- Nicholas creates a plan so he and Alison can spend all night together and has Alison tell her husband that he is sick. The carpenters send a servant to check on him & find Nicholas staring at the ceiling.
- The carpenter breaks into Nicholas' room & check son him. Nicholas says he has a secret to share with him in private (ll316)
- Nicholas tells him he learned from his astrology that next Monday night a great rainstorm will fall. The whole world will be drowned in an hour and everyone will die.
- Nicholas promises to save the 3 of them (ll347) and sends the carpenter on errands to construct a raft.
- Told the carpenter that he and his wife must sleep separately so they don't give in to physical temptation (ll403)
- Alison & Nicholas sneak out of their tubs and go to his bed (ll462)
- Absalom went to Alison's house to woo her (ll504)
- Alison tells him to leave, and he agrees for one kiss (ll530)
- Alison gives him her ass to kiss instead (ll546)
- Absalom returns saying he has a gold ring to give for another kiss. Nicholas sticks out his ass (ll617)
- Absalom asks where she is, Nicholas farts (ll620)
- Absalom sticks a hot iron up his ass (ll624)
- As Nicholas cried for water, the carpenter woke & cut the rope holding the tubs and they fell to the ground (ll634)
- The neighbors saw the fall, Nicholas & Alison told them all that the carpenter feared for Noah's flood & he was half mad.
- Tension between classes since the Miller insists on telling his story before the monk as the host wants it to be
- The Miller represents his low rank by his drunken state and rowdy behavior
- The Miller's Tale has references such as "A carpenter and his wife" Jokes about Mary being unfaithful were frequent in mystery plays; Noah's flood is referenced.
- The young student, Nicholas, and the Carpenter's wife, Alison, sleep together by convincing the carpenter to spend the night suspended in a boat in the barn. Absalom, a young clerk, is in love with Allison and persuades her to stick her head out and kiss him but instead she sticks out her behind. Absolom is offended and brings a red-hot poker to try again. This time its Nicholas behind and Absolom brands him. When Nicholas calls for water, the carpenter cuts his rope and breaks his arm.
- Is this feminist? What is the point?
Wife of Bath Prologue
- Prologue - All about her marriage
- She has had 5 husbands, but through Jesus' example, learned she should only have married once (ll13)
- King Solomon had many wives, so when her husband dies, she'll marry again because the apostle says that sets her free (ll49)
- Where did he command verginity? He left it up to us; otherwise, he would've commanded all marriage not good (ll70)
- She says she'll have sex as often as she wants with her husband - God didn't create sex organs to just look at (ll152)
- Three husbands good, two bad (ll196)
- Mostly because they were rich, old, & submissive
- She would accuse them of having thoughts & opinions so they would feel guilty & give her what she wanted - yet she admits the accusations were lies (ll330)
- She would hold out in bed until she got money (ll409)
- Her fourth husband was a reveller (ll443) and had a mistress
- She was young and they would sing & dance together
- She's older now & lost her beauty (ll465)
- She's always tried to make him jealous (ll478)
- He died while she was on her pilgrimage to Jerusalem (ll485)
- Her 5th husband was brutal to her (ll495)
- He was good in bed (ll498)
- She loved him most because he gave his love most sparingly (ll504)
- She married him for love, not money (ll516)
- He was a student at Oxford, left, and boarded with her friend Alison (ll520)
- When she first met him, Jankyn, she told him if she were a widow she'd marry him (ll558)
- She dreamed of him that night that he killed her & her bed filled with blood (symbolizes gold) (ll571)
- She tells us she never had that dream (ll572)
- Jarikyn was at the funeral, he ws no older than 20. she was 40 (ll591)
- She comes to regret the age difference
- He read from a book "the Phastus and Velerius" - a book of wicked wives (ll675)
- She says no cleric will speak well of wives unless they're saints (ll680)
- This book hurts her feelings, so she tore out 3 pages and punches him in the face (ll782)
- He hits her making her deaf in one ear
- She asks him to kiss her before she dies, but she hits him again (ll798)
- They made up, she in control of house and land as well as him (ll805)
- Possibly the first feminist since she's proud of her behavior which the Church condemns
- Mortality tale since she's confessing her sins (which is what happens in morality tales)
- At the end she states that she has a habit of lying, which makes us ask/wonder if she's a mean spirited liar on Chaucer's part
- She says the Church breed's hospitality toward women
The Wife of Bath Tale
- Tale - What do women want most? To be in control
- In the days of King Arthur, all of his land was fairy land - the elf-queen danced on many green meads (l5)
- Now, Constructions overtake all land that now there are no faries (l16)
- Especially friars
- While the friars rape women like the incumbus, they only cause dishonor, while incumbus could impregnate women (l25)
- A lusty bachelor in Arthur's court spots a maiden walking alone and rapes her (ll32)
- He should've been sentenced to death, but the queen & other ladies begged for mercy. He was given to her to do with as she will (ll42)
- She tells the knight that she will grant freedom if he can answer what women most desire (ll49). If he can't answer, he must search for the answer for one year.
- He agrees to search (ll60)
- On his way home, failing in his adventure, he came upon an old woman who offered to help if he asked (ll148) - moments before he saw 24 dancing women who disappeared.
- She agrees as long as he promises to do whatever she asks - he agrees and she promises his life she saves (ll160)
- He and the old lady travel to court and answers that women want to be in charge of their husbands and lovers - the women approve (ll189)
- The old lady advises the queen of their arrangement and asks the knight to marry her (ll200)
- He asks that she make a new request which she denies, but he ends up agreeing (ll224)
- He acts depressed, and she asks why (ll240)
- He is ashamed of having such an ugly, low born wife
- She asks if nobility is hereditary because marry high-born people behave with shame and act villainous (ll295)
- Gentility comes from God alone (ll306)
- Since she's foul & old he does not need fear of being a cuckold (ll385)
- She tells him to choose: he can have her old & foul until she dies and be a true and humble wife or young & fair and chance others courtness (ll371)
- He tells her to choose which will best honor both of them (ll379)
- She says she will be both (ll384)
- They lived happily ever after (ll401)
- Her message is that ugly or fair, women should be obeyed by their husbands
- The old hag may represent W.O.P. herself since she still has much vigor left in her
- Through the tale of king Micas, since only his wife & barber knew of his ears it's possible she's saying men are gossips just like women
- A woman's inability to keep a secret is the only thing that can save the knight.
- Wife of Bath is the most fully realized character Chaucer is showing how important women's issues are in literature. Until the development of the novel, Chaucer was about the only one to deceit
- Alison & Wife of Bath win
No comments:
Post a Comment