The greatest English writer of the 14th century was Chaucer(1340-1400), author of famous "The Canterbury Tales". Chaucer simultaneously ends the Anglo-Norman era and opens the history of new English literature.
He gave expression in English to all the richness and variety of thoughts and feelings, the subtlety and complexity of mental experiences that characterized the previous era, completing the experience of the past and capturing the aspirations of the future. Among English dialects, he established the dominance of the London dialect, the language spoken in this large commercial center, where the residence of the king and both universities were located.
The next century saw great interest in living folk poetry, which already existed in the 13th and 14th centuries. But in the 15th century this poetry showed a particularly active life, and the most ancient examples of it, surviving to our time, belong to this century. Ballads about Robin Hood were very popular.
"The Canterbury Tales"(eng. The Canterbury Tales) - a work by the poet Geoffrey Chaucer, written in end of the 14th century century in Middle English; not completed. Represents a collection of 22 poetic and two prose short stories, united by a common frame: the stories are told by pilgrims on their way to venerate the relics of St. Thomas Becket in Canterbury and are described in the author's prologue to the work. According to Chaucer, each of them had to tell four stories (two on the way to Canterbury and two on the way back). The Canterbury Tales, which are predominantly poetic, do not use a uniform division of verse; the poet freely varies stanzas and sizes. The predominant meter is iambic 5-foot with paired rhyme (“heroic couplet”).
The narrators come from all levels of medieval English society a: among them there is a knight, a monk, a priest, a doctor, a sailor, a merchant, a weaver, a cook, a yeoman, etc. Their stories partly go back to traditional novelistic plots (used, in particular, in “The Book of Good Love” by Juan Ruiz and “The Decameron "Boccaccio), are partly original in nature. The stories of pilgrims are very diverse in topic, often associated with the theme of love and betrayal; some of them satirically depict the abuses of the Catholic Church. Chaucer's literary skill is also manifested in the fact that the short stories reflect the individual traits and manner of speech of the narrators.
Innovation and the originality of the “Canterbury Tales” was appreciated only in the era of romanticism, although successors to Chaucer’s traditions appeared during his lifetime (John Lydgate, Thomas Hoccleave, etc.), and the work itself was published by William Caxton in the earliest days of English printing. Researchers note the role of Chaucer's work in the formation of the English literary language and in increasing its cultural significance (as opposed to Old French and Latin, which were considered more prestigious).
Under the Comstock Act, The Canterbury Tales were banned from distribution in the United States, and even now are printed with abbreviations due to obscenity.
Chaucer's merits in the history of English literature and language are very great. He was the first among the English to give examples of truly artistic poetry, where taste, a sense of proportion, elegance of form and verse dominate everywhere, the hand of the artist is visible everywhere, controlling his images, and not obeying them, as was often the case with medieval poets; A critical attitude towards plots and characters is visible everywhere. Chaucer's works already contain all the main features of English national poetry: a wealth of imagination combined with common sense, humor, observation, the ability to vivid characterization, a penchant for detailed descriptions, a love of contrasts, in a word, everything that we later encounter in an even more perfect form in Shakespeare, Fielding, Dickens and other great writers of Great Britain. He gave completeness to English verse and brought literary language to a high degree of grace. He always showed special care regarding the purity of speech and, not trusting copyists, always personally looked through the lists of his works. In the matter of creating a literary language, he showed great moderation and common sense, rarely used neologisms and, without trying to resurrect obsolete expressions, used only those words that came into general use. The brilliance and beauty that he imparted to the English language gave the latter a place of honor among other literary languages of Europe; after Chaucer, adverbs have already lost all meaning in literature. Chaucer was the first to write in his own language and prose rather than in Latin (for example, The astrolab, a treatise he wrote in 1391 for his son). He uses the national language here consciously in order to better and more accurately express his thoughts, as well as out of patriotic feeling. Chaucer's worldview is completely imbued with the pagan spirit and cheerfulness of the Renaissance; only some medieval features and expressions like “St. Venus,” found, however, in Chaucer’s earlier works, indicate that he had not yet completely freed himself from medieval views and confusion of concepts. On the other hand, some of his thoughts about nobility, about raising children, about war, the nature of his patriotism, alien to any national exclusivity, would have done honor even to a man of the 19th century.
Chaucer, apparently, took up this main work in earnest no earlier than 1386. But we know that its individual pieces were written long before that: “St. Cecilia” (the story of the second nun), fragments of the monk’s story, “Lalamon and Archytas” (a knight's story), "Melibaeus" (Chaucer's second story), a priest's story. When these things were written, Chaucer hardly had a plan for The Canterbury Tales. It appeared later, and suitable material, previously prepared, was drawn into the emerging frame in the most natural way. The most significant part of the Canterbury Tales appeared in the four years 1386-1389. The final text contains 20 complete things, two unfinished and two broken. Here, as we will see, not everything that was planned. But the social meaning of the work, its artistic value and influence on the further growth of English literature were fully felt. In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer depicts the society of New England. There is a place for the knight in this society, just as there is a place for him in the motley company of the Canterbury pilgrims. But both here and there they are already being squeezed out, and the most lively and flexible part of the feudal class begins, under the pressure of circumstances, to move onto the path of bourgeois management. And soon - this has already begun with the accession of Chaucer's benefactor Bolingbroke - the feudal lords will begin to exterminate each other: the War of the Roses is approaching. The knights will be replaced by others. These others are the middle classes. Chaucer paints them with particular passion. Many of the Canterbury pilgrims are merchants and artisans of good means or representatives of liberal professions. They wear clothes made of good cloth, they have nice horses, and their wallets have enough to pay for their quarters. Even his peasant (prologue) is not a poor man: he regularly pays his tithes and fulfills his duties, without complaining about his fate. He is not at all like Langland's hungry cotters or the peasant depicted with such stunning strength in the Creed of Peter the Plowman. Chaucer willingly goes into the details of merchant and craft (the miller's story) life. He does not hide the funny sides of the townspeople (the woman from Bath), but nowhere is his humor so imbued with gentle affection as in these cases. His attitude towards the upper classes is not hostile. Only subtle mockery, visible, for example, in the parody story about Sir Topaz, shows that the author has outgrown the knightly ideology. Much more obvious is ridicule of clergy. There are several of them in the company, and all of them are caricatures (with the exception of the priest), especially the monks: perhaps there were echoes of Wyclif’s sermon here. Chaucer knows perfectly well that the church must feed the army of its parasites at the expense of the sons of the people, because otherwise it cannot exist, and he knows how to show this (the story of the seller of indulgences). He considers only the parish priest necessary. The rest are no longer needed.
27) English literature of the 15th century: general characteristics.
The fifteenth century in the history of England usually appears to us as a time of decline and decay. In all areas of life and culture of this historical period, the observer's gaze reveals, first of all, the features of decay and weakening of creative activity. At first glance, the literature of this period does not put forward a single major name; The place of former poetic luminaries is taken by compilers, imitators, translators, who live entirely on the heritage of past times. Continuous wars and civil strife were not conducive to the development of peaceful creative work. The 14th century ended with the deposition of King Richard II (1399). In the person of Henry IV, the Lancaster dynasty came to the English throne. Henry's reign was troubled and full of failures. The arbitrariness of the feudal lords, the constant strife between them, the heavy taxes that fell on the shoulders of the working population, the beginning of the fanatical persecution of “heretics” - all this soon embittered the population, and at the beginning of the reign of Henry V (1413-1422) led to massive popular unrest . Henry V tried to divert attention from internal troubles with widely planned military campaigns against the French, thus renewing the Hundred Years' War with France, which had somewhat died down under Richard II and Henry IV. Outwardly, these were successful and for a long time afterwards they pleased the English national pride. The Battle of Agincourt (1415), when Henry, who landed on the French coast with his small troops and defeated a large French army, never lost its attractive force for English poets, playwrights and novelists; She was also glorified by Shakespeare. Henry V's further successes seemed even more dazzling; the capture of the entire north of France, the capture of Paris (1422) was the limit of the hopes that his contemporaries pinned on him. But Henry V died unexpectedly, at the height of his military glory. His young son (Henry VI, 1422-1461) received the crown. Immediately, feuds among the feudal lords began, the struggle of court parties for influence and power; The French possessions of England began to quickly decline; after a period of brilliant victories, a time of bitter defeats began. By 1450 the English retained only one place on the continent, Calais. However, before the Hundred Years' War with France ended, new, this time internecine wars arose in England, plunging the country into a state of complete lawlessness. The War of the Roses (1455-1485) was the last mortal struggle of the rebellious feudal forces. It was a struggle for the crown and, at the same time, for the creation of a new absolute monarchical regime. On the battlefields between supporters of York and Lancaster, along with the death of almost all the old feudal nobility, the old feudal culture bled and died. The Battle of Bosworth (1485), when Henry Tudor defeated his rival Richard III, began a new era in English history. The young Tudor dynasty relied on new social forces. The new nobility, which seized the hereditary land holdings of the old feudal families, destroyed during the period of internecine wars, was directly dependent on the royal power and supported its desire for further national-state unification of the country. Throughout the 15th century, the influence of the gentry, merchants, and cities was constantly growing, noticeable already in the 14th century; Industry and trade are expanding, and the spirit of entrepreneurship is growing. Throughout this period, literacy undoubtedly increased in wider circles of the population than before. Along with the growing needs of the strengthened middle class, the network of schools in London and the provinces increased, ranging from schools established by the king (at Eton and Cambridge), and schools run by churches or guilds, down to small private institutions in which children were given their first lessons in literacy. It is characteristic that the largest number of schools belonged to the category of primary schools, where students did not receive a scientific education, but only prepared for purely practical, most often merchant, activities. The development of school education increased the demand for books and increased the production of manuscripts as the then form of publishing activity. From one official document dating back to 1422, we can conclude that in that year, out of 112 London guilds, four guilds were specifically engaged in copying manuscript books for sale. By the middle and especially by the end of the 15th century, we have a number of information about libraries of such handwritten books that appeared not only among land magnates or representatives of the church, but also among nobles and wealthy townspeople. One of the most famous documents of this kind is the inventory of the private library of John Paston, a landowner, made shortly after 1475. Other arts - painting, sculpture, architecture - were also not in decline in England in the 15th century; on the contrary, they received new and stronger foundations for of its development. English painting and sculpture of this time, for example, experienced the beneficial influences of the Italian and Burgundian schools and created a number of wonderful works designed not only for church use. Architecture was experiencing one of its heydays and was also gradually becoming secularized; Along with the magnificent buildings of churches and monasteries, wonderful secular buildings were also erected in England - university colleges, houses of wealthy citizens (Crosby Hall in London, 1470), buildings for guild associations (London Guildhall, 1411-1425). Commercial connections attracted a much larger number of foreigners to London and English port cities than before. The largest number of Englishmen who showed in the first half of the 15th century. a penchant for studying classical antiquity and a commitment to new science belonged to the highest clerical nobility. Against this background, the figure of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, brother of Henry V, who was the first humanist philanthropist and patron of humanistic interests among English scientists and writers of his time, stands out sharply. Humphrey was a great lover of antiquity and an ardent admirer of Italian learning. He ordered teachers from Italy to study ancient authors, spent huge amounts of money on purchasing manuscripts, corresponded with a number of humanists, and ordered them translations of Greek authors. The most important result of Humphrey's activities was the accumulation of remarkable book treasures, which the first English humanists were able to take advantage of half a century later. Humphrey's library was bequeathed to Oxford University. Next to Humphrey, one can name another representative of the English aristocracy of the 15th century, who gained significant fame in Italy itself for his exemplary Latin oratory. This was John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester. Beginning in the 1450s, the number of young Englishmen who were drawn to Italy by a thirst for knowledge increased. Changes in the field of language were of great importance for everything under consideration and for subsequent periods. Compared to the 14th century. in England at this time the prevalence of French speech undoubtedly decreased, even in the circles of the highest nobility. Throughout the century, the London dialect grew in importance. Under its influence, dialectal differences in the written language of other English regions were obscured. The completion of the centralization of political power by the end of the Wars of the Scarlet and White Roses also contributed to centralization in the field of language, the development of a general English literary speech based on the London dialect. The emergence of printing in England was of great importance in this regard. The opening of the first printing press in England was the work of William Caxton (1421-1491). ), publisher and translator. As a young man, Caxton entered as an apprentice to the wealthy London merchant Robert Large, who was sheriff and later lord mayor of the capital. After Large's death, Caxton lived for about 30 years in Bruges; one of the most important trading centers of the then northwestern Europe. There he achieved considerable position and honor, being a kind of consul, "governing the English living abroad." Many writers, translators, calligraphers, miniaturists and bookbinders lived in Bruges; Literature and poetry bloomed here, however, in the late autumn color of medieval culture, already doomed to destruction; medieval chivalric romances and courtly lyrics were still in great use here. All this could not but have an impact on Caxton; Around 1464, he began to translate a collection of stories about Troy from French. Caxton subsequently published this translation in the same Bruges (The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye, 1474). It was the first printed book in English, although it was published outside of England. In 1474-1475 Caxton entered into company with the miniature painter and calligrapher Mansion and began printing books. In addition to the “Collected Stories of Troy,” Caxton, together with Mansion, published in Bruges a book about the game of chess (The Game And Playe of the Chesse) and one book in French.
Between the opening of the Westminster printing house and the end of the 15th century (before 1500), about 400 books were printed in England. English literature of the 15th century was of a transitional nature - from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. The old traditions are still very strong in it; it still gravitates towards the old forms, but gradually these forms are filled with new content, which modifies and breaks them. Epic tends toward the novel and chronicle; prose takes the place of poetry. The attraction to prose is reinforced by the widely developed translation activity. In the 15th century in England they translate Latin treatises, French novels, and a wide variety of works that have applications to life. Literature receives a specifically practical purpose, which it did not have before, and begins to serve the numerous needs of the population on a much wider scale. Catalogs of English manuscripts of the 15th century are replete with treatises on hunting and fishing, military art and fortification, growing orchards, agriculture and home improvement. Medicine and education, cookbooks and rules of etiquette are found here more often than theological works or works of fiction in the proper sense of the word. Books related to trading activities are especially numerous: commercial directories and guides for traveling merchants, works of a geographical or economic nature. In the first half of the 15th century. all such works, including educational books, are written primarily in poetry; In the second half of the century, poetry is replaced by prose, the technique of which is already acquiring some stability, developing general literary and grammatical norms. A typical example of a poetic work of purely practical purpose is the very curious “Little Book of English Politics” (Lybelle of Englishe Polycye, 1486), written by an unknown person for the purpose of instructing the English merchants. She puts forward a broad program of government measures necessary, in the author’s opinion, for the further prosperity of the country, at a time when England, indeed, is increasingly moving towards active trading activities and the conquest of new markets. The author sees the true way to enrich the English state in protecting trade with all our might and, with the help of the fleet and weapons, dominating “over the narrow sea,” that is, the English Channel, between both English ports at that time - Dover and Calais. Among the sciences in England in the 15th century, theology continued to dominate. Dogmatic problems were still in the foreground, but next to them new ethical interests were emerging, which were put forward by life itself, in addition to theology and aside from it. Apologists for Catholic orthodoxy at this time used Latin for their polemical writings. The only exception is the theological works of Reginald Peacock, who was one of the most important English prose writers of the 15th century. In the historical and journalistic literature of the 15th century, as well as in other areas of writing, the Latin language gradually gives way to English. English journalism of the 15th century was born not within the walls of a monastery, but in a whirlpool of political passions and bloody civil strife. England's first major political writer, John Fortescue (circa 1395-1476), stood at the very center of the dynastic struggle for the throne and began his literary activity as the author of topical political pamphlets. The most important of his Latin works, written by him for Prince Edward of Lancaster, is the treatise “On the Nature of Natural Law” (De natura legis naturae), the first part of which speaks of various forms of government; unlimited monarchy (dominium regale), republic (dominium politicum) and constitutional monarchy (dominium politicum et regale). Fortescue also wrote a Latin treatise for the Prince of Lancaster, “Praise of the English Laws” (De laudibus legum Angliae, 1470). This essay is wonderful in many ways. Fiction in the proper sense of the word, however, is much more scarce in fifteenth-century England than in the previous century. Poets imitate Chaucer and for a long time cannot find their own creative paths; prose writers are few in number: next to Caxton the translator stands only Thomas Malory, published by him, with his only book of stories about the knights of the Round Table. But in the 15th century in England, as if in contrast to the relatively poor book poetry, folk poetry flourished. The ballads of England and Scotland - the most original and viable type of poetry of this time - have a strong influence on subsequent literary development. Folk drama also blooms at this time with all the fullness of life, which will have a powerful impact on the English theater of the Renaissance.
Twenty-nine pilgrims were preparing to go to Canterbury, to the relics of the saint. They met in a tavern, had dinner and talked. The pilgrims did different things in life and were from different classes.
Among the pilgrims there was a Knight who accomplished many feats and participated in many battles. He was with his son. There was also a Forester there, he was wearing green clothes, the Mother Superior of the monastery, a neat and pleasant woman, with her were a Nun and a Priest. She communicated with the Monk. He was cheerful and fat, he loved to hunt. Not far from him sat the Tax Collector. The Merchant was nearby. He was a thrifty and wealthy man. In the tavern there was a Student, a Sheriff (a wealthy landowner), who loved to drink and eat delicious food. A good Cook and a Weaver were sitting nearby. Also sitting at the table were the Weaver, the Hatmaker, the skillful Doctor, the merciful and just Priest, the Plowman, the Upholsterer, and the Carpenter. Melnik sat opposite them. And sitting nearby were the Housekeeper, the Bailiff, and the Majordomo. Also among the pilgrims were a Salesman, a Fist Fighter, a Dyer, a Skipper, and a Lawyer.
The tavern owner advised the pilgrims to tell different stories on the road, and they agreed.
The knight was the first to begin the story about Theseus. He killed the evil Creon and imprisoned his friends. They fell in love with Emilia (the sister of Theseus' wife). Theseus allowed them to fight for Emilia's hand. As a result, Emilia and Palamon got married.
The miller told about how a student outwitted a carpenter and got his wife.
The next Doctor told about Virginia. His daughter was beautiful. The county judge wanted to outwit Virginia and get his daughter. But his plan didn't work.
Econom's story completes the work. Phoebus had a white crow. He did not let his wife leave the house. While Phoebus was not at home, her lover came to her. When the husband came home, the crow told him everything. He killed his wife, sunbathed, cursed the crow, it turned black and lost its wonderful voice.
The work teaches that people from different classes with different characters, united by one idea, can find common topics for conversation.
Picture or drawing of The Canterbury Tales
Other retellings and reviews for the reader's diary
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- Summary of Diderot The Nun
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INTRODUCTION
The problem of literary genera and genres has been the subject of careful attention of researchers for more than two centuries. If with the first part everything is more or less clear: the bulk of scientists agree that there are three literary genres - epic, lyricism and drama, then as for the second, there are different rather controversial points of view. The problem of genre can be formulated as a problem of classifying works, identifying common genre features in them. The main difficulties of classification are associated with the historical change of literature, with the evolution of its genres.
In our work we explore the problem of the genre specificity of J. Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales”. This problem was addressed at different times by such literary scholars as I. Kashkin, M. Michalskaya, E. Meletinsky, V. Matuzova, N. Podkorytova, N. Belozerova, M. Popova, etc. As M. Popova rightly noted: “the genre diversity of English literature included allegorical didactic and chivalric poems, ballads and madrigals, epistles and odes, treatises and sermons, vision poems and the crowning work of Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, which absorbed all the diversity genres of that time." I. Kashkin, in turn, states: “it is difficult to determine the genre of this book. If we consider separately the stories from which it is composed, it may seem like an encyclopedia of literary genres of the Middle Ages." E. Meletinsky, agreeing with I. Kashkin, also proves that the plots of “The Canterbury Tales” “are for the most part realistic and in general represent a completely Renaissance (in type) encyclopedia of English life of the 14th century, and at the same time - an encyclopedia of poetic genres of the time : here is a courtly story, an everyday short story, a le, a fabliau, a folk ballad, a parody of knightly adventure poetry, and a didactic narrative in verse. - And, in addition, the researcher emphasizes, “new genres are emerging, say, “little tragedies”, which Chaucer sets out as a monk, instructive historical miniatures, clearly associated with pre-Renaissance motifs.”
The purpose of the work is to determine the genre originality of “The Canterbury Tales” by J. Chaucer. In connection with the purpose of the study, we set ourselves the following tasks:
· Consider the concept of genre in literary theory;
· Summarize the current level of the problem of genre specificity of “The Canterbury Tales” by J. Chaucer;
· Identify the genre features of the short story and the chivalric romance in “The Canterbury Tales”;
· Present your own version of the genre specifics of The Canterbury Tales.
The relevance of this work is due to the attempt to systematize the existing concepts of the genre uniqueness of The Canterbury Tales, as well as an attempt to consider this problem in the light of the achievements of modern literary criticism.
The scientific novelty of the work is due to the lack of special works devoted to this problem.
1. GENRE SPECIFICITY OF THE CANTERBURY TALES
1.1. ELEMENTS OF STORYTELLING IN THE CANTERBURY TALES
J. Chaucer's “Canterbury Tales” brought him worldwide fame. The idea for stories was given to Chaucer by reading Boccaccio's Decameron.
Modern poetry begins with Gerry Chaucer (1340 - 1400), diplomat, soldier, scientist. He was a bourgeois who knew the court, had an inquisitive eye, read widely and traveled to France and Italy to study classical works in Latin. He wrote because he was aware of his genius, but his readership was small: courtiers, and some workers and merchants. He served in the London Customs House. This post gave him the opportunity to become more familiar with the business life of the capital, and to see with his own eyes the social types that would appear in his main book, The Canterbury Tales.
The Canterbury Tales came out from his pen in 1387. They grew up on the basis of a narrative tradition, the origins of which are lost in ancient times, which made itself known in the literature of the 13th-14th centuries. in Italian short stories, cycles of satirical tales, “Roman Deeds” and other collections of instructive stories. In the XIV century. The plots, selected from different authors and from different sources, are combined in a deeply individual design. The chosen form - stories of traveling pilgrims - makes it possible to present a vivid picture of the Middle Ages. Chaucer's vision of the world includes Christian miracles, which are narrated in the Abbess's Tale and the Lawyer's Tale, and the fantasy of Breton lais, which appears in the Weaver of Bath's Tale, and the idea of Christian long-suffering in the Oxford Student's Tale. . All these ideas were organic to the medieval consciousness. Chaucer does not question their value, as evidenced by the inclusion of similar motifs in The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer creates role images. They are created on the basis of professional class characteristics and the inconsistency of the heroes with it. Typification is achieved through duplication and multiplication of similar images. Absolon from The Miller's Tale, for example, plays the role of a minister of religion - a lover. He is a church clerk, a semi-spiritual person, but his thoughts are directed “not to God, but to the pretty parishioners. The prevalence of this image in literature is evidenced, in addition to numerous French fabliaux, by one of the folk ballads included in the collection “Secular lyrics of the XlVth and XVth centuries”. The behavior of the hero of this short poem is very similar to the actions of Absolon. The repetition of the image makes it typical.
All literary scholars who have studied the problem of the genres of “The Canterbury Tales” agree that one of the main literary genres of this work is the short story.
“A short story (Italian novella, lit. - news), - we read in the literary encyclopedic dictionary, is a small prose genre comparable in volume to a story, but differs from it in its sharp centripetal plot, often paradoxical, lack of descriptiveness and compositional rigor. By poeticizing the incident, the short story extremely exposes the core of the plot - the center, the peripeteia, and brings life material into the focus of one event."
In contrast to the story - a genre of new literature at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries, which highlights the visual and verbal texture of the narrative and gravitates towards detailed characteristics - the short story is the art of plot in its purest form, which developed in ancient times in close connection with ritual magic and myths, addressed primarily to the active, rather than contemplative, side of human existence. The novelistic plot, built on sharp antitheses and metamorphoses, on the sudden transformation of one situation into its exact opposite, is common in many folklore genres (fairy tale, fable, medieval anecdote, fabliau, schwank).
“The literary novel appears in the Renaissance in Italy (the brightest example is “The Decameron” by G. Boccaccio), then in England, France, Spain (G. Chaucer, Margaret of Navarre, M. Cervantes). In the form of a comic and edifying short story, the formation of Renaissance realism takes place, revealing the spontaneously free self-determination of the individual in a world fraught with vicissitudes. Subsequently, the short story in its evolution builds on related genres (short story, novella, etc.), depicting extraordinary, sometimes paradoxical and supernatural incidents, breaks in the chain of socio-historical and psychological determinism.”
×îñåð êàê ïîýò åùå äî ñîçäàíèÿ «Êåíòåðáåðèéñêèõ ðàññêàçîâ» èñïûòàë âëèÿíèå ôðàíöóçñêîé è èòàëüÿíñêîé ëèòåðàòóðû.  òâîð÷åñòâå ×îñåðà, êàê èçâåñòíî, ïîÿâëÿþòñÿ óæå íåêîòîðûå ïðåäâîçðîæäåí÷åñêèå ÷åðòû, è åãî ïðèíÿòî îòíîñèòü ê Ïðîòîðåíåññàíñó. Âîïðîñ î âëèÿíèè ñîçäàòåëÿ êëàññè÷åñêîé íîâåëëû Âîçðîæäåíèÿ Äæîâàííè Áîêêà÷÷î íà ×îñåðà ÿâëÿåòñÿ ñïîðíûì. Äîñòîâåðíû òîëüêî åãî çíàêîìñòâî ñ ðàííèìè ïðîèçâåäåíèÿìè Áîêêà÷÷î è èñïîëüçîâàíèå â êà÷åñòâå èñòî÷íèêîâ Áîêêà÷÷èåâûõ «Ôèëîêîëî» (â ðàññêàçå Ôðàíêëèíà), «Èñòîðèè çíàìåíèòûõ ìóæåé è æåíùèí» (â ðàññêàçå ìîíàõà), «Òåñåèäû» (â ðàññêàçå ðûöàðÿ) è òîëüêî îäíîé èç íîâåëë «Äåêàìåðîíà», à èìåííî èñòîðèè âåðíîé æåíû Ãðèçåëüäû, ïî ëàòèíñêîìó ïåðåâîäó Ïåòðàðêè (â ðàññêàçå ñòóäåíòà). Ïðàâäà, íåêîòîðóþ ïåðåêëè÷êó ñ ìîòèâàìè è ñþæåòàìè, ðàçðàáàòûâàåìûìè Áîêêà÷÷î â «Äåêàìåðîíå», ìîæíî íàéòè òàêæå â ðàññêàçàõ øêèïåðà, êóïöà è Ôðàíêëèíà. Ðàçóìååòñÿ, ýòà ïåðåêëè÷êà ìîæåò îáúÿñíÿòüñÿ îáðàùåíèåì ê îáùåé íîâåëëèñòè÷åñêîé òðàäèöèè.  ÷èñëå èíûõ èñòî÷íèêîâ «Êåíòåðáåðèéñêèõ ðàññêàçîâ» - «Çîëîòàÿ ëåãåíäà» ßêîâà Âîðàãèíñêîãî, áàñíè (â ÷àñòíîñòè, Ìàðèè Ôðàíöóçñêîé) è «Ðîìàí î Ëèñå», «Ðîìàí î Ðîçå», ðûöàðñêèå ðîìàíû Àðòóðîâà öèêëà, ôðàíöóçñêèå ôàáëèî, äðóãèå ïðîèçâåäåíèÿ ñðåäíåâåêîâîé, îò÷àñòè àíòè÷íîé ëèòåðàòóðû (íàïðèìåð, Îâèäèé). Ìåëåòèíñêèé òàêæå ãîâîðèò, ÷òî: «Ëåãåíäàðíûå èñòî÷íèêè è ìîòèâû íàõîäèì â ðàññêàçàõ âòîðîé ìîíàõèíè (âçÿòîå èç «Çîëîòîé ëåãåíäû» æèòèå Ñâ. Öåöèëèè), þðèñòà (âîñõîäÿùàÿ ê àíãëî-íîðìàíäñêîé õðîíèêå Íèêîëà Òðèâå èñòîðèÿ ïðåâðàòíîñòåé è ñòðàäàíèé äîáðîäåòåëüíîé õðèñòèàíêè Êîíñòàíöû - äî÷åðè ðèìñêîãî èìïåðàòîðà) è âðà÷à (âîñõîäÿùàÿ ê Òèòó Ëèâèþ è «Ðîìàíó î Ðîçå» èñòîðèÿ öåëîìóäðåííîé Âèðãèíèè - æåðòâû ïîõîòè è çëîäåéñòâà ñóäüè Êëàâäèÿ). Âî âòîðîì èç ýòèõ ðàññêàçîâ ëåãåíäàðíûå ìîòèâû ïåðåïëåòàþòñÿ ñî ñêàçî÷íûìè, îò÷àñòè â äóõå ãðå÷åñêîãî ðîìàíà, à â òðåòüåì - ñ ïðåäàíèåì î ðèìñêîé «äîáëåñòè». Ïðèâêóñ ëåãåíäû è ñêàçî÷íàÿ îñíîâà ÷óâñòâóþòñÿ â ðàññêàçå ñòóäåíòà î Ãðèçåëüäå, õîòÿ ñþæåò è âçÿò ó Áîêêà÷÷î».
Representatives from various walks of life went on the pilgrimage. According to their social status, pilgrims can be divided into certain groups:
High society (Knight, Squire, church ministers);
Scientists (Doctor, Lawyer);
Landowners (Franklin);
Owners (Melnik, Majordomo);
Merchant class (Skipper, Merchant);
Craftsmen (Dyer, Carpenter, Weaver, and so on);
Lower class (Plowman).
In the General Prologue, Geoffrey Chaucer introduces virtually each pilgrim to the reader (by simply mentioning his presence, or presenting in detail his character). The "General Prologue" in some way forms the reader's expectations - the expectation of the main mood and theme of the story, the subsequent behavior of the pilgrim. It is from the “General Prologue” that the reader gets an idea of what stories will be told, as well as the essence, the inner world of each pilgrim. The behavior of the characters presented by Chaucer reveals the essence of their personalities, their habits, personal lives, moods, good and bad sides. The character of a particular character is presented in the prologue to The Canterbury Tales and is further revealed in the story itself, prefaces and afterwords to the stories. “Based on Chaucer’s attitude towards each character, the pilgrims participating in the journey can be organized into certain groups:
Ideal images (Knight, Squire, Student, Plowman, Priest);
“Neutral” images, descriptions of which are not presented in the “Prologue” - Chaucer only mentions their presence (clergymen from the Abbess’s entourage);
Images with some negative character traits (Skipper, Economy);
Inveterate Sinners (Carmelite, Indulgence Seller, Bailiff of the Church Court - all of them are church employees)."
Chaucer finds an individual approach to each character, presenting him in the “General Prologue”.
“In the poetic Canterbury Tales, the national compositional frame was the setting of the scene: a tavern on the road leading to Canterbury, a crowd of pilgrims, in which essentially the entire English society is represented - from feudal lords to a cheerful crowd of artisans and peasants. In total, 29 people are recruited into the company of pilgrims. Almost each of them is a living and quite complex image of a person of his time; Chaucer masterfully describes in excellent verse the habits and clothing, demeanor, and speech characteristics of the characters.”
Just as the heroes are different, so are Chaucer’s artistic means. He speaks of the pious and brave knight with friendly irony, because the knight with his courtliness looks too anachronistic in the rude, noisy crowd of common people. The author speaks with tenderness about the knight's son, a boy full of enthusiasm; about the thieving majordomo, the miser and the deceiver - with disgust; with mockery - about brave merchants and artisans; with respect - about a peasant and a righteous priest, about an Oxford student in love with books. Chaucer speaks of the peasant uprising with condemnation, almost even with horror.
The brilliant genre of literary portraiture is perhaps Chaucer's main creation. Here, as an example, is a portrait of a weaver from Bath.
And the Bath weaver was chatting with him,
Riding dashingly on a pacer;
But to the temple
If one of the ladies squeezes in front of her,
I instantly forgot, in furious pride -
About complacency and benevolence.
The face is pretty and rosy.
She was an enviable wife.
And she survived five husbands,
Not counting the crowd of girls' friends.
What has changed in six and a half centuries? Unless the horse gave way to a limousine.
But gentle humor gives way to harsh satire when the author describes the seller of indulgences he hates.
His eyes sparkled like a hare's.
There was no vegetation on the body,
And the cheeks are smooth - yellow, like soap.
It seemed like he was a gelding or a mare,
And, even though there was nothing to brag about,
He himself bleated about this like a sheep...
Throughout the work, the pilgrims tell various stories. Knight - an old courtly plot in the spirit of a chivalric romance; carpenter - a funny and obscene story in the spirit of humble urban folklore, etc. Each story reveals the interests and sympathies of a particular pilgrim, thereby achieving the individualization of the character and solving the problem of portraying him from the inside.
Chaucer is called the "father of realism." The reason for this is his art of literary portraiture, which, it turns out, appeared in Europe earlier than pictorial portraiture. And indeed, reading “The Canterbury Tales”, one can safely talk about realism as a creative method, implying not only a truthful generalized image of a person, typifying a certain social phenomenon, but also a reflection of changes occurring in society and man.
So, English society in Chaucer’s portrait gallery is a society in motion, in development, a society in transition, where feudal orders are strong but outdated, where a new man of a developing city is revealed. From The Canterbury Tales it is clear: the future does not belong to preachers of the Christian ideal, but to business people, full of strength and passions, although they are less respectable and virtuous than the same peasant and rural priest.
The Canterbury Tales lays the foundation for new English poetry, drawing on the entire experience of advanced European poetry and national song traditions.
Based on the analysis of this work, we came to the conclusion that the genre nature of The Canterbury Tales was strongly influenced by the short story genre. This is manifested in the features of the plot, the construction of images, the speech characteristics of the characters, humor and edification.
Introduction
Chapter 1. Love and female images in Chaucer's stories
Chapter 2. Marriage in The Canterbury Tales
Chapter 3. Chaucer's Family
Conclusion
Introduction
The study of matrimonial relations in a certain cultural space is impossible without knowledge of the historical and cultural uniqueness of the era being studied, as well as the specifics of the normative perception of these relations. Like other European countries, medieval Britain in the 14th century was characterized by the combination of several, sometimes contradictory, trends in the assessment of marriage.
Courtly culture forms a completely new view of the nature of the relationship between a woman and a man. An idealized, largely invented system of relationships dictated a different attitude towards women and love. The worth of a knight was determined not only by his valor, but also by his feelings for a woman. The understatement and potential of relationships of this kind destroyed the usual perception, but at the same time, the prohibition and conflict inherent in this feeling did not allow one to go beyond the ethical ideas of a given society. The beauty and artificiality of literary images and the ideal nature of love relationships contrasted sharply with the real prose of life. But the creation of this model presupposes a person’s internal desire for such relationships.
It was precisely during these difficult times for the British writer Geoffrey Chaucer (between 1340 and 1345 - 1400) around 1380 that his greatest work matured, which introduces the poet to the ranks of the most remarkable writers in England and with which, in fact, it begins new - Renaissance - British literature. This is a collection of poetic short stories “The Canterbury Tales”, inspired by the spirit of the Renaissance love of life. Earthly life appears in him as the highest good of man. True, Chaucer pays tribute to the religious views of the Middle Ages. This is evidenced by at least the life of Saint Kekilia included in the book. Also, Chaucer never questions the necessity of religious institutions themselves, although he sharply criticizes the contemporary practice of the Catholic Church - the influence of time is felt. It seems that Chaucer is worried about the fate of Christianity and the personal fate of a person in connection with the doctrine, and not outside of it.
Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" are an extremely important source for the study of the ethics of family relations in different strata of society in medieval Britain. They reflect the combination of life practice, ideal ideas and personal characteristics of the author. The Canterbury Tales were written by Chaucer under the direct influence of G. Boccaccio's Decameron, when Chaucer was already a famous and popular writer. Under the influence of regional dominants and a nationally determined worldview, the form, content, ideas and images of The Canterbury Tales acquired a specifically British flavor.
Using the heritage of French literature, especially fabliau, Chaucer’s interpretation of the theme of love does not coincide with his sources. In most cases, love is presented in The Canterbury Tales in a more socially significant sense; the interpretation of family relationships acquires a social focus. Still, Chaucer is trying to find the deep sources of the problems he posed.
The Canterbury Tales takes the form of a collection of short stories characteristic of its time. They are grouped either by topic or function. In general, despite the presence of a wide variety of topics, The Canterbury Tales can be characterized as a book containing a social orientation. The weight of socially significant topics is one of the features of the British worldview.
Chaucer wrote only the prologue and part of the journey to Canterbury; the return journey remained unwritten. But in the extensive prologue, Chaucer gives an extensive gallery of masterfully executed portraits of pilgrims - these are people from different parts of England, representatives of different professions and social positions, with different interests, tastes, manners and aesthetic preferences. They are united by a purely external motive: they are all going to Canterbury to venerate the tomb of St. Thomas Becket and, to pass the time, each tell two short stories on the way there and back. The whole of medieval Britain appears before us, and the very frame of the short stories - the journey of pilgrims to Canterbury - is a characteristic everyday detail drawn from the everyday life of England of that time.
Chaucer simply could not show his pilgrims without describing their bright individual qualities; he could not avoid giving individual qualities to his narrators at all, because I wanted to convey living ideas to the reader, and for this I needed living people. Chaucer's people are emotionally broader, more independent, their world is multifaceted, constrained not by the mask of their “type,” but only by their personal character. Chaucer shows: the world is imperfect, it happens in different ways, people behave differently, there are many reasons for this, both objective and subjective. Each of Chaucer's heroes has his own destiny, which he cannot overcome. But at the same time, they choose their path independently, and each of them bears some kind of social burden. Some of the characters are moral, others are immoral.
Despite the fact that Chaucer used borrowed sources when composing his work, he constantly informs the reader of his own reasoning that arose during the writing process. Chaucer thinks all the time, and then gives his verdict. Apparently, Chaucer is not entirely satisfied with the interpretation of events provided by his source-hero - his interest is in the field of psychological portrayal of characters, his heroes conform to circumstances, and to the movements of their souls, and to their special, often difficult personal disposition.
J. Chaucer's interpretation in The Canterbury Tales necessarily entails a transformation towards greater drama of action and character, greater fullness of life, showing the tragedy of ongoing events and human actions.
Mainly in The Canterbury Tales we are talking about people who own real estate in the city, as well as professionally connected with the city: first of all, these are merchants, artisans, officials, and less often - knights. The study of family and marital relations is one of the most relevant areas in The Canterbury Tales. In the traditional structure of medieval society, the family was one of the main microstructures that determined a person’s status, the form of his behavior, and the system of personal relationships. The study of traditional family structures in various social strata makes it possible, indirectly, through the moral and ethical attitudes of each group, to understand the specifics of their corporate and individual ideas. The study of family also provides an opportunity to look into the inner world of a person, to explore his most intimate and hidden side of life. It becomes possible to determine the behavioral norms in which an individual exists, his needs and opportunities to go beyond these norms.
Chapter 1. Love and female images in Chaucer's stories
Based on the image of women in The Canterbury Tales and the attitude of the heroes towards them, we can come to the conclusion that, despite the numerous monologues of women in the first person, it is possible to trace a pronounced attitude towards women from a male point of view, from the position of an observer of what is happening. Admiration for some women, contempt and indignation towards others, ironic condescension towards others, etc. are in the nature of social interest in the development of the image; all problems are presented by Chaucer from a socially significant position.
The humanistic view of the nature of the relationship between a man and a woman in The Canterbury Tales reveals a completely new perception of the feeling of love. Love becomes an integral feature of a person’s full life; it fills it with colors and hitherto unknown meaning.
Love appears in Chaucer both as a simple carnal attraction, usually associated with trickery (the stories of the miller, the majordomo, the skipper and the merchant using the popular frivolous episode) or even with a crime (the doctor's story), and as an all-consuming passion (the knight's story). She experiences human nobility (Franklin's story about a faithful wife whom a page in love wants to seize with the help of magic - by the way, the story includes a long list of famous staunch maidens and wives who sought salvation from shame in death). So, for example, in the doctor’s story one can see the same connection between love and suffering that runs through other “moral stories.” Referring to Titus Livius, this learned physician tells the story of the virtuous Virginia, determined to die rather than become the prey of the voluptuous scoundrel Appianus and assistant Claudius. Virginia loves God and her purity (as can be seen from her name) and suffers for this love. Her father Virginius is faced with a choice: kill his daughter or give her up to dishonor (he chooses the first).
As mentioned above, Chaucer in the General Prologue warns the reader that the stories of the heroes may be ambiguous or immodest, but he justifies this by the desire to convey everything as it was, to tell the truth. In this context, the expressive portrait of a broken weaver from Bath, a woman no longer in her first youth, but still very energetic, attracts attention. She is rich and has influence in her city. None of the local women dares to enter the parish church before her, because everyone knows that she will not mince words. She has already been married five times, but she has buried all her husbands (and no less a number of lovers) and is now dreaming of a sixth.
However, the story of the Bath Weaver touches on the issue of the connection between beauty and wife's betrayal. The Bath weaver - the “merry widow” - sets out her views on family and marital life, and also very frankly talks about how deftly she managed her husbands. Thus, the Bath Weaver literally rejected the then religious and moral doctrine on which the social structure of the medieval British family was based. By the way, Chaucer, without directly condemning the behavior of the Bath weaver, still mentions that the flower of her youth has passed, she is deaf, ugly, and it is unlikely that anything good awaits her in old age, although she swaggers, and this expresses the author’s desire for justice, to moralizing.
A skipper of the sea wolf breed, who knows how to value strength, unceremonious dexterity and material gain, brings to the attention of Fabliau's listeners the story of a merchant's wife, who, in exchange for the hundred francs she needs to pay for her outfit, is given to a quick-witted monk, who receives this money from her merchant husband.
Unlike the Bath weaver and the merchant's wife in the “moral” stories (knight, Franklin, etc.), the outer beauty of a woman is equal to her inner beauty, i.e. chastity.
The characters of the pilgrims are usually associated with their stories drawn from a variety of sources, be it edifying collections of the Middle Ages, fabliaux, adventure knightly stories, ancient literature, works of Italian humanists of the 14th century. or incidents directly taken from life. So, who valued books above all else and, of course, spoke Latin, a student from Oxford retells the final story of the Decameron about the long-suffering Griselda, known to him from the Latin translation of Petrarch. At the end of the Student's story and at Chaucer's conclusion to this story, one can see that change of points of view that is characteristic of all Gothic art. The pathetic story about patient Griselda has just ended, an allegorical interpretation of this story has been given, and suddenly the student declares that now you won’t find a single Griselda, and in his song advises wives to have fun and torment their husbands in every possible way. On the other hand, the landowner's story says: "She agreed to recognize him as her husband and master, Since husbands can be masters of their wives."
Thus, Chaucer summarizes a happy marriage, provided, however, that the man renounces the dominant position in the family (it is not difficult to guess that a story with a similar tendency belongs to the Weaver of Bath). As for Chaucer himself, he avoids the flat moralization characteristic of medieval didactics. After all, the responsibility for each story lies with the narrator, endowed with certain views and tastes in each specific case. Chaucer seems to step aside and simply observe the flow of life in medieval Britain.
Sometimes Chaucer elaborately (but very secretly) ironizes. Thus, in the economist’s story, he lists cases of frivolity and inconstancy in the animal world, always manifested by female individuals - the she-wolf and the cat, and then summarizes:
“All these examples refer to men who became infidels, and not at all to women. For men always have more desire to satisfy their thirst for base things than their wives.”
A certain nobleman tells in a short story about a lady who, in the absence of her beloved husband, promised to answer the passion of a page who was in love with her if he cleared the coast of Brittany from underwater rocks. Promising this, she was sure of the impossibility of such a task. Meanwhile, her admirer, with the help of a sorcerer, accomplished what was required, and the lady found herself faced with the need to fulfill her promise. The husband, who returned home, recognized this need, although, according to him, he would prefer to fall with his heart pierced in battle. Touched by the enormity of the sacrifice, the page “decided to renounce his lust so that the chivalric law would not be offended by a vile act,” and freed the object of his love from fulfilling the promise, although the sorcerer’s services cost him 1000 pounds in gold. But with such general generosity, the sorcerer rose to the occasion: he refused the payment after learning that the page had gone bankrupt in vain. Chaucer asks, far from rhetorically: which of them, in your opinion, is more generous? The husband who sent his beloved wife to her admirer, so as not to dishonor her by not fulfilling his word? Or a lovestruck page who renounced his rights? Or, finally, that philosopher who knew the secrets of magic, who did not agree to accept payment for his work?
Chapter 2. Marriage in The Canterbury Tales
“Wait a minute, my story hasn’t begun yet.
When you hear it, you'll sing differently.
The ale in that barrel will be bitter,
than everything that I have told so far.
Oh, I know, hardly anyone knows better,
what a scourge marriage takes
My taxes are my own scourge.
And call for caution,
And consult, then decide
take a sip of the horn. And then don’t repent
That the ale of marriage is not painfully sweet;
I’ll give examples of how disgusting he is.”
The study of normative behavior and declared perception of marriage must have a clear relationship with reality; only in this case can we count on an adequate understanding of the specifics of matrimonial relations in Chaucer’s era.
Realizing all the difficulties of extracting material about family and marital relations from a literary source, we can use the material from “The Canterbury Tales” when we discover clear parallels of plots and characters with documentary material. What is of interest is Chaucer’s own vision of the problem, for example, his attitude towards marriage or his ideas about possible family relationships.
Chaucer was able to reflect the main trends in family and marriage relations in Britain in the mid-14th century: ridiculing the simpleton of a man, exposing the vices of a woman, prejudice towards marriage, a traditional view of marriage, where a woman and a man a priori received their qualitative personifications.
At the very end of the Knight's Tale, the marriage of Palamon and Emilia is spoken of. This allows us, to some extent, to compare the Knight's Tale with the stories of the so-called “Marriage Group”.
Franklin's story shows an ideal marriage, the kind of marriage that is hinted at at the end of the Knight's story and the story of the Bath weaver. It is based on mutual trust and freedom. Although some researchers, based on a study of medieval marriage contracts, find contradictions in this marriage.
This method made it possible to consider traditional divorce practice in England in the 14th-15th centuries, as well as to look at matrimonial problems through the eyes of contemporaries themselves. Drawing a number of parallels with the traditions of other European countries, we resort to comparative research methods. This allows us to identify both general and unique trends in the development of the British urban family.
The story is based on Dorigen's rash promise. According to D. Brewer, “Chaucer reveals the ambivalence of deep values, or that values good in themselves may be incompatible with each other - a good Gothic point illustrated again in the Clerk s Tale and in Troilus". “What is more attractive in life than marriage? Especially when you are old and your wife should be young, and then you will give birth to an Heir with her: life will be sweet for you. And look at the life of a bachelor: He often complains of boredom, he is tired of the vanity of love. And it is fair that a bachelor should lead a life devoid of joys and blessings. He builds on sand, and therefore only failure is destined for him. He lives freely, like wild game, knowing nothing about coercion. A married man, on the contrary, always leads a measured life, is tightly tied to the marriage yoke, and life is sweet and joyful to him. Who could be more tender than a wife? Who with more diligence than she, when you are sick, follows you? She is ready to serve you as a faithful servant, even if you go to bed so that you don’t get up again until death.” “A number of scientists think differently, including Theophrastus. Even if He teaches inappropriately, what’s in it for me? If you want to keep your house in order, this is what he teaches, don’t rush to get married, that’s what servants are good for. What is a wife to a faithful servant? After all, she takes half the good for herself. And if, having fallen ill, you suddenly go to bed, you will sooner find happiness with your friends and servants than with your wife: your kindness is dearer to her than anything else.” Chaucer deliberately contrasts man with woman in marriage, and in favor of the latter. In Melnik's story there is a literal apotheosis for a woman: “The wife, on the contrary, - believe me, - enters the house for a long time, for a longer period than you, perhaps, could wish for. Marriage is a great sacrament, and those who are not married live helplessly, And all their hopes are fleeting (I'm talking about men, of course). And why? Yes, because God was pleased to create a woman to help Us. When he molded Adam from clay, the creator himself, seeing how naked and lonely he was, could not help but feel sorry for him in his soul, and gave him support in the form of Eve. From here it is clear, you will all agree, that a woman has been given to us for joy and help; She is heaven on earth With her soul, affectionate and tender. Life with her is a boundless ocean of happiness. Having become one flesh, wife and husband are sealed by a union of souls until the grave. Wife! Is it possible that misfortune befalls someone who is married? No never. I swear by you, O Most Holy Virgin! Between spouses there is such love that there is no way to express it. Your wife is the giver of blessings and the selfless mistress of the house; she is unfamiliar with self-will; the humble always gives the answer; You said “yes” - she won’t say “no”. Married life! You, like the Garden of Eden, are full of splendor and delights; Everyone gives you such honor that everyone in whom there is even a drop of meaning, Until the grave, if he is married, must thank the creator all days in a row. And if he is single, then pray to God to send him a wife to help him. By getting married, he will protect himself from all deception and insults. He who follows his wife on his path can boldly carry his head, - So her advice is full of wisdom. If you want to succeed in this life, don’t forget to listen to your wife’s words. After all, Jacob’s mother advised him to come to Isaac in a goat’s skin to bow to him, and his father gave him a blessing. It was Judith’s mind that saved the chosen people from extermination, when the tyrant’s head was cut off from the tyrant’s shoulders by her fearless sword. Naval's life hung by a thread, and yet his wife managed to save her with her mind. Esther saved God's chosen people from adversity, for which the dignitary Ahasferus, Mordecai, bowed before her. Seneca says: in the whole universe there is no being more valuable than a humble wife. Kato tells his wife to be obedient. Submit to her, - then she will show doubly her humility before you. My wife wisely manages our household. Especially those who are ill need a wife so that the house does not fall into disrepair. What the church is to Christ, let your wife be to you. Having loved wisdom, consider your wife to be the highest of blessings. After all, no one is an enemy of one’s own flesh. Therefore, cherish your wife: you can only achieve bliss with her. The husband and wife - I’m not joking at all - calmly go through the path of life, the Union is not afraid of their threats, especially from the wife. Those who have gone through many schools are immensely learned. Contact your wife and you will say: this is true.” Despite such a long quoted passage, this was done to make it clear that Chaucer still looks at women from a purely male point of view. “And the girl in your hands is like wax: her heart and brain are fresh. So know in advance, friends: I will not lead the old woman to the crown. After all, if unfortunate fate had made it so that I could not enjoy with her, I would have started looking for pleasure on the side and thus would have doomed myself to hell forever, And this marriage would have been childless. And I would rather be torn apart by a pack of dogs than for strangers to get what I myself have accumulated. In turn, a tipsy miller, very far from “high” matters, tells the story of how a cunning schoolboy cuckolded a simple-minded carpenter who, despite his advanced age, risked marrying a young beauty. The Miller's story goes like this: there lived a carpenter in Oxford. He was a jack of all trades and enjoyed a well-deserved reputation as a craftsman. He was rich and allowed parasites into his house. Among them lived a poor student who was well versed in alchemy, remembered theorems and often surprised everyone with his knowledge. Because of his good disposition and friendliness, everyone called him Darling Nicholas. The carpenter's wife died, and after grieving, he married again the young black-browed beauty Alison. In The Miller's Tale, Chaucer gives a charming, earthly description of Alison, far from the world of pure idealism: “She was slim, flexible, beautiful, It's as playful as a squirrel, and as playful as a loach... Her eyes shone with a living fire; so that the eyebrows of the eyes arch around, She plucked her hairs and now, like strings, they are narrow And they became cool. She was so dressed up that it was gratifying to look at her. Tender as fluff, transparent in the light, For connoisseurs it was a tasty morsel, Could easily outshine the baron's daughters, Shame to share a bed with a lord, she could be an exemplary wife Some yeoman who he would be the right age for her.” (Translation by Kashin). Those. She was so attractive and sweet that there were countless people in love with her, and among them was the student, darling Nicholas. Suspecting nothing, the old carpenter was still very jealous and kept an eye on his young wife. Retelling this story is beyond the scope of the work, but in general terms it turns out that a clever schoolboy manages to deceive the old carpenter and cuckold him with his young wife. Chaucer continues: “I don’t talk like an empty fool; I know why I'm getting married, And I also know that there are many people marriage is often judged haphazardly, No more understanding of it than my servant. To whom heaven's reward is dear, And chastity is unbearable, let him marry, so that with the woman you love To produce children for the glory of God, and not for carnal pleasures alone. They should be used in moderation only to fulfill his duty. Then they take a wife, to help each other like brother and sister And observe the law of purity with her.” Thus, here we see the recognition of the need for marriage and the development of ideal role functions for men and women. Variability was also manifested in the declared distribution of the role functions of women and men in marriage, as well as in their direct relationships. The position of a woman was determined based on her essential characteristics. On the one hand, female nature is weak and sinful. It followed that the woman, as the main culprit of original sin, in real life had to completely submit to the will of her husband. On the other hand, recognition of the equality of women and men before God. So, in The Canterbury Tales there appears variability in the perception of marital relations. On the one hand, marriage is a sin, on the other, it is salvation. On the one hand, marital relations are subjected to caustic ridicule, on the other hand, love and tenderness (and especially fidelity) between a man and a woman are glorified. Chapter 3. Chaucer's Family
It is no coincidence that in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales it is the urban family that becomes the main subject of study. It should be noted that Chaucer's researchers, when studying the medieval British family, focused on the general analysis of the family and marriage sphere, the study of its regional and social specifics. In addition, the scientists primarily focused on noble as well as peasant families. As a rule, the city family was considered in The Canterbury Tales (and indeed in stories of that time in general) in the context of the socio-cultural life of the city as a whole and did not act as an independent object. However, the diversity of urban life styles, social mobility, the level of economic and cultural development, and receptivity to the new create a unique opportunity for research in the field of matrimonial relations. “The Canterbury Tales” allows us to expand our understanding of family people in medieval Britain, making it possible to see them in volume, to discern the diversity and variability of relationships, behavior, and perceptions. In this way, it is possible to achieve concretization of ideas about the characteristics of the people of the era being studied. Interest in the family of “The Canterbury Tales” with modern needs for self-realization and self-determination in society. In The Canterbury Tales, a love story does not always end well, not because of a coincidence of circumstances, but because love can be illegal or even immoral. There is in this some hint of the future emergence of Puritanism. In Chaucer, family values are considered in their entirety. Thus, Chaucer’s entire work can be characterized as having a social character. In the book of The Canterbury Tales, one can see everywhere attempts to find out: what is happening, why, how to live in family life, which path to choose, which is also a distinctive feature of the English worldview of the 14th century. Chaucer took people as he saw them. He believed in their healthy earthly instincts, in their right to happiness, although he did not indicate the paths by which humanity could come to the kingdom of joy. But he believed that joy is the natural destiny of man. First of all, it is in family life that Chaucer is ready to look for the source of human happiness. Conclusion Chaucer novella love family Chaucer's performance, so decisive and promising, still did not lead to the rapid flowering of British literature of the Renaissance. In the 15th century, the author of The Canterbury Tales had no worthy successors. The poets, who to one degree or another belonged to Chaucer's school, were inferior to him not only in talent, but also in the ability to look at things in a new way. In British literature of the 15th century. the shoots of the Renaissance were weak and sparse. Basically it continued to remain medieval. Chaucer was not a supporter of the “emancipation” of women, but there is no doubt that the topic of love and family relationships is vital for him. The "Marriage Party" in The Canterbury Tales bears witness to this. In relation to the “new” position of a woman, to her “recognition as a person” and even taking a leading position in family life, Chaucer is more of an observer; he states these facts, but his mentality does not make it possible to unambiguously and unconditionally accept these realities. Chaucer was a master storyteller. His book gave birth to a British novella. In Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, everything is surprisingly specific and typical: people, settings, objects, and situations. It becomes clear why A.M. Gorky called Chaucer “the founder of realism.” List of used literature
1.Chaucer G. The Canterbury tales. P.166. 2.Brewer D. A New Introduction to Chaucer Longman 1998. P. 366. .Chaucer G. The Canterbury tales. P. 228. .Chaucer G. The Canterbury tales. P. 386. .Brewer D. A New Introduction to Chaucer. Longman 1998. P. 338. 6.All the masterpieces of world literature in a brief summary. Plots and characters. Foreign literature of ancient eras, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance: Encyclopedic edition. M. 1997. .Features of the spiritual life of England in the second half of the 14th century. (based on the work of J. Chaucer “The Canterbury Tales”) // Collection of materials of the VIIth international. scientific conference “Russia and the West: dialogue of cultures”. Vol. 8. T. II. M., Moscow State University, 2000. .Ideas about marriage and relationships between spouses in the 14th century. in England based on the work of J. Chaucer “The Canterbury Tales” // Vestnik Mosk. un-ta. Ser. 19. Linguistics and intercultural communication. Vol. 3. M., Moscow State University, 2002. .Creation of the image of a “real person” in the General Prologue to “The Canterbury Tales” by Geoffrey Chaucer. Theses. // Materials of the international. scientific conference of students, graduate students and young scientists "Lomonosov". Vol. 4, M., Moscow State University, 2000.