845-84 Flashcards
About
Fortune is just like the scorpion which smiles with its face while it stings you with a poisonous tail
-Just as January is deceived into believing that he has found a stable happiness he certainly goes blind
-He weed someone to die because he thinks they lose his wife whereas he wants to be faithful to him even after his death
-Eventually he becomes reconciled to his blindness except that he remains so jealous that he will not let me out of his clutches
-This makes her we want to die because she’s in love with Damien
“ o sodeyn hap” (bad luck) “lyk to the scorpion
-this is the second time chaucer uses the device of apostrophe “o servant traitor”
-this combined with hyperbole for comic effect
A further metaphor in this passage picks up on another theme and a major field of image in the tail
-Fortune is compared to the scorpion
-In chaucers time it was understood the different signs of the zodiac ruled different parts of the body
-Scorpio symbolised by Scorpion with its tail erect ready to strike govern the male genitals
-The implication here is that January is misfortune has a sexual dimension to it
-That wild Fortune has apparently been smiling on him all the time it has held a threat and that threat as everyone except January already knows is sexual
-Accordingly while Damien has not been incorporated into the binary astrological opposition between January and may he now takes his place within the metaphorical scheme by implication
-therefore suggesting January will be victim of a sexual predator
-scorpions are known for its hidden venomous sting symbolising the sudden and often unseen onset of misfortune.
“Is woxen blind “ “ love is blind line386”
-January’s physical blindness is a fulfilment of the metaphorical blindness of self delusion which has afflicted him from the outset
-read a movie reminded of the previous line love is blind they’ve been reminded of this proverb as January’s character has been built up to this point as demonstrated of the truth of the saying
