The Canterbury Tales - General Prologue & The Knight's Tale

 

This is one of the many pages from the original manuscript of "The Canterbury Tales"

As most of you know, I'm an English major. Because of this, I often read a lot of books a semester; anywhere between 5 and 15 is normal for an average student. This semester, I have a few less than normal, as one of my classes focuses entirely on only one book. Because of this, I've found I'm appreciating the books I'm reading a bit more than usual. So I decided I'd write reviews on the books I'm reading this semester mostly for my own enjoyment. Since I'll be reading The Canterbury Tales throughout the entire semester, I thought I'd review it in parts. This will be about the first two parts of the book.

The Canterbury Tales was written at the end of the 14th century (between 1387 and 1400) by Geoffrey Chaucer. During his life, Chaucer was a part of high society and worked for King Richard II in the court. He was fluent in four languages but chose to write his most notable work in English which, at the time, was a lower-class language that was primarily spoken farmers, squires and the like. We could argue that Chaucer chose to do this in order to appeal to a mass audience. Because of his work in the English language, many refer to him as the "father of English literature".

The Canterbury Tales starts with the General Prologue, where a narrator tells of a pilgrimage that he intends to make. He describes in extensive detail each of his companions on the pilgrimage, including a knight, a squire, a nun, a friar, a monk, a cook and many other assorted people. One thing that's interesting about this prologue is how little time the narrator takes in describing himself. In fact, we don't know anything about this narrator at all. It may be a way to insert ourselves into the narrative but is probably more likely to introduce an argument of the reliability of the narrator. 

The "action" of the book begins soon after the descriptions are done. The pilgrims agree to a competition: whoever can tell the best tale during their travels will get a dinner paid for by the rest of the pilgrims. Our narrator vows to write down each tale word for word as best as he can, or else to make up the gaps. Hence unreliable narrator.

The knight goes first and we're regaled with his tale involving Greek heroes and villains. One of our main characters is Theseus, who ransacks and takes Creon (the setting of Oedipus). He imprisons to men, Arcite and Palamon, and throws them into his prison. While Arcite and Palamon are lying in prison, they see a young woman, Emelye, out of their one window and instantly fall in love with her. Arcite and Palamon fight over Emelye while in their prison cell. Through a series of events, both of them end up out of prison and fight out in the open over Emelye. Theseus finds them fighting and deems that a tournament will be held to see who will win Emelye's hand. Arcite, Palamon, and Emelye all pray to the gods to help them: Arcite to win, Palamon to have Emelye, and Emelye to remain a virgin. Arcite wins the tournament but is trampled by his own horse and dies. The story ends with Theseus telling Palamon and Emelye to marry.

One thing that's interesting about this tale is the theme of gender. Emelye is constantly blamed by Arcite and Palamon for starting all of their woe, even though she knows neither of them. When she prays to the goddess Diana (interestingly, the Roman version of Artemis even though the setting is in Greece), Emelye gets a direct response from Diana but it's only to tell her that she can't be a virgin and must marry one of the men. Emelye is just as imprisoned as Arcite and Palamon were. Chaucer seemed to be trying to tell the modern reader that women are immensely powerless in any time in human history.

I also think it's interesting that, although the story is supposed to take place in Greece, every god that's mentioned uses their Roman name. For example, when Arcite, Palamon and Emelye pray before the tournament, they pray to Mars, Venus and Diana instead of the Greek counterparts Ares, Aphrodite and Artemis. This could be Chaucer's way of grounding his English story in the Latin that was more common at the time. It could also be a way to bring the readers out of the idea that this story is legitimately part of the Greek mythology canon. Chaucer draws on various biblical and mythological names throughout the whole tale, which contributes to the feeling that this tale could've happened in any of the mythological canons. 

One of the funniest moments to me was after the tale was finished and we are brought back into the frame narrative of the pilgrims on their journey. Chaucer explicitly mentions that everyone gave the knight a compliment on the tale, especially the nobility. The implication is that the lower-class pilgrims were only saying that it was a good tale out of respect and actually were desperate for the tale to be over, which is very much evident when the Miller tells his tale afterward (but that's a story for another post!). I found it funny because, by the fourth part of the Knight's tale, you almost feel the same way, desperate to learn the ending and get on to the next tale. Chaucer definitely knew what he was doing.

The language found in The Canterbury Tales is hard at first but has its moments of absolute beauty. One of my favorite lines of poetry that was in this tale was the sorrowful lines,
"Right so ther lived never man.../
In al this world, that som tyme he ne dyde.
This world nis but a thurghfare ful of wo
And we ben pilgrimes, passinge to and fro." 

The lines claim that there was never a man who lived who didn't die at some point. The world is full of sadness and we all ultimately die after short and overall meaningless lives. It's a depressing thought that was presented as comforting in this tale. It has no right to be as beautiful sounding as it is. Chaucer truly had a great grasp on the language and wrote some of the prettiest poetry, even 600 years later.

I think that The Canterbury Tales is one of those books that every literature loving person should read, a sort of bucket list novel. Chaucer was amazingly clever in constructing this book, based on what I've read so far. The Canterbury Tales is one of those foundational English writings that show just how much humans have been able to capture in six hundred years, much akin to the likes of Beowulf or The Pearl in its importance to the grand scope of English literature and culture of the time.