Art Culture and History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Art Culture and History - Essay Example scarcely whilst Bocaccio does not give much importance to frame, one f Chaucers with child(p)est and most particular abilities lies in the creation f characters. Chaucers main interest, and quite a modern one, is on portraying different human types.Chaucer chooses sources that fit with his purposes, using inter text editionuality to achieve a personal creative goal. The Wife f Bathss Tale is real appropriate to her character. Drawn from a popular story -already written by Gower in his Confessio Amantis, and later to become The Wedding f Sir Gawen and the Dame f Ragnell (in a manuscript written circa 1450)- the Tale looks for an answer to the question What do women most desire.In the prologue to the taradiddle, Chaucer develops some f his most shiny and colorful narrative thats containing great examples f intertextuality, but they are not as obvious as in the tale. For instance, there is a clear influence f Confessions, in the rise lines f t he Wifes parliament If there were no authority on earth/ except experience mine, for what its worth,/ and thats enough for me, all goes to show/ that marriage is a raisery and a woe/ For let me say, if I may make so bold,/ My lords, since when I was but twelve years old,/ Thanks be to God Eternal ever more than,/ five-spot husbands have I had at the church door (Chaucer 279).The story that the pilgrims are going to listen to its the story f her life and marriages. Truth be told, the wifes tale has little to do with the Confessions f St. Agoustin. In fact, the prologues main plot is closer to the fabliaux tradition and its popular and sexual-orientated stories. The prologue shares with the Confessions a similar autobiographical tone, but switched to serve Chaucers intentions, that in this case are slightly ironical. Fabliauxs witty word games are also shown in this prologue. God bade us all to wax and multiply./ That kindly text I well can understand. (280) Or Let them be pure wheat loaves f maiden head/ And let us wives be know for barley-bread/Yet Mark can tell that barley-bread sufficed/to freshen many at the hand f Christ (282).The cheeky Wifes personality seems to be pretty contented to the word games and the humorous content f her parliament. There is also strong influence f the exemplas tone that is also feed in the prologue. Listen, Ill tell you how I used to hold them,/you knowing women, who can understand. (284) Here, the wife uses her experiences to advise women on how to treat their husbands. The intention f her prologue is similar to the aim f the priests exemplas, teaching the cosmos on how to behave. f course, the prologues content is, again, far away from the exemplas and closer to popular tradition.Chaucers tales are written in iambic couplets, a form that allows him to express himself more freely and brings him to one f his highest achievements the transformation f English language into a vehicle that could drive popular and high literatur e through unused ways f expression.This is probably one f the most attractive peculiarities f Chaucer, and probably the one that attracted Shakespeare to Chaucer the most. Chaucers aim to transform English language was present in