Tuesday, June 9, 2009
I did not agree with Lawton on the some of the instances when he interprets Chaucer's pilgrim as having a clear stance towards the other pilgrims. For example, Lawton notes at the bottom of page 932 that Chaucer's pilgrim, while "deploring" the Miller's indelicacy of language, held "ungrudging admiration" for his efficient theivery. I tried to substantiate his claim. However, apart from the word "jangler" (560) - which is itself ambiguous as it could be stated spitefully or matter-of-factly - I could not find any other potential evidence of Chaucer censuring the Miller. I did not get the sense that Chaucer's pilgrim admired the Miller's thievery either. The line "Wel koude he stelen corn and a tollen thries" (562) could be spoken admiringly, bitterly or in a neutral manner. Chaucer the pilgrim's tone and opinions are obscure and dubious and may well be opaque to us at this stage.
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I agree, I find Chaucer as the narrator (a term which I believe ties the author too intimately to the narrator) to have a far more ambiguous stance towards the other pilgrims (at least based on the general prologue (it is almost certain that Lawton had read the Canturbury Tales in their entirety multiple times and his judgement is colored from this)). For example the narrator's attitude towards the clerk. I found the narrator to look at the clerk with mild contempt as the narrator says, "And he nas nat right fat, I undertake,/but looked holwe, and therto sobrely." (l. 288) This is the first description given of him. Donaldson states, "In this series the portrait of the Clerk is generally held to be an ideal one, containing no irony." I take this to mean it is ideal in that it describes a typical student precisely. However, the narrator goes on to say, "But al be that he was a philosophre,/ Yet hadde he but litel gold in cofre." (l. 297) This suggests that the narrator perhaps does admire those who are able to accumulate wealth. I, however, find it to be one of a number of comments that suggest that the narrator is bemused by the entire group. The very composition of the group, with such a wide cross-section is ripe for amusing tales and the narrator seems fertile ground for these stories to unfold on.
ReplyDeleteJeremy and Steve, what would happen if we set aside the critical practice of localizing attitudes in particular narratorial or authorial figures and turned our attention to these lines about wealth themselves? What words or phrases about money-making appear in the GP? What might we discover if we traced those words and phrases themselves instead of linking them to a narratorial persona? i think your criticism of Lawton's point here is well taken -- how might you approach these lines differently?
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