Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Chaucer - Coggle Diagram
Chaucer
Critics
-
'The garden is the body of a woman in a passive condition, waiting to be enjoyed' (Lutwack)
-
-
-
-
'The whole notion of authority is parodied in this poem concerned with unsteady fortune and false reputation' (Ackroyd)
-
-
-
'It is a special, intrusive voice, not Chaucer's voice' (Pearsall)
-
-
-
-
-
-
Context
-
Emerging mercantilie class in late 14th century - Chaucer was also a tax collector and worked with merchants
-
Fornication (sex outside of marriage) was a sin unless for purpose of begetting children (marital debt, therefore forbidden amongst sterile older partners) and forbidden to have sex on Sundays/St. days (40% of the year)
Chaucer married Philippa Chaucer, lady-in-waiting to French Queen Philippa, wife of Edward III and they had a son, Thomas, and a daughter, Elizabeth - Chaucer declared he would never remarry afterwards 'to fall of weddynge in the trappe'
Chaucer was accused of 'raptus' by Cecily Champain and in 1380 released Chaucer for legal actions but a child, Lewis, was born in 1381
The Canterbury Tales, in which 30 pilgrims travel to the shrine of St Thomas and each tell tales on the journey as part of a storytelling competition
-
The Plague created opportunities for social and financial gain, e.g Chaucer, son of a vintner, moved from being a page in a noble household to being a Clerk of the King's works
Greek God Priapus was a god of gardens and male genitalia, often pictured as a largely phallic character
Proserpina was the Roman goddess of fertility, who was raped by Pluto the God of the underworld. Her mother, Ceres, goddess of the Earth, mourned by withdrawing life from Earth and Pluto agreed to allow Proserpina to return in Spring. However, she had eaten six pomegranate seeds (a symbol of fidelity in marriage) so had to return to Hades to live 6 months of every year with him.
'deus ex machina' in Ancient Greek/Roman theatre meaning 'a god from a machine' - practice of using gods at the end of plays to resolve plot
Biblical allusions to the Garden of Eden, the fall of Eve (fallen woman trope)
Jung psychoanalytic theory - the garden is managed and subdued as a symbol of consciousness, while forests are wild and ruthless unconciousness
Fortune is usually gendered as female, and her gifts are fleeting by nature and involve risk - the wheel reminded people of the temporality of earthly things