Weeks 4-6: The Language of Seduction
conditions by which the lady is either beautiful or ugly, and the actions of the knight/king/"hero"...
2. The Wife of Bath's Tale is considered by some critics to indicate that Chaucer may have been a feminist. Why might they believe this? Do you agree? Remember to cite evidence from the text or some other source.
3.Hahn's essay (see critical reader) on The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle identifies the motif of the loathly lady, but argues it has a different purpose than asserting the feminine. What does he think the function of the story is?
4. In the context of Elizabethan and Jacobean sonnets, how can we define "conceits"?
5. Discuss what you think is the most striking or outrageous example.
6. What does Revard (1997) suggest about the relationship between language, sex, power and transgression in the English Renaissance?
2. The Wife of Bath's Tale is considered by some critics to indicate that Chaucer may have been a feminist. Why might they believe this? Do you agree? Remember to cite evidence from the text or some other source.
3.Hahn's essay (see critical reader) on The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle identifies the motif of the loathly lady, but argues it has a different purpose than asserting the feminine. What does he think the function of the story is?
4. In the context of Elizabethan and Jacobean sonnets, how can we define "conceits"?
5. Discuss what you think is the most striking or outrageous example.
6. What does Revard (1997) suggest about the relationship between language, sex, power and transgression in the English Renaissance?
Stories involving themes around a loathly lady can be viewed as asserting a feminine viewpoint, asking the question of the audience of who should be dominant in male / female relationships? They can offer challenges to the traditionally male dominated hierarchy (Stewart, 2003). Often the hero / knight / king / audience is asked to consider the answer to the question of what a woman wants. In the case of Dame Ragnelle, Arthur is challenged to find “what women everywhere love best” (Medieval Forum, n.d.).
ReplyDeleteHahn offers the argument that The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle has a core purpose of “how the unknown, the marvelous, or the threatening is brought into line with legitimate, normative, idealized chivalric society” (p.18). He positions Dame Ragnelle as an outsider, the unknown, to the legitimate court of Arthur and as such a threat to the established system of authority. Dame Ragnelle is characterised as an other, or outsider, through her physical attributes and social behaviour. She is a loathly lady, physically hideous to behold, “She was the ugliest creature That a man ever saw” (p.10). The tale then describes in some detail the nature of her ugliness, “Her face was red, her nose running, Her mouth wide, her teeth all yellow” (p.10). Moreover, she lacks qualities associated with court, “manners, beauty, deference” (p.18) and it is her transformation and gaining of these that marks her normalisation and coming into accordance with societal expectations.
Hahn argues that Dame Ragnelle serves as a connection for the other major characters of Sir Gowmer, King Arthur, and Gawain. Through her they are connected and the story can flow. Hahn suggests that the concepts of chivalry as explored through the story with each of the major characters swearing oaths, Arthur and Gowmer, Arthur and Ragnelle, Arthur and Gawain, Gawain and Ragnelle. Through fulfilment of these oaths the outsiders, Gowmer and Ragnelle are able to be brought into line with society.
References:
Hahn, T. (Ed.). (1995). The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle. In Sir Gawain: Eleven Romances and Tales. Kalamazoo, Michigan: Medieval Institute Publications.
Medieval Forum. Tuma, G. & Hazell, D. (Eds). (n.d). “HARKEN TO ME”
MIDDLE ENGLISH ROMANCES IN TRANSLATION. Retrieved from https://www.sfsu.edu/~medieval/romances/wedding_rev.html
Steward, R. (2003). Loathliness, loyalty, and location : the threat of the Other in Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle. Thesis and Dissertations, Paper 800. Lehigh University. Retrieved from https://preserve.lehigh.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1800&context=etd
The Oxford University Press (2013) defines a conceit as “an elaborate metaphor comparing two apparently dissimilar objects or emotions, often with an effect of shock or surprise”. This identifies a conceit as a literary device which draws a comparison between two dissimilar things. In John Dunne’s poem The Flea the conceit is drawing a comparison between a flea and the loss of innocence (Abrams, 1993). The author identifies conceits as “metaphors that are intricately woven into the verse, often used to express satire, puns, or deeper meanings within the poem, and to display the poet's own cunning with words” (p.9). Spenser in Ice and Fire has the conceit of love and fire and ice, “My love is like to ice, and I to fire: / How comes it then that this her cold so great / Is not dissolved through my so hot desire” (1-3). Parker (1982) defined conceit as ‘A conceit is a comparison whose ingenuity is more striking than its justness… all comparisons find likeness in things unlike; a comparison becomes a conceit when we are made to concede likeness while being strongly conscious of unlikeness’ (pp. xxii).
ReplyDeleteAbrams, M.H. (1993). The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 6th ed. New York. W.W. Norton and Company, Inc.
Conceit. (2013). Oxford University Press. Doi: 10.1093/acref/9780199608218.013.1740
Parker, A. (1982). “Concept and conceit”: An aspect of comparative literary history in The modern language review 77(4). pp. xxi – xxxv.
Hi Mike,
DeleteGood and straight to the point definition of the word "conceits". To be honest i never heard of that word before until i read your blog. Well done.
The Loathly Lady fabula can be traced in origin to early 11th-12th Century Irish mythological texts regarding kingship and sovereignty. In Celtic myths and legends the Loathly Lady is personified sovereignty as either the goddess of the land or of Ireland itself who blesses fertility, fortune and prosperity to the king-candidate (MacKillop, 2005). The fabula revolves around the concept of kingship as male and sovereignty as female (MacKillop, 2005) and traces the relationship between king and sovereignty of land. The Loathly Lady motif as it appears in Irish sovereignty tales places the female as hideously ugly when first approached who demands a sexual deed from the king-candidate who must approach it with timidity (MacKillop, 2005) in order to gain the sovereignty the Loathly Lady holds secret to. If successful, the hideous hag is transformed into a beautiful maiden who provides formative instruction (Passmore, 2004) to the king-candidate who is deemed to have attributes worthy of ruling Ireland. The prominent representation of the Loathly Lady motif in early Irish texts lends to the consensus of the Irish fabula being models for later English representations of the motif (Passmore, 2004). A key difference between the Irish and English fabula of the Loathly Lady however is exemplified through the protagonists’ innate qualities (Passmore, 2004). The protagonist in Irish fabula is that of a king-candidate who already possesses inherent attributes which qualify them for rulership and the function of the Loathly Lady is to counsel them to fully actualise their pre-existing qualities (Passmore, 2004). The gratification of reward is the public sphere of kingship (Carter, 2001). The protagonist in the English fabula differs significantly in that characteristics of chivalric leadership in both the personal and public sphere is missing and only with the counsel of the Loathly Lady can they be considered noble. The gratification of reward is within the private sphere of marital bliss (Carter, 2001). Notable texts within the English version of the fabula are Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath’s Tale, The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Lady Ragnelle, and the King Henry ballad.
ReplyDeleteFocusing on Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath’s Tale the deficiencies of the knight protagonist is explicitly outlined in his introductory action of rape of a young maiden. Chaucer makes reference to Irish Arthurian tales through the backdrop of the tale and also through mention of mythical beings such as dancing fairy ladies (Passmore, 2004). The similarity to the Irish fabula however ceases there with the protagonist obviously lacking attributes of chivalry in his violation of the maiden and is condemned to death unless he solves the riddle posed by the queen “what thyng is it that wommen moost desiren” (Benson, 2008). The task set upon him which he is given “a twelf-month and a day, to seche and lere” (Benson, 2008) presents the action for self-improvement in the tale. The Loathly Lady motif, the hideous old lady, presents herself on “the day was come that homward moste he tourne” (Benson, 2008) behind the alluring disguise of twenty four dancing ladies. The Loathly Lady promises him the answer to his riddle if he in return promises her “thy trouthe heere in myn hand… the nexte thyng that I requere thee” (Benson, 2008). The knight then returns to the court with his answer, given to him by the Loathly Lady, that "Wommen desiren to have sovereynetee as wel over hir housbond as hir love” (Benson, 2008). The answer to the court of ladies is satisfactory but the answer itself is not the condition to which the protagonist learns his lesson and evolves in self-improvement, nor is it the transformation of the Loathly Lady. Rather, his transformation comes with the transformation of the Loathly Lady, who, in the privacy of their bed, lectures him “That therfore sholden ye be gentil men, arrogance is nat worth an hen. Looke who that is moost vertuous alway, Pryvee and apert, and moost entendeth ay To do the gentil dedes that he kan” (Benson, 2008). Therefore, through the actual action of the protagonist giving his wife sovereignty in marriage is she then transformed “so fair was, and so yong therto” (Benson, 2008). Ultimately, Chaucer used the motif of the Loathly Lady in the English version of the fabula to transform, not a king-candidate into a king, but an un-noble knight into a noble knight-husband.
DeleteFocusing on The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Lady Ragnelle we can identify more devices closer to that of the Irish version of the fabula however still highlights points of differences. The text itself begins with the mention of King Arthur, evidencing kingship as an explicit factor in the tale, similar to that of the Irish tales (Passmore, 2004). This is achieved furthermore through the backdrop of King Arthur hunting, which is where the Irish fabula begins, and through the hint of the Loathly Lady being that of sovereignty through how “She satt on a palfray was gay begon, with gold besett and many a precious stone.” (Hahn, 1995) This however is where the Irish fabula ceases to be explicit but rather implicit through the “twinning” of King Arthur and Sir Gawain. King Arthur in the text is the one who is deficient in his attributes of kingship which is instead exemplified through Sir Gawain who possesses virtues of courage, loyalty and faithfulness to his King (Passmore, 2004). King Arthur is represented to have qualities of cowardice and trickery as he proclaims at to Sir Gawain when he first meets him “"Forsothe," sayd the Kyng, "nevere so ylle! Alas, I am in poynt myself to spylle, for nedely I most be ded." (Hahn, 1995) In response to this, Sir Gawain without hesitation states "I shalle wed her and wed her agayn, Thowghe she were a fend; Thowghe she were as foulle as Belsabub, Her shalle I wed, by the Rood, or elles were nott I your frende. For ye ar my Kyng with honour” (Hahn, 1995) King Arthur’s lack of kingly attributes is further highlighted through his favouritism of Sir Gawain as he exclaims "Of alle knyghtes thou berest the flowre that evere yett I fond.” (Hahn, 1995) Overall, The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Lady Ragnelle present hints of the Irish fabula but still closely resemble the fabula of the English Loathly Lady.
DeleteFocusing on the King Henry ballad, the Loathly Lady motif remains within the realms of the Irish Sovranty hag but strays from the motif whereby King Henry has already attained his kingship (Passmore, 2004) therefore is not a king-candidate. The ballad represents the attributes already inherent within a worthy king through “A store of gold, and open heart, and full of charity; And this was seen of King Henry” (Span, 1972). Again, the backdrop is that of a hunting expedition which is followed by a plethora of demands from the Loathly Lady who “burst the fastened door” (Span, 1972). She demands; “Go kill your horse you King Henry”, “Go Kill your greyhounds King Henry”, “Go fell your goshawks King Henry”, “Oh you sew up your horse's hide And bring in a drink to me”, “A bed you'll make for me”, and finally “lie down by my side, Now swear, now swear you King Henry To take me for your bride.” (Span, 1972) Upon fulfilling her request, the Loathly Lady is transformed into “The fairest lady that ever was seen” (Span, 1972) to further reinforce the attributes in which King Henry possessed.
DeleteReferences
Benson, L. Gen. Ed., the Riverside Chaucer, Houghton Miflin Company retrieved April 27,
2018 from http://sites.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/teachslf/wbt-par.htm
Carter, S. (2001). Willing shape-shifters: the loathly lady from Irish Sovranty to Spenser's
Duessa. (Master’s Thesis) Retrieved from
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/NQ58605.pdf
Hahn, T. (Ed.). (1995). the Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle. In Sir Gawain:
Eleven Romances and Tales. Kalamazoo, Michigan: Medieval Institute Publications
Passmore, S. E. (2004). The loathly lady transformed: A literary and cultural analysis of
the medieval Irish and English hag -beauty tales (Order No. 3156408). Available from
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (305208844). Retrieved from
http://ezproxy.aut.ac.nz/login?url=https://search-proquest-
com.ezproxy.aut.ac.nz/docview/305208844?accountid=8440
Sovereignty. (2005). In J. MacKillop, Myths and legends of the Celts. London, UK:
Penguin. Retrieved from https://networkservices.aut.ac.nz/ezproxy.cgi?
url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/penguinmlc/sovereignty/0?
institutionId=5349
Span, S. (1972). King Henry [Recorded by Sound Techniques] on Below the Salt. Chelsea:
London.
Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath’s Tale is considered by some critics to indicate that Chaucer may have been a feminist. This notion can be aligned in the tale with the exploitation of the mechanisms of the motif of the Loathly Lady as an allegory used to destabilise gender roles (Carter, 2003). Chaucer uses the motif as a vehicle for examining the sphere of heterosexual power contestations and plays with the ambivalence of gender roles (Carter, 2003). Aligning with the Irish Sovranty Hag tale, gender roles are loosened, dissolved, and resolved (Carter, 2003). The same concept is expanded through the hunter motif with protagonists in the Irish fabula meeting the Loathly Lady during a hunting expedition, an aristocratic masculine pastime (Carter, 2003). Chaucer uses this motif implicitly with the hunter being hunted by the Loathly Lady who knows her prey’s predilection and therefore contributes to this destabilisation (Carter, 2003). Further destabilising of gender roles is through the repositioning of females within the court in the tale, a position generically representing the seat of patriarchal government (Carter, 2003). This is achieved through casting the knights of the court into the shadows, a spot usually reserved for women, and representing power through the women of the court who have the decision over the knight’s fate (Carter, 2003). The Loathly Lady’s initial intention concerning sovereignty is placed within the personal sphere of power politics within marriage, startlingly evident in the protagonist’s introductory rape of a young maiden which positions him as an individual without the qualities of a king (Carter, 2003). Chaucer uses the tale to manipulate power ratios through desire, pleasure and frustration and when the protagonist surrenders to the Loathly Lady, he surrenders not to the romanticised women projected by male desire, but to the women conceived in the pessimistic terms of anti-feminism (Carter, 2003). The transformative Loathly Lady motif is used to represent the double-sided nature of femininity rather than sovereignty in The Wife of Bath’s Tale (Carter, 2003). The form of the hag represents a femininity that is strong, independent, and active in its ability to desire, violate and control (Carter, 2003).
ReplyDeleteIt is important however to refrain from too hasty an ascription to Chaucer of features in the tale that properly belong to the narrating Wife (Marshall Leicester Jr, 2010). Like all texts, we must understand the poet’s relation to his character but not immediately assume the character’s ideals as the author’s. If Chaucer is not actually endorsing the strident voice he gives to the Wife, he is certainly making play with textuality, with subjectivity, and with the construction of ideas about sexuality (Carter, 2003). By not presenting his own views, he allows her to express radical ideas on gender theory (Carter, 2003) in medieval England, a field of feminist studies that is small in comparison (Wynne-Davies, 1992). Her didactic confidence gives her an unusual stature as a literary character since she is the only pilgrim in the Canterbury Tales to compete with Chaucer for the authority of authorship (Desmond, 2006). Chaucer gives the Wife agency through a traditional fabula that is intentionally subverted to make a feminist message more pointed (Marshall Leicester Jr, 2010).Chaucer chooses to tell a story that re-contextualises its narrator’s own unfortunate marital history, allowing the Wife agency to rewrite for herself a happier ending (Inskeep, 2013). The result is a tale of two Loathly Ladies, the full-bodied Wife of Bath grounded in the material world of Medieval England and the shadowy crone of a lost mythical world of Arthurian romance. Comparing the Wife’s presence and the Loathly Lady’s absence will reveal how far apart they are in flesh, yet how close they are in spirit (Inskeep, 2013). Chaucer, in the person of the Wife, constitutes a deeper and more existentially responsible feminism and a more searching critique of male domination (Marshall Leicester Jr, 2010). Going beyond The Wife of Bath’s Tale, several of Chaucer’s female protagonists act against conventional expectations “they undertake traditionally male occupations- the Wife of Bath is a successful cloth- maker, and Patient Griselda acts as the manorial judge when Walter is absent. They are not punished for sexual licence and adultery- Alison tricks her husband in 'The Miller's Tale', while May convinces her old husband of her faithfulness even after he has witnessed her making love to another man. Others, like Emelye, do not wish to marry, and both the Wife of Bath and Criseyde, having been wed, are aware of the benefits of remaining widow.” (Wynne-Davies, 1992) However, within Chaucer’s tales are polarised stereotypes in “characters such as the Wife of Bath and Patient Griselda, where the former appears to encapsulate all the negative views about women, and the latter seems to be an ideal of feminine virtue.” (Wynne-Davies, 1992) Therefore, we must recognise in any analysis of Chaucer’s poetry is that his loyalties were not constant (Wynne-Davies, 1992) as ultimately all female characters are a male poet’s impersonation of a female speaker (Marshall Leicester Jr, 2010).
DeleteReferences
DeleteCarter, S. (2003). Coupling the Beastly Bride and the Hunter Hunted: What Lies Behind
Chaucer's Wife of Bath's Tale. The Chaucer Review 37(4), 329-345. Penn State
University Press. Retrieved April 27, 2018, from Project MUSE database.
Desmond, M. (2006). Ovid’s Art and the Wife of Bath: The Ethics of Erotic Violence.
Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP.
Inskeep, K. (2013). Embodying loathliness: The loathly lady in medieval and postfeminist
(con)texts (Order No. 3574062). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
Global. (1448506440). Retrieved from http://ezproxy.aut.ac.nz/login?
url=https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.aut.ac.nz/docview/1448506440?
accountid=8440
Marshall Leicester Jr, H. (2010) Of a fire in the dark: Public and private feminism in
theWife of Bath's Tale, Women's Studies, 11:1-2, 157-178, DOI:
10.1080/00497878.1984.9978608
Wynne-Davies, M. (1992). 'He conquered al the regne of Femenye': Feminist criticism of
Chaucer. Critical Survey, 4(2), 107-113. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/41555640
3.Hahn's essay (see critical reader) on The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle identifies the motif of the loathly lady, but argues it has a different purpose than asserting the feminine. What does he think the function of the story is?
ReplyDeleteThe Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle is a story layered with symbolic meanings and purposes. Hahn, (1995) explains to us the motif of the loathly lady, (in this case it’s Dame Ragnelle), which is her current apparent form. The face value purpose of Dame Ragnelle is a clear and unmistaken one. That being asserting her femininity. But Hahn, (1995) argues that the assertion of femininity is not the main feature to be portrayed from Dame Ragnelle, but it is something entirely different. Dame Ragnelle represents something that is not just a woman wanting an admired knight as a husband and receiving sexual favours from a hero, but a representation of societal norms and class struggles.
According to Hahn’s,1995 essay Dame Ragnelle’s appearance and behaviour, raggedness, poverty, lack of hygiene, her antisocial and her apparent un-lady like consumption of food at her wedding make clear that her loathly connotations are really just functioning physical attributes that are commonly linked with her low estate, which is telling us that her negative attributes don’t derive from being a freak of nature. In essence I feel Hahn, (1995) thinks the function of the story is situated around a form of the ‘beauty and the beast’ theme. Hahn, (1995) explains the importance of the changes Ragnelle goes through, symbolically and physically. Through the phases of revulsion to attraction, Ragnelle symbolizes the feminine traits which aren’t generally requested upon by men (linking her with a lower socio economic group and thus people thinking less of her because she just wants a sexual favour from an attractive knight), than changing into a beautiful lady with apparent wisdom and life giving knowledge. Steward, (2003) talks about loathliness, and how Dame Ragnelle is perceived due to her appearance. In general, Hahn, (1995) describes to us that Ragnelle holds the story together. She is the material that links all the characters together. Through her own metaphysical and physical changes, she positively and negatively Affects the characters around her. This ultimately fits hand in hand with the characters own perception on Ragnelle changing for the better. “She undoes the threat her brother poses for the court, and then reconciles him to the Round Table; she knows the answer to Arthur's problem and so saves his life and his kingship; she presents Gawain with opportunities to place his spectacular courtesy on display, first towards Arthur, and then towards women, Hahn, (1995).”Ultimately the path this story takes, is crafted by Dame Ragnelle the loathly lady.
References:
Hahn, T. (Ed.). (1995). The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle. In Sir Gawain: Eleven Romances and Tales. Kalamazoo, Michigan: Medieval Institute Publications
Steward, R. (2003). Loathliness, loyalty, and location : the threat of the Other in Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle. Thesis and Dissertations, Paper 800. Lehigh University. Retrieved from https://preserve.lehigh.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1800&context=etd
Revard (1997) identifies power contestations between the sexes within the poetic profession and subsequently through the medium of poetry during the English Renaissance. Revard (1997) highlights this struggle through examining the poetic model of Pindaric ode constructed by celebrated poets, both male and female, during the Renaissance era. A Pindaric ode is a “ceremonious poem by or in the manner of Pindar, a Greek professional lyrist of the 5th century BC” who had a “sense of vocation as a poet dedicated to preserving and interpreting great deeds and their divine values” (Encyclopædia Britannica, inc, 2008). Revard (1997) in her analysis examines the contribution and reception of two female poets during this era- Aphra Behn and Katherine Philips. Revard (1997) analyses the literary rapport between the sexes and through Pindaric ode to Philips outlines the “difficulty that a male poet has in praising a woman who is neither mistress nor a patron nor a sovereign, but is, rather, a so-called peer in the poetic profession” (Revard, 1997).
ReplyDeleteIn the assessment of these Pindaric odes “beauty and wit are the themes and they are interconnected” (Revard, 1997) such as they are with the sexes; beauty as an inherent quality of women and therefore consequently wit as an inherent quality for men. This forms the basis to which men considered female writers a transgression as “women possess an unfair advantage over men merely because they are women; their sex alone confers beauty, virtue and fecundity- all female qualities. Now in aspiring to wit, women conspire to take away the weapon that amorous male poets have used in the battlefield of love to secure themselves against women’s natural advantages” (Revard, 1997).
Within these Pindaric odes to women poets, the greatest praise above beauty is to that of virtue. It is pre-eminence in virtue- women’s proper sphere- that make women acceptable as poets, as virtue is the highest thing that any woman poet- indeed any woman- can aspire to (Revard, 1997). Thus beauty and virtue are coupled when analysing women poets however, they are still confined to the sphere of “female” poets, not allowed into the competition of ungendered poets. When men, however, are allowed into the competition, wit is coupled with virtue. Revard (1997) suggests that this was a game of sexual diplomacy which reserved real intellectual superiority for males and male poets and awarded women with the supremacy of “captivating hearts”. In return, women should be content to remain the object of wit and wisdom (Revard, 1997). “It was apparently almost inevitable in this era to be gender blind” (Revard, 1997). “A man’s view of a “learned” woman almost always involves a man’s view of women in general” and thereby women poets during this era were contained to a sphere judged as woman first then poet (Revard, 1997). Alternatively, Pindaric odes written by male poets addressing other males look at the artist/writer/scientist first then the man (Revard, 1997).
Within the context of the Renaissance era, the basic issue pondered was whether women should exercise creativity beyond the domestic sphere (Revard, 1997). The fecund of the womb was women’s natural prerogative therefore conversely the fecund of the brain was men’s natural prerogative (Revard, 1997). Nature gave women creative energy for the procreation of children, which, when employed elsewhere, may threaten the natural creativity (Revard, 1997). Thus Revard (1997) also outlines the female poet as a transgression to nature itself. “Inevitably involved in any consideration of a literary contest between men and women poets is that of the amatory contest between men and women, a contest in which men traditionally award the victory to women” (Revard, 1997).
Conversely, Behn’s Pindaric odes imbedded protest for women’s rights in a form that the male establishment would read as praise for one of their own (Revard, 1997). She achieves this through two forms- by reassuming the posture of the adoring female, apologetic for her natural female emotional disposition and also through imitating tactics for male writers and their use of a smokescreen of overblown compliments (Revard, 1997).
DeleteUltimately, Revard (1997) suggests the relationship between language, sex, power, and transgression during the English Renaissance was inevitably linked to the age’s perception of the natural order within the sexes. Although females were allowed into the institution of learning and writing, their contributions were viewed through the lens of patriarchal contributions. “The best way for a man to deal with a woman competitor in poetry as in life is to deify her- and so remove her from the competition” because “if a man and woman compete in poetic domain, man “loses” in all other areas to dominate” (Revard, 1997).
References
Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (2008). Pindaric ode. Retrieved April 20, 2018 from
https://www.britannica.com/art/Pindaric-ode
Revard, S.P. (1997). Katherine Philips, Aphra Behn, and the Female Pindaric in
Representing Women in Renaissance England, edited by Claude J. Summers and Ted-
Larry Pebworth. Columbia: University of Missouri Press.
When analysing the term conceit within the context of Elizabethan and Jacobean sonnets there is a disparity between two types of conceits which categorised these eras. Petrarchan conceit can be aligned with the Elizabethan era and evidenced within Elizabethan sonnets of Shakespeare and Spenser. Metaphysical conceit is attached to the Metaphysical poets, namely Donne, who was identified within the Jacobean era. The Petrarchan conceit was a type of metaphor used in love poems written by the 14th Century Italian poet Petrarch who lamented against his idealised lover Laura (Encyclopædia Britannica, 2017). It became a popular device within Elizabethan sonnets and is identified by hyperbolic comparison de by suffering lover of his beautiful mistress to a physical object (Encyclopædia Britannica, 2016). Such example would be lines 1-4 in from Spenser’s sonnet 30 “My love is like to ice, and I to fire/ How comes it then that this her cold so great/ Is not dissolved through my so hot desire/ But harder grows the more I her entreat?” (Spenser, 1595).
ReplyDeleteAlternatively, the metaphysical conceit, associated with the metaphysical poets of the Jacobean era, is a more intricate and intellectual device. It usually sets up an analogy between one entity’s spiritual qualities and an object in the physical world and sometimes controls the whole structure of the poem (Encyclopædia Britannica, 2016). The earlier popular Petrarchan conceit was not unknown to Donne (Guss, 1963) however, he transformed the conceit into a vehicle for transmitting multiple, sometimes even contradictory, feelings and ideas. (Encyclopædia Britannica, 2018) He drew his imagery from such diverse fields as alchemy, astronomy, medicine, politics, global exploration, and philosophical disputation. (Encyclopædia Britannica, 2018) and in doing so transforms decorative conceits into logical and dramatic concerns (Guss, 1963). Through Donne’s Holy Sonnets he used this conceit to passionately explore his love for God, sometimes through sexual metaphors, and depict his doubts, fears, and sense of spiritual unworthiness. (Stull, 1982) An example would be from his Holy Sonnet I where, in line 14, “And thou like Adamant draw mine iron heart,” (Donne, 1631) the image of the iron heart drawn irresistibly toward God (Stull, 1982).
The most striking examples of conceit however are evident in Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130. The conceit alone is not as striking as when directly compared to his earlier sonnet; Sonnet 18. The juxtaposition highlights the shifting perception of Petrarchan conceit as “Shakespeare responded to the conventions of Petrarchan conceit by negating them” (Encyclopædia Britannica, 2016). The sonnets in direct line for line comparison bring the physical object of comparison to the forefront rather than the mistress. The first line of each sonnet; “Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?” (Shakespeare, 1609) has the antithesis “My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun” (Shakespeare, 1609). Alternatively, the concluding lines 13 and 14 of each sonnet highlight similarities in the Petrarchan conceit; “So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.” (Shakespeare, 1609) with Sonnet 130 as a vast contrast to the rest of the poem; “And yet by heaven, I think my love as rare, As any she belied with false compare.” (Shakespeare, 1609) Shakespeare’s former sonnet conforms and defends Petrarchan sensibilities whereas his latter sonnet defies as an anti-Petrarchan sonnet. The anti-Petrarchan construct defies high rhetoric and rather grounds the mistress and love into the realm of reality rather than the unattainable, celestial.
References
DeleteDonne, J. (1631). Holy Sonnets. Retrieved 4 May, 2018 from http://triggs.djvu.org/djvu-
editions.com/DONNE/SONNETS/Download.pdf
Guss, D. (1963). Donne's Conceit and Petrarchan Wit. PMLA,78(4), 308-314.
doi:10.2307/461241
Encyclopædia Britannica. (2016). Conceit. Retrieved 4 May, 2018 from
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Question 2:
ReplyDeleteThe Wife of Bath's Tale is considered by some critics to indicate that Chaucer may have been a feminist. Why might they believe this? Do you agree? Remember to cite evidence from the text or some other source.
The Wife of Bath’s Tale and other stories involving themes of The Loathly Lady, have distinct elements that can be viewed as feminism. Feminism defined by the Oxford Dictionary (2018), is “the advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of equality of sexes”. And we see that here, where the masculinity in male roles in these fibulas are being questioned.
Women in Chaucer’s tale were given a voice. In The Wife of Bath’s Tale, it is given to a women and a court full of women the fate of the knight. The queen sends him on a quest, where the knight has to find out what all women desire, and is given a year and one day to do so, if he comes back with the wrong answer, he dies. This is leading into a more feminine direction, where he will be seeking help from women in order to retrieve the correct answer. In the time’s the tale is written, women were expected to keep their silence, but in this tale the King leaves it to the queen to decide what happens to him.
Many critics are lead to believe Chaucer might have been an early feminist. Lewis (2017), mentions three stories by Chaucer that help support this idea, including The Wife of Bath’s Tale, the Prioress and the Second Nun, where women in these stories spoke out in a time they were expected to be silent. Lewis (2017) goes on to mention that stories that were narrated by men, women were not made fun of like other tales written in that day and age.
I agree to the idea that Chaucer was an early feminist, research shows many people claim his stories have to do with feminism, as his stories helped empower women rather than make fun of them, he treated them as equal, especially in a time women didn’t have many rights. Gender roles and social norms of women during the 14th century, had to do with males occupying both public and physical space in society and women were not allowed to leave their spaces unless they were escorted, women had to dress appropriately etc (Eaton, 216). Women in this era didn’t have the opportunities men did, education for example.
Chaucer reverses the social norm of the era, where in this tale women held sovereignty over their men. Chaucer brings up issues like violence and rape and uses the old lady to shield audience expectations drawn from stereotypes of disruptive feminine behaviour. Lofty prologue shows us how Chaucer tries to input real world concerns of women during that period.
Reference:
Eaton, R. D. (2003). Gender, Class and Conscience in Chaucer. English Studies, 84:3, 205-218,
DOI: 10.1076/enst.84.3.205.16851
J, Lewis. (2017). Geoffrey Chaucer: Early Feminist?. Retrieved from
https://www.thoughtco.com/geoffrey-chaucer-early-feminist-3529684
Oxford University Press. (2018). Feminism. Retrieved from
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/feminism
3.Hahn's essay (see critical reader) on The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle identifies the motif of the loathly lady, but argues it has a different purpose than asserting the feminine. What does he think the function of the story is?
ReplyDeleteHahn’s essay on The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle, grasp the concept of the loathly lady, but Hahn (1995) explains there is more to it than just the idea feminism. The loathly lady motif can be seen in fairy tales like princess and the frog, even modern animations like Shrek hold similar idea, as it comes off of Celtic myths and legends. Although it is clear Ragnelle represents feminism, and the empowerment of women, as she holds the story together and links all the characters, Hahn (1995) mentions there is more to it than the ideology of feminism, such as the idea of Dame Ragnelle representing societal norms and class struggles. With her being poor and unattractive she is regarded a hag, which Hahn (1995) says it is given to someone who lacks manners and beauty, at the wedding Hahn (1995) mentions her behaviour and her social skills and it does not conform to the social norms. When she marries Sir Gawain she turns into a beautiful well-mannered lady, this helps her fit into her new societal position. The function of the story being that with being poor makes you ill mannered, but when you have money you can be transformed, that is a struggle people faced with in that time and how Ragnelle changed for the better, that is what Hahn (1995) thought by the tale.
References:
Hahn, T. (Ed.). (1995). the Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle. In Sir Gawain:
Eleven Romances and Tales. Kalamazoo, Michigan: Medieval Institute Publications