Week 9 Flashcards
Imagery is used for many purposes, including:
Use of vivid and descriptive (figurative) language.
- To establish the nature of a character
- To contrast/relate various characters
- For comic effect
- To foreshadow events
How was Alison being represented through means of imagery?
Like a weasel, swallow, kid, calf, mouse, bird, colt.
How was Absolon being represented through means of imagery?
Like a goose, cat, nightingale and an ape.
How was John being represented through means of imagery?
Like a cat
Why was Nicholas not portrayed through means of any imagery in The Miller’s Tale?
Because he was a scholar.
Great Chain of Being
- God
- Angels
- Man
- Animals
- Plants
- Inanimate objects
What are examples of imagery through music in The Miller’s Tale?
- Nicholas plays the psaltery and sings
- Alison sings
- Absolon plays the fiddle and sings
- John does not play any music
What are examples of ‘foreshadowing’ imagery in The Miller’s Tale?
- Absolon’s squeamishness of farts
- Nicholas’s forecasting the weather (floods)
- John keeps Alison in a cage
Genre of Parody in The Miller’s Tale:
- Courtly Love
- Biblical material
Parody
Parody imitates the serious manner and characteristic features of a particular literary work in order to make fun of those same features.
Courtly Love
A highly conventionalised code of conduct for noble lovers.
Some conventions of courtly love:
- Knight declares his ‘secret love’
- Lady rejects his love
- Knight falls I’ll ‘malady of love’
How does the Bible come forth in The Miller’s tale by means of ‘Parody’?
- Noah’s flood
- Alison threatens to cast a stone
- Nicholas sings Angelus ad Virginem
Genre: Fabliau, where did it come from and general characteristics?
Flourished in France 12th and 14th century. There were few fabliaux before Chaucer.
1. Brief comic tale in verse
2. Setting: Time is present, settings are real and places familiar
3. Subject matter: everyday life, usually scurrilous, often scatological and obscene.
4. Plot: tricks intended to deceive
5. Fabliau justice
What are the characteristics of The Miller’s Tale as a fabliau?
Setting: time is present, settings real, places familiar
Characters: ordinary sorts
Subject matter: everyday life, usually scurrilous, often scatological and obscene.
Plot: tricks intended to deceive