer think of him? To me, it seems that he believes him to
be a good guy, but as said in class you wouldn’t want him to fight your battles
given the choice of him or the knight.
I could sit here and discuss all of
the character prologues but honestly, we all want to read and write about the
wife of Bath. First of all it’s interesting that Chaucer deems her the wife
instead of the cloth maker, which is her profession. Everyone else is termed by
their title. I suppose because she’s been married five times, it fits to call
her the wife. Chaucer observes her vain and bold appearance by noting her
scarlet red stockings, her outrageous ten pound hat, in addition to her
sexually stamped gap tooth. We obtain so much information about this woman in
such a short introduction, it’s no wonder her tale is so lengthy. While Chaucer
does acknowledge her sexual fluctuation and dominant personality, he never
makes any notion that he dislikes it. Is it “look at this bold feminist
powerful woman,” or is it “look how scary she is what is she doing?” As a 21st
century reader, it’s difficult to say what exactly Chaucer was thinking, but I
can’t find any reason yet to believe that he doesn't respect her character or
at the very least find her intriguing.
I definitely agree that appearance is important to Chaucer. Instead of this being a tale about a King/Knight, and how he should appreciate people for whats on the inside. Outer appearances tend to over power that. Physical appearance becomes an important symbol in this tale. I especially enjoyed reading about the Somonour. When his outer appearance was described "a fyr-reed cherubinnes face" and "sawcefleem he was , with eyen narwe". I just pictured boils, huge pimples, and red cheeks! Quite disgusting but very catchy.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, it is hard to tell if Chaucer is terrified or admiring the Wife of Bath’s bold feminism. The way I interpret her character is based from what he has told us about her appearance: broad, wearing a large hat, tall socks, and having gapped teeth. I simply see her as unmistakably unapologetic of the way she carries herself and interacts with others. She obviously dislikes being pushed aside in line, aka being seen as a lesser person, and her outward appearance denies anyone the chance of (how dare they?!) overlooking her. The Wife is very concerned about maintaining her power in social situations, and I can visualize her coming to Hood to lead a protest to change the Women’s Studies minor into a major. (Okay, maybe not, but you are right, she is a very interesting character.)
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