Today’s Agenda:
1) We are going to begin today with a discussion of the individual presentations and the first short paper assignment.
a. Individual Presentations (10 % of your Final Grade)
Individual Presentations (10% of final grade): Feb 2-20
Short Academic Paper(10% of final grade): Feb 20
We will all be signing up for our individual presentations for the semester. These presentations will be about 10 minutes long, and will occur between Feb 2-20. You will be presenting to the class on a particular aspect of our course that interests you.
As part of your presentation, you will be facilitating classroom discussion. Specific instructions on the exact specifications for these presentations will be delivered to you shortly.
We will be doing these presentations as a way to generate content and writing for our first short papers, which will be due on Feb 20.
Short Research Paper:
Your short research paper will be 4-5 pages in length. It will offer a literary argument on one of the texts we have read by mid-semester. The paper will need to follow MLA conventions, and have at least four secondary sources.
Possible Topics the Individual Presentations/Short Research Papers
Christopher Columbus’ Life and Times
Christopher Columbus’ Journals and Writing
Dante’s Life and Times
Dante’s Inferno
Geoffrey Chaucer’s Life and Times
Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales
Geoffrey Chaucer’s Prologue to The Canterbury Tales
Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Knight’s Tale
Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath’s Tale
King Henry V
Queen Elizabeth
John Milton’s Life and Times
John Milton’s Paradise Lost, Book One
The Early History of the Novel
Daniel Defoe’s Life and Times
Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe
A Comparison of Christopher Columbus’ writing and Dante’s writing
A Comparison of Dante’s writing with Chaucer’s writing
A Comparison of Christopher Columbus’ writing with Geoffrey Chaucer’s Writing.
Please contact me by Wednesday to let me know which topic you may be interested in. Some doubling up may be possible, but all presentations will be individual and distinct in their scopes.
Presentations will be offered between February 2 and Feb 20. There will be two slots per day. You are to select your slots no later than Friday, and slots will be assigned on a first-come/first-serve basis.
February
2
A
B
4
A
B
6
A
B
9
A
B
11
A
B
13
A
B
16
A
B
18
A
B
20
A
B
While a list of specific expectations for the presentation and paper will be circulated shortly, you can basically expect the presentation to be a general introduction to the topic, and the paper to be a focused on a specific argument about the topic.
Questions?
Okay, now that we have that out of the way, let’s talk about the reading.
1) Responses to The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale?
Mini-Lecture:
Last time, we talked a little bit about how, in the Knight’s Tale, Chaucer gives us an extended commentary on Romantic love, in which we see how a noble man may achieve the object of his desire – not through piety to a Christian God, but, rather, through dedication to the concept of love itself. Well, as we saw, while this worked out pretty well for the man in question, there is good reason to doubt if it worked out well for the woman in the equation.
Remember how I said that literature will both provide answers and raise questions? Well, this story seems to do exactly that: in describes Romantic love, and, in doing so, raises some important questions about gender roles and expectations under this concept.
If we turn our attention to the Wife of Bath, we find something totally different:
You may have noticed how radical the opening lines of the prologue are:
‘If there were no authority on earth/Except experience, mine, for what it’s worth, And that’s enough for me, it all goes to show, that marriage is a misery and a woe.”
Two things to note: First, she is actually imagining a world in which the only authority is her own experience – an intensely blasphemous concept under most organized religions at the time – and, secondly, that marriage is a bad thing, which is the exact opposite of what we are left to suppose at the end of the Knight’s tale.
As we read through the Prologue, we learn that, for the Wife, marriage has little to do with love, and a lot do to with exchange and commerce: she sells her goods – quite literally – to men, and in return achieve the material lifestyle that she desires.
By all accounts, this life has made her quite happy. She needs nothing, is free and has lived to a relatively old age without any apparent regrets. Even though it is also apparent she has been a murderer at least five times over.
The life she describes would be a terrifying concept for anyone who believed that happiness was to be achieved through marriage and romantic involvement. Indeed, the Wife seems to have happily embraced her fortune, and worked diligently to turn it to her own advantage, and, despite it all, is perfectly happy – a concept that is not even a possibility under the wheel of fortune, but which is totally possible under Humanism:
Remember, Humanism posits that, if we pay attention to how the world works and how people live in the world, we can be perfectly happy, and “find” ourselves. It is not easy to underestimate how terrifying this concept would be to many of Chaucer’s first readers, a fact that is perhaps best illustrated by the fact that, in the century to come, women who were perceived to live the lifestyle of the Wife of Bath were routinely executed – burned at the stake or hung – as “witches.”
Notice that the Wife of Bath appears to be as happy with her life as Palamon at the end The Knights Tale, yet we doubt that they would ever be happy together – so here we have to very different ways of living that appear to be unrecognizable.
But Chaucer actually finds a way to reconcile these two kinds of people in the Wife of bath’s Tale.
In the Wife of Bath’s Tale, we have another Romance – Knight and King Arthur. However, the Knight we have is one who does not pine after love, he simply takes it and rapes the maid. We might think of what Palamon does to Emily as something like rape too, as he obviously has sex with her after she tells us all that she does not want to have sex with him.
So in the Wife’s tale, we get a very different view of what a person living the life of a Knight may actually be doing. He is charged by the very forgiving queen with finding out what it is women really want. The answer is:
“the self-same sovereignty/ over her husband as over her lover,/And master him; he must not be above her.”
Would you agree? Then maybe we all identify more with the wife than with the Knight, which may be a scary concept for some of you.
So the only way for these two characters to be reconciled is for one the Knight to recognize that he must be an equal to the woman he pursues. The Knight then demonstrates his understanding of this when he lets the old woman choose her own fate, and he finds out that, in the end, letting her choose is actually the best thing to do.
I also want to point out a way in which this tale also suggests an extremely subversive theme: It begins by pointing out that the fairies and elves have been driven by the world by priests, and then concludes by showing us that true romantic happiness is best taught to us by an magical being — the woman, I think, can be considered a kind of fairy, or otherworldly being. Here, then, we see a direct contracts between the capacity of the Church to create human happiness and the capacity of heretical attitudes to achieve the same effect.
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Homework:
For next time, I want you to write a two page blog post on the following subject: Over the past two weeks, we have covered a lot of ground. Shortly, we will be making a major leap through time, from the 15th to the 16th century. However, before we do that, I want you to write on what aspects of our reading thus far have proved to be the most meaningful for you. Rather than simply write about what you “like” or “do not like,” I want you to explain in detail particular literary elements of these texts that have stood out for you. Focus on specific symbols, metaphors, similes, themes, motifs, or points of view that have struck you as noteworthy. Contextualize these subjects as you introduce them, and then explain in specific detail why you think they are of value.
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Jason Stewart
Adam Crowley, Eh 241
27 January 2009
Some of my generation’s writings have become quite droll. Though there are more writers now than there have ever been, one must sift through a desert of monotonous titles to reach something worth sinking your teeth into. Look back several hundred years we can easily find the pieces of literature that helped shape us as humanistic thinkers. These works of literary gold are rich with themes, images and symbols that a reader can connect with and become inspired by. Though we have barely touched on the many great authors, readings from Dante Alighieri and Geoffrey Chaucer have given so many examples of great imagery and themes.
In Dante’s first Canto there was a strong underlying theme of being lost and unsure of one self. As he states “While halfway through the journey of our life, / I found my self lost in a darkened forest, / for I wandered off from the straight path” (Dante 3) I found myself relating greatly to just that one passage. In three simple lines we find a strong theme of emotional uncertainty. One could interpret the line as being literally lost in a darkened forest, but delving deeper we can see that the narrator is referring to straying from the “straight” path of virtuosity. The narrator no longer believes strongly in a life of devout Christianity because he is now in a “darkened forest”. This “darkened forest” is a symbol representing sin and the life that a sinner lives.
The narrator has left behind his virtuous life, but he does not know exactly why. He flat-out states that he has diverted from the “straight path” here: “How I entered there I cannot truly say, / I had become so sleepy at the moment / when I first strayed, leaving the path of truth” (3). However it is interesting to see that he does not know why he has left his former truth driven life. Looking at the life that Dante lived, both of his parents dying while he was still a young man and being exiled from his home city, the same city that he watch grow from a farming village to a burgeoning center of civilization had taken a large toll on a man that was so dedicated to a Christian life. It is odd that Dante did not make his narrator know full well why he has diverted from “the path of truth”, however it does cause for the character to be more mysterious, like the place he was about to take a tour of.
In Chaucer’s “The Knight’s Tale” we find a much more love-centered tale, even though the character Emily does not wish to be married. The driving theme of this tale is fate driven love with a bit of unrequited love that both Arcita and Palamon have for Emily. Most people that live in my generation have experienced unrequited love, which has been the subject of poems, sonnets, books, songs and movies for many generations but it is enjoyable to find it here in fourteenth century literature. The main theme, however, is not something that I fully believe in or support. I believe that love is something that is chosen between two people, whether they have met at random or have known each other for many years. In the story Emily prayed that neither knight win her hand in marriage, but Saturn, the god that decided all, stated, “…I’ll see with diligence, / that Palamon, who is your own true knight, / shall have his lady, as you hold right (67). Regardless of Emily’s will, she was to be wed to Palamon as was the will of Saturn who determined her fate. Chaucer’s theme and idea that love should be what people look to in hard and good times is an excellent concept, however for that love to be determined by fate I do not agree with.
Caleb Ashey
Eh 241 Professor Adam Crowley
2 Page Blog Post- Readings That Have Meaning to Me
So far in class we have read a few things from several different authors from the past. The one that has intrigued me the most would be Chaucer, mainly because that has been the most covered. Although I did find Dante interesting with his symbolism with the animals in our readings, his reading was hard for me to follow, and therefore I could not find anything to really connect to. Columbus’s writings were rather dry for me but I did like the way that he was an independent thinker. This means a lot to me, for I believe myself to not flow with the norms of society in some aspects of my life. Chaucer is also like this. Which is why his stories I believe mean the most to me, he pretty much was sarcastic in his writing which allowed him to say what he wanted without getting into trouble. I like that kind of style, I can connect to it.
Chaucer’s writing reflects upon many things in “The Canterbury Tales.” His ideas of humanism are kind of against the grain for his time. When most people believed that through God, you can achieve happiness. Which I don’t believe in for the most part, obviously he has some religious beliefs but he doesn’t make them the main focus in his writings. That is something that has meaning for me. I also “keep the faith” in my own ways, but I do not make it a center point, or focus point of my life. But I do believe that it is important to have those beliefs. Also Chaucer references the old Roman gods. Which I have an abiding interest in. I believe that by studying other types of religion, even reading about them, can give you a better understanding of “faith” for lack of a better word. And that probably sounds a little contradictory of what I mentioned earlier about not making a focus point but I still like to believe. This is what I think Chaucer does, he believes but doesn’t exactly think that God is the answer to everything.
Christopher Columbus’s writing I think means a little bit to me. He was very radical in his thinking. What he believed to be right was right in his book. He didn’t accept another way of the truth when his beliefs differed from another’s. I am the same way, what I believe is right is what is right. Just like with his beliefs about how the earth was shaped. He thought the world was shaped like a pear; because through his travels he came to conclusions and in his mind those were definite facts. I can connect with the way he learns, and I may not be journeying around the world, I am journeying through life, and through school. Columbus instills a sense of independence in his writing, which means a lot to me. I am very to myself at some times. And through his writing I get that he was too.
Now as I stated before that I think having your own beliefs is important, this is where I can connect to Dante and where is writing means something to me. I’m not sure of what it exactly means to me, but I believe that it is important. In the verse that we read, his main character is lost and is trying to find his way back onto his “path.” He gets back onto the path by what I believe to be “finding his faith” again. This is where I connect with him. I do believe that we all are here for a reason, that something you do in life will be significant. That is part of my “faith.” And when you are lost, be strong in what you believe in and you can eventually find your way again.
These are the things that I connected with the most in our readings so far. To some people they may be insignificant things, but to me, they mean something. It is what I can connect to. And when reading I think that’s what you have to look for.
William Dow
1/27/2009
EH241.001
What is Meaningful to Me?
The readings we have done so far this semester have all done something to change the way I look at most of my daily life. Whether it is Christopher Columbus, Dante, or Geoffrey Chaucer, they all wrote in a way that made me change the way I think. Dante has made me look closer at what is reading and pick out metaphors, and Chaucer has made me look for cultural references. Columbus was a special circumstance he has helped me discover to look to other people for different information.
Geoffrey Chaucer is the one I will have the most to say about for he was the one we read last and talk the most about so far. This is pure observation but I have noticed that many things I watch and read have interesting references to Chaucer. The cultural references are what I will take away from Chaucer even though I had to look up most of the ones in The Canterbury Tales, I notice them much more than I did before I noticed a few thing I have come across reference him, Dante and The Canterbury Tales by name. I have heard of Cultural references before and I had noticed them it seems that they just jump out at me now. Everything I watch, read, play they just show up example is I was playing a video game and the referenced The Canterbury Tales by naming a town Canterbury in it was a odd group of people that wear nomads they were also merchants. It is cheesy but that is something I probably never would have noticed if it was not for the book. The whole thing is interesting because Chaucer used many cultural references and now he has become one.
The reading from Christopher Columbus was illuminating in many ways; I finally had a real life example to why he was not the hero we are told he is in elementary school. I always remember stories about what he had done, but now I know that he had a few screws missing. However, really it shows that anyone can write something. Even though he did “discover” America I mean every day people write journals or blogs people have thoughts and opinions and have experienced things that you have not and you can gain knowledge through other people. Sometimes you have to look through some junk but ultimately will find something that will help you out with some nugget of information that you would never have learned.
Dante use of metaphors is something that will stay with me for he did them so well the way he makes the simple idea of being lost in the woods into a metaphor for his life and what he is dealing with is one of the best things I have read. It even made me reflect back to books I read when I was younger and to think about them deeper than I did. It even made me think about the way I write and maybe I am sliding a little bit of my personal feeling into how I write. His mastery of the double language is amazing the metaphors that was the animals he experienced trying to climb the mountain was the best I have seen in reading.
Kristen Porter
Jan. 28th 2009
EH 241
Major British Writers
Reflecting on the in class readings there has been lots of interesting information that I have gathered that has now become meaningful to me, and beneficial for when I look at other pieces of literature. I have taken facts and literary elements from each story that I now look for in other works.
Reading Christopher Columbus’s diary, and analyzing his first hand accounts of what he saw when he actually discovered the “new world” gave me new ideas and allowed me to make judgments on his personal character. Over the years that I have been in school I have read and learned so much about him. It wasn’t until college that I actually learned what a savage of a person he was, for what he actually did to the natives of these places. Reading his diary also allowed me to make the judgment that not only was he there for power and greed, but all of his actions were based on pure ignorance, rather than discovering a “new world” for people to be a part of. Dante’s inferno readings; I believe have made the biggest impact on me so far. I have never had a bold understanding of religion, or even gave a second thought of it much. Religion was such a huge part of people’s lives in past centuries that reading his accounts on religion through his own perspective gave me something to think about. The religious symbols throughout the whole writing, made me stop and think about what they could actually mean. How he touched based with religion, and depicted the whole thing, not only through his own understanding of religion but he brought his philosophical knowledge with him. Dante made a huge connection between knowledge and religion and what they mean to him, throughout his story. Another thing that stuck with me throughout Dante’s work was his perception of the “I” figure. Dante used himself throughout the story, he put himself in that imaginary situation bringing the audience the perspective of the writing through his own eyes.
Finally the prologue to the Canterbury tales, has really stuck with me since we began analyzing the entire book itself. I made the quick assumption while writing my last journal entry, that his judgments of each character in the prologue will give the reader a social glimpse of what these people, should be like through the public eye. I proved my hypothesis to be correct, after reading the Knights tale, and The Wife of Bathe, these people that we made assumptions on, based on the narrator’s first hand account, quickly changed once we knew the story behind them all. I think the important thing that we have learned from the Canterbury tales, is about judgments and not to make social judgments to quickly, and how a person should gather more information then throwing out an assumption about somebody.
Furthermore, I have gathered so much in such a short time through our in class readings. I’ve been able to make real conclusions about someone I’ve learned about for such an extensive period of time, as well as a first hand account of what Christopher Columbus was actually doing in the “new world”. Dante’s inferno showed me how to see religious symbols, and make me realize that religion was such a huge piece of people’s lives in early times. How he depicted himself and other characters in the inferno changed writing in such a big way. He used himself as the protagonist and gave the audience a different perspective on the true character of the writing. Lastly Chaucer’s prologue to the Canterbury tales allowed the class to make social judgments about each individual person who went on pilgrimage, only later to find out their true stories of how they came to be the person we meet in the story later. Reading the prologue to the Canterbury tales allowed me to make presumptions about each person, and then make true assessment later. I think the best part of everything we read so far, is how I can now relate the newly acquired knowledge to future literature works.
Mama Sora
EH 241
Adam Crowley
January 26, 2009
2 Page Blog analyzing our reading and its impact on me
I feel that anything you read, no matter how good or bad has an impact on you. Every new idea and every new spin on an old idea opens your mind and causes you to consider it, agree or disagree with, and form some sort of an opinion. Therefore, it is hard to say what has been the most meaningful to me, because it all means something.
I enjoyed reading Dante’s Inferno, I am a very religious person, although I am Muslim not a Christian like Dante. I had to research some things that I did not understand, I have never read the bible, some ideas that are common knowledge for Christian’s I did not latch onto. I found the different circles of hell to be very interesting, and also interesting how Dante came up with graphic tortures for each group of sinners, punishments the writer clearly saw befitting to the crime.
I also find it very interesting that Dante named the main character after himself and chose to name his love interest in the story after a real love of his. Some of the other characters are also historical characters like Virgil who is the author of Aeneid.
We have spent more time dedicated to talking about Geoffrey Chaucer’s literary works, although they take a lot more time for me to read and understand. A Knight’s Tale, is a love story that some would call very sad and tragic (to be forced to marry someone you did not wish to marry). However, there are still many places in Africa (and Mali the country that I am from) where people are betrothed, they marry whomever the family makes a deal with, and often do not meet before the wedding day. There is no complaining, there is no saying no you do not want to marry this person, this is sometimes the way of life, therefore you do it. My family does not participate in this tradition, we marry for love. I can understand the frustration one would feel in being forced into a marriage. Yet I know for some families prearranged marriage is strictly about status and money, by marrying off one daughter they may receive enough financial reimbursement to take care of the rest of their family. I am certainly glad to be a part of a family that allowed me to choose my own wife.
The Wife of Bath’s Tale was pretty interesting to me as well. This story is about a Knight who after raping a woman, was in turn given a second chance, and saved by two different women. The King wanted to sentence the Knight to death, but the Queen wanted the Knight to complete a one year journey in which he was to discover what every woman wanted from a man. Then when he had lost all hope and was heading back to the kingdom to be executed he met a very wise old haggard woman who gave him the very answer that saved his life. In return for saving his life the Knight was forced, very unhappily to take the old woman for his bride.
The old woman was faithful and willing to do anything to please her new husband, he was very upset that she was so old and hideous and that she was of a lower class than he. The woman gave him a choice to have her look as she does and be a good wife, or be beautiful and be a bad wife, he pondered the choices. Then, he gave the old woman exactly what every woman desires from her man, complete control and domination. She than transformed, but merely in looks, and her husband was satisfied. This tale shows how much beauty, or one’s idea of beauty takes center-stage in their life. The man had a woman to make him happy but was unhappy merely because she was not beautiful. The simple act of becoming beautiful made him feel happy.
As you can tell these writer’s have all made me think about the things they have written about.
Sarah Rackliffe
EH 241
Adam Crowley
January 28, 2009
Meaningful Readings
These past two weeks I have read a few pieces of work by different authors. Every piece of work had its own parts and ideas that really stood out to me. First in the diary of Christopher Columbus what really stood out to me was the respect Columbus had for the native’s possessions in their house. “After breakfast I went on Shore, and found only one house, in which there was no one, and I suppose they had fled from fear, because all their property was left in their house. I would not allow anything to be touched, but set out with the captains and people to explore the island.” This passage really stood out to me because my knowledge of Christopher Columbus was him always being a bed guy. Reading this shed a new light on Christopher Columbus that I never really saw before.
The next piece of literature that was read was “The Divine Comedy” by Dante Alighieri. What really stood out at me in this piece of literature was the role the Virgil played in Dante’s life. You can really see the importance Virgil plays here, “You are my teacher, the first of all my authors, and you alone the one from whom I look the noble style that was to bring me honor.” Its amazing how one single person can play such a huge role in someone life and let it reflect on their work. Especially when that person has been dead from 1,000 years.
“The Knights Tale” shows that power of love and what it can do to people. Two cousins, Palamon and Arcite who were almost like brothers were turned against each other to the point where they would fight each other to the death. It also amazed me that Arcite was returning to the city that imprisoned him just to be near Emily. “Truly, however bitter be my cup, to Athens I will go at once!” Once Palamon escaped from prison he was also willing to go back to the place that imprisoned him. The fact neither of the knights just forgot about Emily and moved on to find another woman they risked their freedom to be with this woman. What also stuck with me from this reading was how they fell in love with Emily so fast. “He chanced on Emily to cast his eye and, as he did, he blenched and gave a cry as though he had been stabbed, and to the heart.” This passage refers to the love that Palamon felt for Emily the first time he laid his eyes on her, and the loves that sticks throughout the whole story
The Last piece of literature that we read I this class, “the Wife of Bath”, was probably the most shocking. The way this woman spoke was crude and absurd for the time period. Obviously if you turned on the TV and put it on the Real World, or a Shot at Love you will see women acting and talking a hundred times worse. On the other hand if you know anything about the time period Chaucer lived in you know that women were supposed to act a certain way, and the wife of Bath was the complete opposite of the way women were supposed to act. She spends much of her time questioning virginity and the importance of it. She says there is nothing wrong with the married life but that it might not be for her. She also says that she should be able to sleep with anyone she wants. Also most of the talk about her husbands was her explaining how she “pleased” them. To sum it up the wife of bath was shocking because not once in my life I have ever read of a woman from that time period talking that way. In reality you never really hear about women from that time period because of the fact that they were property.
So far I have enjoyed the reading we have done in this class. I have also learned a lot form all the different types of stories and pieces of work we have read.
From the three major author’s we have read so far, I must say Chaucer sticks to mind the most. I say this because not only do I love poetry, but because he wrote about what most people in his time did not want to hear. Yet, while his writing is still controversial today, I would say he has written in a way which affects both people of his time and today. Not only is he controversial, however, but he is also unique. He has written in a way which many people of today find hard to recreate or fashion on their own. For instance, in The Knight’s Tale, even though Chaucer is writing through his character, he is able to write without giving any signs of judgment or opinion. For that reason, The Knight’s Tale stands out to me the most.
I know in class we have discussed Chaucer’s Wheel of Fortune versus Humanism. I feel The Knight’s Tale certainly sheds light on to both. I say this because, the two men in the story, Arcita and Palamon fight for love. In their fight, both acquire great strengths. As I mentioned earlier, Chaucer’s Knight never tells his audience who he favors the most. Instead, he only mentions each cousin’s love for Emily and how each will acquire it. In no way does he say how one is stronger than the other nor does he make one seem more unlikable. For this, I believe Chaucer uses a humanistic tone throughout his literature. Yet, still, fate (the wheel of fortune) in the end decides the winner. When at the end it seems that Arcita had won the match to win Emily as a wife, Arcita fell off his horse and died, leaving Palamon the new victor. In the story, Chaucer writes, “The fierce Arcita, with no helmet on,/ Riding his courser round to show his face/ Cantered the whole length of the jousting-place,/ Fixing his eye on Emily aloft;/ And her returning gaze was sweet and soft,/ For women, speaking generally, are prone/ To follow Fortune’s favors, once they’re known./ She was his whole delight, his joy of heart./ Out of the ground behold a fury start,/ By Pluto sent at the request of Saturn./ Arcita’s horse in terror danced a pattern/ And leapt aside and foundered as he leapt,/ And ere he was aware Arcita was swept/ Out of the saddle and pitched upon his head/ Onto the ground, and there he lay for dead;….” This part of the story was so surprising to me because I had to wonder why Chaucer wanted to write this. I concluded that it may be because he does not necessarily favor one cousin over another, but instead is trying to shock the reader, merely because they expect Arcita to claim his bride. Even though there was fair warning of Arcita losing, I still was uncertain whether or not Palamon would win. At first I wondered if Palamon would cheat his way to victory or if Arcita was going to submit and decide not to claim his wife, but rather give her to his cousin as a sign of peace and respect. Instead, the Fates decided to cut Arcita’s wire in order to favor Venus, the God of love. So, as I mentioned earlier, Chaucer does not favor one cousin over another. However, I do believe that he does favor one belief over another, and that is love before war. In other words, Mars lost his follower to Venus’ follower because Venus was more favorable to Zeus (or whoever is their god). Again, I appreciate Chaucer’s ability to write without leading the reader into choosing a favorite character, but rather lets the reader decide. I also like the message buried in the story. He seems to tell the reader to look to love in order to conquer your dreams, because if you look to war, fate will knock you down off of your high horse.
What aspects of the reading we have done thus far have stuck out or been most meaningful to me? Well, Chaucer indeed has stuck out and shocked me greatly. Before this class, I always backed away from reading literature this old and in this style. For instance, I love to read, and I read all genres but I was scared to pick up “old” texts because I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to grasp it. This is what make’s Chaucer great. After reading the the Knights tale, I was amazed how good he really was at writing. He was writing back in the 15th century and we as readers today can relate to his writing and still understand it. I also was amazed how good he was at rhyming and making the English language flow as if he was just talking to you in person.
I liked how in the prologue he gave great detail to some characters but not others. Professor Crowley told us Chaucer died before he could finish his work so I wonder if that had anything to do with that. I would like to know what parts of his work he finished before he died. In the prologue, I sensed that the narrator was very biased towards some characters also.
The knights tale was my favorite tale from “The Canterbury Tales” so far. In class we learned that Chaucer was very upset that church figures were making money off peoples misery. This is where we learned about the “Wheel of Fortune”. Chaucer believed in the “wheel of Fortune” but also in the idea of humanism. Chaucer belived that if we listen to other people’s stories and we learn from their life and what they have been through we become better people. I believe Chaucer was on to something and had great insight to the future and how people behaved and by knowing this he could influence people lives by his work. That is what makes “The Canterbury Tales” so great. Chaucer is just telling stories or tales about people from all different walks of life. He also had great insight in my mind of women’s rights. He made us think of the the woman’s point of view in the story when nobody at that time in the world cared. Women were mere objects to men. I liked how he made us think of Emily’s point of view and how she did not want to be married off because she had only love for her dog.
I especially like the Knights Tale because there were so many aspects to it on such a small scale. There is a war, two imprisoned Knights in a tower, true love, and jealousy to just name a few.
I also liked how Chaucer made you think after you put his work down. In class we noticed some strange things in this tale that he put in his work. In the Knights Tale he put in pagan gods which at the time, were not really taken seriously any more. Why wasn’t Jesus in the story? This was a question I asked myself because I was led to believe that Chaucer was a very religious man. I also liked how Chaucer put love inside the wheel of fortune instead of god. This must of made a lot of church figures mad if they picked up on it when they read his work.
Why did he do this? The Knights Tale left me with a lot of questions but in all I loved the story. It made we wonder if Shakespeare took idea’s from Chaucer when he wrote Romeo and Juliet.
Gavin Kennedy
Eh 241 Adam Crowley
Jan 28, 2009 Kennedy
There have been a view items of interest that have, and will continue to, shape the way I look at the world in general, as well as literature on the whole. Dante touched on a few things, but I wish I had more contact with him, I plan on reading more of the Inferno, and if myself willing, other pieces if there is any more of him to be found. Christopher Columbus put things into perspective for me about time periods and what differences we all have, over just a short, in relation to total world history, time. Chaucer was most likely the main writer that has influenced me, mainly because the amount of exposure to him I have had verse the others.
Dante was a very, very interesting read, it may be because I have always been interested in the different ways the afterlife has been displayed. I have always had a fascination, much like the rest of the human world, with what truly happens after this life is over. He explained it as a kind of world based on this one, as far as we got in the first canto, where other people that have died are still there, Virgil case in point. I also heavily relate to him because of the sense of hopeless lose, I was in much the same position, in the idea of being lost no being in the afterlife, only a few years ago. I connected with his portrayal of the path being beset on all sides with dark things and obstacles that must be overcome to reach some semblance of sanity and hope. His style was very nice, given it was a translation I have no real idea what his exact style was, but it was nice enough for what I was exposed to. Given exposure to this writer has put a sense of faith in older texts that I had not previously possessed, I will undoubtedly read more writers from this period, and more of his writings as well.
Christopher Columbus’s journal was very illuminating a few respects. It gave me more of a personal view into his life’s ambitions and a glimpse into his character. It is always something special to read a journal or personal account of a historical figure that is studied in such depth as he was, it just shows a more human view versus just what other people have uncovered. It gave me context to how turbulent that time was, how radical ideas were, even though they seem to us ludicrous the things they believed no less feverishly that the world was flat as we believe the world is round. They were just using what information they had at the time, his view of the world was very radical and very creative, how he came to think of the world as pear-like, I will never know but it doesn’t make it less interesting. Even though he had a heavy hand in the destruction of an entire culture, it was still an exciting look into what times were and put the century into a more tangible context were I can base my own personal views from.
Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Knights Tale” was a very out of place story for me, it didn’t necessarily follow the pattern a typical story for me. Usually if someone does and unspeakable act they are ultimately punished, not give hand outs, and that is what it seemed to me happened. Maybe he was reformed, maybe rape wasn’t that large of an issue in his time to reward a rapist with a fairy tale ending. But it is things like this that catch me off guard that make reading more enjoyable. You start the story out thinking it is going to end one way, that he wont find what woman want and that he will be beheaded, or that the old woman is going to make an absurd, and drastically depressing, request of him. It seems like she does but it turns out to be a very rewarding marriage for the Knight, I have to give it to him, I didn’t see that coming. It was refreshing to say the least to be actually surprised in literature, this story will teach me not to think that every story has a typical ending.
Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Wife of Bath” was very much ahead of it’s time, a few centuries to be a little more exact. Womans rights and outspoken women, as far as I know, were very rare in his time, and were actually killed and ridiculed for being outspoken. Then he writes a story that is headed by a very outspoken lady that seemingly leads the relationships using not so noble, but we honed, skills. He used his comical voice to express radical ideas such as this, using whimsical characters to express hard-hitting ideas such as humanism and almost anti-organized religion, which would very easily get him killed or exiled if not done in a careful way. This story was, as well as The Knights Tale, put into context that there were radical thinkers in his time, that not everyone went along with the norms of society, and that people were willing to be outspoken it manners they saw fit. All of those ideals are ones that I hold dear to myself and I am glad that they stand the test of time.
Throughout the weeks so far we have read works from Columbus, Dante, and Chaucer. From these three I have learned a bit about writing and how imagery can affect the meaning being conveyed. In Columbus’s writing about the ‘new world’ he tries to make himself out to be a hero to the natives who have no set religion and various types of a language. If I hadn’t read his writing looking at how he used his words, instead of how he wanted them to be read, than I wouldn’t have understood what kind of a person he really was. For example, how he uses the word ‘seized’ on page 75 of the First Voyage when he writes “seized seven women, old and young, and three children.” When reading this you may get the feel that the people he ‘seized’ were bad people, when in fact, they were just random natives he saw and took them out of their environment and put them into a different one just so Columbus could get a feel on the languages they spoke and perhaps use them for other reasons.
When reading Dante’s Inferno, I found some interesting themes throughout the first Canto. When Dante writes ‘journey of our life’ he means how we go through life with or without religion, and when he writes about a ‘darkened forest’ he refers to a time in his life when he had lost his religion. To me, I sometimes like to read works that have hidden meanings in them, and often make the reader think about what they just read, instead of just reading it and thinking ‘yea, so what?’.
In Chaucer’s Canterbury tales, in the prologue, it took me a few readings to understand that the main themes that he was addressing in any character he wrote about concerned their appearance (the clothes the wore), their physical looks (if they have a beard or how their hair is arranged), their place in Christianity, what their job in society is (and if they are good at it), and how they ride a horse (and apparently there were different ways to ride a horse in that time). When he introduced someone it was always using these aspects to describe them, although they weren’t always in this particular order. I found it to be interesting because today, we don’t really think about what religion they were or how they ride a horse, but we do look at what kind of car they drive and their appearances, which I think made it easier for me to connect with the readings and helped me to shape an idea of the characters. Throughout theses works I have learned that the way something is written can affect the way a person interprets it.
Benjamin McGray
EH 241
Adam Crowley
January 27, 2009
When I saw that Geoffrey Chaucer was one of the authors that we would be reading this semester, I was fully prepared to suffer through long boring passages of dry Old English drab, that would in no way show relevance to my every day life. Fortunately I was very wrong. I was surprised at how easy it was to read his stories, and I was especially surprised that people were capable of being funny in the 15th century. However there were two things that really impacted me, regarding his writing. The first is how well Chaucer’s imagery has stood the test of time, especially with the style in which he wrote and the language that he used. The second is the bold themes that Chaucer exhibits throughout the text, most notably his stance against organized religion and praise of humanistic thinking.
Now, you will notice that I mentioned his imagery in the opening paragraph, and you are probably thinking “what is the big deal? He was an author, of course he used imagery”. This is true, and I will say that it is not necessarily the quality of the imagery (which happens to be great by the way), it is the fact that Chaucer’s imagery is still very effective six hundreds years after it was written. It is most notable during The Knight’s Tale. There are moments during that story where I, as the reader, was able to put myself in the scenes, almost hearing the sounds, smelling the smells and so on. A prime example is his description of the final battle between Palamon and Arcite, “Up spring the spears to twenty foot in height, / Out go the long-swords flashing silver-bright, / Hewing the helmets as they shear and shred; / Out bursts the blood in streams of sternest red, / The mighty maces swing, the bones are bashed, / One thrusting through the thickest throng has crashed, / There the strong steeds have stumbled, down goes all, / Man under foot and rolling like a ball.” (Chaucer 73). The chaos and peril of this battle is superbly conveyed. There are many other passages within “The Canterbury Tales” which hold equal power in their description, and although it is hard to just pick two I will rest my case and conclude with one more, it being Chaucer’s description of Emily, “Young Emily, that fairer was of mien / Than is the lily on its stalk of green, / And fresher in colouring that strove / With early roses in a May-time grove” (Chaucer 31).
The second aspect of Chaucer’s writing that impacted me the most, as mentioned before, is his bold stance against organized religion, coupled with humanistic undertones. Once again the time period must be considered. During the 15th century, and for sometime afterwards, The Church did not take any guff when it came to questioning it’s authority (just ask people in Spain at that time who were going through a lovely thing known as an inquisition). So for Chaucer to put forth ideas such as undermining religious authorities and doctrines, and adjusting one’s moral compass according to an understanding of their fellow humans rather than “divine” standards is commendable. These ideas, I feel, are most prevalent in the story of The Wife of Bath. One line in particular seems to question the very validity of the gospels, due to the hand humans had in their creation. When talking about the scandalous nature of having more than one husband, The Wife of Bath comments on her understanding of what the bible says about the subject, however she sees that it comes from the Apostle Paul and not from God and says, “Advice is no commandment in my view.” (Chaucer 260). This stands out to me due to the fact that it is saying that not everything in the Holy Bible may be reliable as a source of guidance. This is a very bold assertion for his time. Another instance of a biasism being mentioned in regards to the bible is through the Wife of Bath’s note that it being written by men, women play a very derogative role throughout it’s pages, “Aye, there’s the text where you expressly find / That woman brought the loss of all mankind.” Once again my point could be expressed through the relaying of many of Chaucer’s quotes, but it would probably take up five pages. Therefore I will close on a note of humanism that Chaucer shows, when the character comments on how she relies not on religious authorities for guidance but from the people around her whom actually know her, and of her godmother she said, “She knew my heart and more of what I thought / than did the parish priest, and so she ought! / She was my confidante, I told her all.” (Chaucer 272).
So, as one can see, the writing of Geoffrey Chaucer had a very profound effect on me, in terms of how I view culture and literature of his time. I was surprised on how well I could relate to a lot of his text, and found his controversial views on life extremely engaging. I have a new respect for the courageousness he showed in expressing such views.
Leah Gomes
28 January 2009
Adam Crowley
What It Means To Me
When I signed up for this class, I was very excited to see that we would be reading such books as Jane Eyre and Frankenstein. Beginning the class with Christopher Columbus, Dante, and Chaucer kind of killed all the excitement that I had. However, as we began to read and to apply the lectures, it made sense. I wasn’t any more excited to be reading it, but at least I felt that I was getting something out of it. The only thing that has stuck in my mind about the reading so far is that they were hard to understand. I think that this is because we are so used to reading for entertainment, that reading for information is a much harder task. I guess that I can find some appreciation in this kind of writing when I think about everything that was happening at the time.
I have always enjoyed stories with deeper meaning; something that is beneath the surface, begging to be talked about and understood. The format of the stories that we read by Dante and Chaucer was what made it more difficult for me. I have never liked poetry, but I guess that doesn’t really matter when it comes to talking about symbols, themes, and motifs. Being a religious person, I can’t help but see Biblical references. The concept of the “Wheel of Fortune” that kept coming up in “The Knight’s Tale” was very different than the Greek gods that kept popping up in “The Wife of Bath”. I think that there was just so much stuff that you were supposed to get in the stories that it wasn’t really pleasurable to read. I think that it is important that there is something to get out of the reading, but it is so often buried beneath the language.
There weren’t any symbols, motifs, metaphors, or points of views that really stuck out to me. I am not saying that it didn’t make sense to me, because the lectures made the reading more interesting. The “Wheel of Fortune” was the most interesting thing to me, because it surprises me how perfect it matches what some people think and how opposite it is from what I think. It was mentioned in class that some people find it hard to believe that if you focus on God, the bad things in life will seem more bearable. Life is too hard not to have something that you believe in, and for me, it has always been my faith. The authors lived through so much harder times than we do now, so the fact that the stories include so many themes and symbols similar to this makes sense. But with believing that a god can relieve your pain, it also makes sense that you might blame that same god for the things that happen to you. I think that this is a common idea in the literature we have read so far.
Being a senior, I have spent the last 4 years trying to figure out why it is that people find the literature from this era to be so important that every teacher feels the need to teach it. I understand that everyone has their own favorite authors, and I can’t put them down, because there are things that I find to be intensely interesting and other don’t feel the same way. But, I can’t help but feel that I must be missing something very obvious, if every teacher seems to think these writers had something important to say. Yet, to think that what Chaucer and Shakespeare had to say is still important and relevant to today, is kind of amazing. They managed to take the essence of the human life and make it interesting to people in their time, as well as to people hundreds of years later. Being someone who hopes to have a book published one day, I think that that is something important to think about. What is it about their writing that has so many people talking about it still? Even though it hasn’t made that big of an impression on me, there are obviously people who have an intense passion for this writing.
Meghann Peterson
January 27, 2009
Professor Crowley
What is meaningful to me?
Out of everything we have read so far I think I most identify with the writings of Dante. Dante writes about what it means to be lost. The narrator says, “While halfway through the journey of our life, / I found myself lost in a darkened forest, / for I wandered off from the straight path.”It sounds like the narrator is having what we would call a “mid-life crisis”, not that these crises do not have to occur exclusively in mid-life. Although I think that the narrator is speaking mostly from a religious perspective, I think the feeling of being lost can apply to all sorts of emotional milestones that people encounter. If we were all as lucky as to have someone like Virgil to guide us life would seem easier to navigate. I think one of the reasons that Dante is still so universal and why I find it relevant to my life is that it deals with issues everyone goes through. Everyone at some point questions the religious views they were raised with. Even people raised with no religious views at some point wonder about religion, sometimes even more than others. I know people who are atheists who really spent a lot of time making that decision. As for myself I am still on the fence. I do believe in a God but I am not sure which label I would like to put upon him/her. Ito me the world doesn’t make sense if there is no God. But on the other side I don’t really agree with organized religion. And I certainly don’t believe in Virgil’s take that we would not be allowed in heaven if we do not worship God on earth. I prefer to think that heaven is a place where all good people go, not just the good people who follow the rules of organized religion.
In the way that I am interested in Dante’s take on religion I am interested in Chaucer’s disregard for religious standards in his writings. In “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue” we read about the wife of bath who is very upfront on her use of sex as a bargaining chip. She marries five times and confesses she only really loved one of her husband’s. We are to assume that the other husbands die because she would not have been allowed a divorce. Had they allowed divorce at the time she surely would have been someone to do so. She tells us that she asks her husbands for money while they are in the middle of having sex. This cracks me up. This does not seem like something that people would have been writing about in the times of Chaucer. It fascinates me that for all the things that were not ok to write about this would be considered acceptable. “The Wife of Bath’s” tale also shows us that Chaucer has a great sense of humor. I like to read things that are funny and you don’t expect this kind of sexual humor form someone writing in the 14th century.
Timothy McGuire
Eh 241, Adam Crowley
Jan 27, 2009
I have found all of the works of literature so far very interesting. Dante and Chaucer though seem to have stood out the most for me. Mostly because they tried to tackle issues which are still very relevant today and which have really resonated with me. I think today mainstream writing has switched its focus to more of an entertainment paradigm. This seems to me to have lead literature away from trying to grapple with society’s issues. I not a cautious person so I will be forward and say that I think this is a big mistake. Writing has a way of precisely demonstrating a concept in a methodically and meaningful way that is lost in other mediums. I don’t say this to belittle other mediums I just strongly feel that writing is a powerful medium which deserves more focus for its power to convey ideas and information.
The first canto of Dante’s inferno really resonated with me a lot. Particularly after we learned in class the history of Dante’s time period. I almost choose history as a major because I love it so much. The now infamous words “those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it” really mean a lot to me. Although a dark lesson to learn, its one that society would better off if they finally learned it.
I think the thing that struck me the most about the First Canto of the Inferno was when Dante wrote “While halfway through the journey of our life, I found myself lost in a darkened forest.” Dante had this theme about his writing about being lost. I think this theme is almost central to the human condition or at least to our western culture. Dante was more likely speaking about a spiritual loss because he could no longer be a part of the Catholic Church which at his time was very corrupt. Gods supposed representatives were no longer an option and so he needed a new “vehicle” to salvation. Although I don’t relate to Dante’s spiritual loss at any level and in fact resent the idea that I need to be saved I do relate to his more general feelings of loss in a more humanistic, philosophical way. Instead of seeing being lost as a bad thing though I see it as a good thing. I think it motivates us towards compassion, and asking questions. I don’t expect to ever “find” myself but if I do I’ll know that I must not being looking hard enough reevaluate and try to make sure that I’m not brainwashed. Another thing I like about Dante the way in which he questioned authority and used Virgil a philosopher, a question asking truth seeker who as a new means of seeking truth. This was all the more enjoyable because it was not in vogue to question authority at that time and he did it under pain of death. I have a lot of respect and gratitude towards Dante because of his contributions and am especially grateful for his work he may very well have been one of the single greatest factors that wrenched us up out of the dark ages.
Chaucer’s works although easier to read were less meaningful to me personally. I enjoyed reading them and found them intellectually rich but I couldn’t relate to them as much. After reading and thinking about Dante’s time and writing I find I can’t stop thinking about it. Chaucer just isn’t as exciting to me. It’s no doubt in my mind that his contributions to literature and thinking. It’s just that I found his work less exciting. I think the thing that I found the most compelling was the wheel of fortune. I appreciated Chaucer’s attempt to replace the center of the wheel with love. However I had more trouble spotting this theme. I understood that the characters main drives were love but I failed to see how they were really saved by it. In The Knights Tale it really only saved the man. In the Wife of bath Chaucer seems to say that there is a need for equality for love but at the same time the rapist lives happily ever after. I also found it less compelling and significant then Dante’s themes of being lost and questioning the Church. Overall I thought Chaucer was very good but at least for me I found that he was less successful in conveying his themes, and ideas. Personally I was most inspired by Dante.
Kacey Beckwith
January 29, 2009
EH 241: Major British Writers
Professor Crowley
What has been meaningful to me so far?
So far in class, there have been a couple different aspects of the readings that we have done which have stuck out to me and seemed rather meaningful. Both Dante’s and Chaucer’s writing, although the two were very different, had a lot of aspects to them which I found enjoyable and relatable.
I think that Dante’s writing has been the most meaningful to me. He wrote about a topic that should be familiar, at least in one form or another, to any person’s life. The topic of being lost seems like something that anyone can relate to. Although it seemed that Dante was coming from a much more spiritual place in regards to his being lost, there can be many forms of the idea. Because of the ability to relate to this topic, I think that it stuck with me on a greater level than any of the other authors we have read.
I think this topic, and Dante’s work as a whole, was a good way for people to see that everyone can relate to one another in at least some form. Everyone goes through some form of being lost; whether it be during Dante’s time or during the time of our society, today. Therefore, Dante’s writing seems all that much more important. It has an aspect of relatability to it that a lot of other writings seem to lack. Therefore, it struck me as the most meaningful reading we have done, up to this point in the class.
The Canterbury Tales also stuck out to me because of all the “layers” to it. While reading it, there was just so much to pick out; there were religious references, as well as the way in which Chaucer describes his characters. Wealth and appearances seemed to play a very big role, as well. It seemed the more closely I read and, upon going back a second time and looking at the material once more, I was able to find more and more to pick out.
I also thought that the way in which it was written, in poem form, also made it stick out to me. Because Chaucer chose to write in poem form, there was already a drastic difference to a lot of what I had previously read. I also think that it might have made it easier for me to follow, and perhaps understand, since it was written in this form. It seems to me that I would have had more trouble following and understanding The Canterbury Tales if it had been written in a much more regular or familiar way. I think that would have taken something away from what Chaucer was trying to get across. This made the stories much more enjoyable for me, which is something I have had trouble with in the past.
Based on these two readings, I feel that I am better able to pick out certain aspects that have been added in. Looking at an author’s work and trying to pick out, not only what appears to be on the surface, but also the little points that may only be visible upon closer reading, is something that I think I have had trouble with in the past. However, after doing this technique with both Chaucer and Dante, I feel that I have gotten a much better grasp on the concept and am able to do this at a much higher level.
Stefanie Foutch
EH 241
Major British Writers
What Is Important?
Throughout the course of this semester, I covered a lot of ground. I was introduced to many pieces of writing, and I learned a thing or two about each author. I learned about Christopher Columbus, Dante, and Chaucer. Each one of these individuals I found interesting in their own way.
Christopher Columbus’ writing was important to me, because he discovered America. I found his thoughts and points of view important and interesting. His journey showed me what he saw and how he felt about it. I learned about the people he met and their cultures. That is also important to me due to the fact that, I love learning about foreign places and cultures. In addition, Christopher Columbus’ outlook on the world was important to me. Columbus thought that world was actually pear shaped, round at the bottom with a “nub” at the top. I find this fact important, because if Christopher Columbus never came up with this idea it may have taken longer to figure out the actual shape of the world. TThanks to his idea, we saved ourselves the time and effort.
After learning about Christopher Columbus, I was introduced to Dante. Reading Dante’s poem intrigued me. Since I am not a religious person, I do not know much about religion. However, after reading this poem I felt as if I knew more about religion, even if it was just the lightest bit. Also, in Dante’s poem he spoke of feeling/being lost. I could connect with that, even if it was not in a religious way. Connecting with the author is something that I find important, it makes me enjoy the piece of writing even more. I found the poem in general important to me, it was as if Dante was trying to give someone else advice about being lost. Connecting with other people and helping others is a wonderful thing to do.
After studying Dante, I was handed the opportunity to learn about Chaucer. Chaucer’s work was definitely my favorite out of all of them, because Chaucer had many important things to say. For example, in “The Wife of Bath Prologue” Chaucer writes about how this women is a strong individual, and she will not put up with sexist men. She always put her foot down in a sexist situation. Standing up for something you believe in is crucial. In addition, Chaucer brought many new ideas to his society. In Chaucer’s time, The Wheel of Fortune was a big deal. Originally, in the middle of the Wheel, there was God. Everyone should focus on God and not on the things that are happening around him or her. Chaucer’s idea was more that we should put love in the center of the Wheel. Focus on love, not God and you will be a happy individual. Chaucer observed other people. He would listen to them and their stories. Which he rather made his religion. He thought that if we put love in the center of the Wheel, and listened to people around us we would be happy. This concept is important, Chaucer’s interest in love is vital. We all need to be loved, we all should share love. We should not be so selfish, we should focus on others. The world would be a much better place. Chaucer actually taught me a life long lesson.