The culture of the Renaissance with its ideological basis - the philosophy and aesthetics of humanism - arises primarily on Italian soil. Not surprisingly, the influence of Italy can be seen in all English Renaissance writers. But much more noticeable than the influence of the Italian model, the original character of the English culture of this time. The tragic fate of the free peasantry in the era of primitive accumulation, the rapid breakdown of the medieval order under the onslaught of the power of money, the development of the national state with its contradictions - all this gives social issues in England a special urgency. The broad folk background of the English Renaissance is its main virtue, the source of such achievements of the 16th century as Thomas More's Utopia and Shakespeare's theater.

English humanism.Early English Renaissance dates back to the 14th century; its most prominent representatives were Geoffrey Chaucer and William Langland. Feudal civil strife in the 15th century. delayed the development of English humanism for a long time. At the beginning of the 16th century, humanistic literature revived again. Oxford University was a hotbed of new humanistic ideas. True, these ideas often had a theological shell; in this respect England was like Germany. The English humanists Grosin, Linecre and John Colet, who traveled to Italy, are carried away mainly by philological research there, showing no interest in natural-philosophical and aesthetic problems. They use their philological scholarship most often to study questions of religion and morality. But the chief figure among the Oxford humanists was Thomas More.

"Utopia" by Thomas More

Henry VIII's chancellor Thomas More witnessed firsthand the beginning of a profound change in the position of the working classes of England, a picture of national disasters caused primarily by the system of enclosures. In his treatise novel "The Golden Book, as useful as it is funny, about the best organization of the state and about the new island of Utopia" (Latin text - 1516, first English translation - 1551), Pestilence depicts England in the 16th century in a mercilessly harsh light. . with the parasitism of its upper classes and bloody legislation against the expropriated, England, where "sheep eat people." From his description of English reality, More concluded: “Wherever there is private property, where everything is measured by money, there is hardly ever possible the correct and successful course of public affairs.” The genius of his basic idea is quite clearly expressed in the principle of compulsory labor for all, in anticipation of the elimination of the antithesis between the city and the countryside, between mental and physical labor, in the denial of the exploitation of man by man. More's book was a lively response to the development of capitalist relations in England and expressed the deepest aspirations of the British masses. More's communist ideal was, as it were, a fantastic anticipation of the future.

In the Middle Ages, criticism of private property usually appeared in religious garb. More cleared this criticism from its mystical shell and connected it with political, economic, moral and philosophical questions. Nevertheless, the difference in goals was bound to lead to a sharp conflict between the king and his chancellor. More was a determined opponent of the English Reformation. At the request of the king, the Lord Chancellor was condemned. In the second half of the century, secular culture was finally established. Humanistic tendencies in the work of D. Chaucer, the innovative nature of the poem "The Canterbury Tales". Chaucer's Innovations (1343 - 1400): Rejecting alliterative verse, he develops the foundations of English syllabic-tonic versification. Using the experience of contemporary Italian and French writers, he enriches English literature with new genres, introducing a lot of independent and original into their development (a psychological novel in verse, a poetic short story, an ode). Chaucer laid the foundations of the satirical tradition in English literature. With all its roots, Chaucer's work was connected with the national life of England. This explains the fact that he wrote only in English, although he knew Latin, French and Italian excellently. Chaucer made a major contribution to the formation of the English literary language. Chaucer turned to the work of Boccaccio repeatedly. From the works of Boccaccio (The Decameron, the poem Tezeid), he borrows plots and images for his Canterbury Tales. However, when comparing Chaucer with Boccaccio, a significant difference is revealed: in Boccaccio's short stories, the main thing is the plot, the action, while in Chaucer the main thing is the characterization of the character. Boccaccio lays the foundations for the narrative art of the Renaissance; Chaucer's work bears the rudiments of dramatic art. Chaucer introduced the ring composition, which was later used by other authors. The main work of Chaucer, which constituted an entire era in the history of English literature and marked a turning point in its development, was the Canterbury Tales. Chaucer created a broad and vivid picture of contemporary England, presenting it in a gallery of vivid and full-blooded images. The book opens with a "General Prologue", which outlines the appearance of each of the characters. The General Prologue reveals the compositional principle used by Chaucer. The owner of the tavern, Harry Bailey, invites pilgrims to tell entertaining stories to pass the way to Canterbury and back. From these stories, each of which is a complete poetic novella, Chaucer's book is composed. In this case, Chaucer uses the compositional principle of Boccaccio's Decameron, which established in European literature the method of plot framing a book of short stories. However, it is impossible not to notice that the Canterbury Tales is characterized by a more organic interaction of the “frame narrative” with the content of the stories told by the pilgrims. With a few strokes, Chaucer outlines the appearance of each of the pilgrims, his costume and habits. Already on the basis of these laconic remarks, one can imagine people of a very specific era, a specific social stratum of society. The Canterbury Tales convey the atmosphere of the turning point of the era, of which Chaucer was a contemporary. The feudal system was outdated. The definition of Chaucer as the "father of realism" in the new European literature refers, of course, primarily to his art of portraiture. We have the right to speak about the early form of Renaissance realism as a creative method, which implies not only a truthful generalized image of a person, typifying certain social phenomena, but also a reflection of the changes taking place in society and in man. English society, as depicted in Chaucer's portrait gallery, is a society in motion, in development. This is no longer old England, as it entered the Hundred Years War, this is a society in transition, where the feudal order is strong, but outdated, where people of new professions, connected with the developing life of the city, make up a noticeable majority. Chaucer critically depicts not only the old, outgoing classes, but also the predatory, greedy merchant, miller, skipper, majordomo. On the other hand, he sympathetically described a peasant, an artisan, a student - working England, which, however, knows how to have fun and enjoy life.

Twenty-nine pilgrims were going to Canterbury, to the relics of the saint. They met in a tavern, had supper and talked. The pilgrims did different things in life and were from different classes.

Among the pilgrims was a Knight who accomplished many feats and participated in many battles. He was with his son. There was also the Forester, he was wearing green clothes, the Mother Superior of the monastery, a neat and pleasant woman, with her were the Nun and the Priest. She communicated with the Monk. He was cheerful and fat, he liked to hunt. Not far from him sat the Tax Collector. The merchant was nearby. He was a thrifty and rich man. In the tavern there was a Student, a Sheriff (a wealthy landowner), who liked to drink and eat delicious food. Nearby sat a good Cook, a Weaver. Also at the table sat the Weaver, the Hatter, the skillful Doctor, the merciful and just Priest, the Plowman, the Upholsterer, the Carpenter. Melnik sat opposite them. And nearby were the Economy, the Bailiff, the Majordomo. Also among the pilgrims were the Seller, the Fist Fighter, the Dyer, the Skipper, the Lawyer.

The owner of the tavern advised the pilgrims to tell different stories on the road, they agreed.

The knight was the first to begin the story of Theseus. He killed the evil Creon, imprisoned his friends. They fell in love with Emilia (the sister of Theseus' wife). Theseus allowed them to fight for the hand of Emilia. As a result, Emilia and Palamon got married.

The miller told how the student outwitted the carpenter and got his wife.

The next one told the Doctor about Virginia. His daughter was beautiful. The county judge wanted to outsmart Virginia and get his daughter. But his plan didn't work.

Econom's story completes the work. Phoebus had a white crow. He did not let his wife out of the house. While Phoebe was not at home, her lover came to her. When the husband came home, the crow told him everything. He killed his wife, grieved, cursed the crow, she turned black and lost her wonderful voice.

The work teaches that people from different classes with different characters, united by one idea, can find common topics for conversation.

A picture or drawing of The Canterbury Tales

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The greatest English writer of the 14th century was Chaucer(1340-1400), author of famous "Canterbury Tales". Chaucer simultaneously ends the era of Anglo-Norman and opens the history of new English literature.

To all the richness and variety of thoughts and feelings, the subtlety and complexity of spiritual experiences that characterize the previous era, he gave expression in English, completing the experience of the past and capturing the aspirations of the future. Among the English dialects, he established the dominance of the London dialect., the language spoken in this large shopping center, where the residence of the king and both universities were located.

In the next century, there is a great interest in living folk poetry, which already existed in the 13th and 14th centuries. But in the 15th century, this poetry shows a particularly active life, and the oldest examples of it, which have survived to our time, belong to this century. Ballads about Robin Hood were very popular.

"The Canterbury Tales"(Eng. The Canterbury Tales) - a work of the poet Geoffrey Chaucer, written in late XIV centuries in Middle English; not completed. Represents a collection of 22 poems and two prose short stories, united by a common frame: stories are told by pilgrims on their way to venerate the relics of St. Thomas Becket in Canterbury and are described in the author's prologue to the work. According to Chaucer's plan, each of them had to tell four stories (two on the way to Canterbury and two on the way back). The Canterbury Tales, which are predominantly in verse, do not use a uniform articulation of verse; the poet freely varies stanzas and meters. The predominant size is iambic 5-foot with a pair of rhymes (“heroic couplet” - heroic couplet).

Storytellers belong to all strata of medieval English societies a: among them there are a knight, a monk, a priest, a doctor, a sailor, a merchant, a weaver, a cook, a yeoman, etc. Their stories partly go back to traditional novelistic plots (used, in particular, in Juan Ruiz's Book of Good Love and Decameron » Boccaccio), are partly original. The stories of the pilgrims are very diverse in subject matter, often associated with the theme of love and betrayal; some of them satirically portray the abuses of the Catholic Church. Chaucer's literary skill is also manifested in the fact that the short stories reflect the individual traits and manner of speech of the narrators.

Innovation and the originality of The Canterbury Tales was appreciated only in the era of romanticism, although the successors of the traditions of Chaucer appeared already during his lifetime (John Lydgate, Thomas Hawkleave, etc.), and the work itself was published by William Caxton at the earliest time of English printing. Researchers note the role of Chaucer's work in the formation of the English literary language and in increasing its cultural significance (as opposed to Old French and Latin, which were considered more prestigious).

Under the Comstock Act, The Canterbury Tales was banned from distribution in the United States, and is even now printed with abridgements for obscenity reasons.

The merits of Chaucer in the history of English literature and language are very great. He was the first among the English to give examples of truly artistic poetry, where taste, a sense of proportion, elegance of form and verse reign everywhere, the hand of an artist is visible everywhere, controlling his images, and not submitting to them, as was often the case with medieval poets; everywhere you can see a critical attitude to the plots and characters. In the works of Chaucer there are already all the main features of English national poetry: a wealth of fantasy combined with common sense, humor, observation, the ability to vivid characteristics, a penchant for detailed descriptions, a love of contrasts, in a word, everything that we later meet in an even more perfect seen in Shakespeare, Fielding, Dickens and other great British writers. He gave completeness to English verse and brought the literary language to a high degree of elegance. Regarding the purity of speech, he always showed special care and, not trusting the scribes, he always personally looked through the lists of his works. In creating a literary language, he showed great moderation and common sense, rarely used neologisms and, not trying to revive obsolete expressions, used only those words that came into general use. The brilliance and beauty which he imparted to the English language gave the latter a place of honor among the other literary languages ​​of Europe; after Chaucer, adverbs had already lost all significance in literature. Chaucer was the first to write in his native language and prose, and not in Latin (for example, "The astrolab" - a treatise he wrote in 1391 for his son). He uses the national language here consciously in order to express his thoughts better and more accurately, and also out of patriotic feeling. Chaucer's worldview is completely imbued with the pagan spirit and cheerfulness of the Renaissance; only some medieval features and expressions like “St. Venus", which, however, come across in Chaucer's earlier works, indicate that he has not yet completely freed himself from medieval views and confusion of concepts. On the other hand, some of his thoughts about nobility, about the upbringing of children, about the war, the nature of his patriotism, which is alien to any national exclusivity, would do honor even to a person of the 19th century.

INTRODUCTION

For more than two centuries, researchers have been paying close attention to the problem of literary types and genres. If everything is more or less clear with its first part: the main part of scientists agree that there are three literary types - epic, lyric and drama, then as for the second, there are different rather controversial points of view. The problem of the genre can be formulated as the problem of classifying works, identifying common genre features in them. The main difficulties of classification are associated with the historical change in literature, with the evolution of its genres.

In our work, we explore the problem of the genre specifics of "The Canterbury Tales" by J. Chaucer. This problem was addressed at different times by such literary scholars as Kashkin I., Mikhalskaya M., Meletinsky E., Matuzova V., Podkorytova N., Belozerova N., Popova M., etc. As M. Popova rightly noted: “the genre diversity of English literature included allegorical didactic and chivalric poems, ballads and madrigals, messages and odes, treatises and sermons, vision poems and the Canterbury Tales crowning Chaucer’s work, which absorbed all the diversity genres of the time. I. Kashkin, in turn, argues: “it is difficult to determine the genre of this book. If we consider separately the stories from which it is composed, then it may seem like an encyclopedia of literary genres of the Middle Ages. E. Meletinsky, agreeing with I. Kashkin, also proves that the plots of The Canterbury Tales are “mostly realistic and, on the whole, represent a completely Renaissance (by type) encyclopedia of English life in the 14th century, and at the same time - an encyclopedia of poetic genres of the time : here is a courtly story, and a household short story, and a la, and a fablio, and a folk ballad, and a parody of knightly adventurous poetry, and a didactic narrative in verse. - And, besides, the researcher emphasizes, - “new genres are also outlined, for example, “little tragedies”, which Chaucer expounds on a monk, instructive historical miniatures, clearly associated with pre-Renaissance motifs.”

The purpose of the work is to determine the genre originality of "The Canterbury Tales" by J. Chaucer. In connection with the purpose of the study, we set ourselves the following tasks:

Consider the concept of genre in literary theory;

Summarize the current level of the problem of the genre specifics of "The Canterbury Tales" by J. Chaucer;

Highlight the genre features of the short story and the chivalric romance in the Canterbury Tales;

Present your own version of the Canterbury Tales genre specifics.

The relevance of this work is due to an attempt to systematize the existing concepts of the genre originality of the Canterbury Tales, as well as an attempt to consider this problem in the light of the achievements of modern literary criticism.

The scientific novelty of the work is due to the lack of special works devoted to this problem.

1. GENRE SPECIFICITY OF THE CANTERBURY STORIES

1.1. ELEMENTS OF NOVELLISTIC STORY IN THE CANTERBURY STORIES

World famous J. Chaucer brought his "Canterbury Tales". Chaucer got the idea for stories from reading Boccaccio's Decameron.

Modern poetry begins with Jerry Chaucer (1340-1400), diplomat, soldier, scholar. He was a bourgeois who knew the court, had an inquisitive eye, read a lot and traveled through France and Italy to study the classical works in Latin. He wrote because he was aware of his genius, but his readership was small: the courtiers, but part of the workers and merchants. He served in London Customs. This post gave him the opportunity to get acquainted with the business life of the capital in many ways, to see with his own eyes those social types that will appear in his main book, Canterbury Tales.

The Canterbury Tales came out from his pen in 1387. They grew up on the basis of a narrative tradition, the origins of which are lost in ancient times, which declared itself in the literature of the XIII-XIV centuries. in Italian short stories, cycles of satirical tales, "Roman Acts" and other collections of instructive stories. In the XIV century. plots, selected from different authors and in different sources, are already combined in a deeply individual design. The chosen form - the stories of traveling pilgrims - makes it possible to present a vivid picture of the Middle Ages. Chaucer's view of the world includes Christian miracles, which are narrated in The Abbess's Tale and The Lawyer's Tale, and the fantasy of Breton le, which appears in The Weaver's Tale of Bath, and the idea of ​​Christian forbearance in The Story the tale of an Oxford student. All these representations were organic for medieval consciousness. Chaucer does not question their value, as evidenced by the inclusion of such motifs in The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer creates images-role. They are created on the basis of the professional class characteristics and the inconsistency of the heroes with it. Typification is achieved by duplication, multiplication of similar images. Absolon from The Miller's Tale, for example, appears in the role of a minister of religion - a lover. He is a church clerk, a semi-spiritual person, but his thoughts are turned to God, but to pretty parishioners. The prevalence of such an image in literature is evidenced, in addition to numerous French fablios, by one of the folk ballads included in the collection Secular Lyrics of the XlVth and XVth centuries. The behavior of the hero of this short poem is very similar to the actions of Absolon. The repetition of the image makes it typical.

All literary scholars who have studied the problem of the genres of The Canterbury Tales agree that one of the main literary genres of this work is the short story.

“The novella (Italian novella, lit. - news), - we read in the literary encyclopedic dictionary, - is a small prose genre, comparable in volume to the story, but differing from it in a sharp centripetal plot, often paradoxical, lack of descriptiveness and compositional rigor. Poeticizing the incident, the short story reveals to the utmost the core of the plot - the center, the ups and downs, reduces life material into the focus of one event.

Unlike the short story, a genre of new literature at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, which brought to the fore the figurative and verbal texture of the narrative and gravitated towards detailed characteristics, the short story is the art of the plot in its purest form, which developed in ancient times in close connection with ritual magic and myths, addressed primarily to the active, and not the contemplative side of human existence. The novelistic plot, built on sharp anti-theses and metamorphoses, on the sudden transformation of one situation into its direct opposite, is common in many folklore genres (fairy tale, fable, medieval anecdote, fablio, schwank).

“The literary short story arises in the Renaissance in Italy (the brightest example is the Decameron by G. Boccaccio), then in England, France, Spain (J. Chaucer, Margarita of Navarre, M. Cervantes). In the form of a comic and instructive short story, the formation of Renaissance realism takes place, revealing the spontaneously free self-determination of a person in a world fraught with vicissitudes. Subsequently, the short story in its evolution starts from related genres (story, short story, etc.), depicting extraordinary, sometimes paradoxical and supernatural incidents, breaks in the chain of socio-historical and psychological determinism.

Chaucer as a poet was influenced by French and Italian literature even before the creation of The Canterbury Tales. In the work of Chaucer, as is known, there are already some pre-Renaissance features, and it is customary to refer to the Proto-Renaissance. The influence of the creator of the classic Renaissance novel Giovanni Boccaccio on Chaucer is debatable. Only his acquaintance with the early works of Boccaccio and the use as sources of the Boccaccievs "Filocolo" (in the story of Franklin), "History of Famous Men and Women" (in the story of a monk), "Theses" (in the story of a knight) and only one of short stories of the Decameron, namely the story of the faithful wife Griselda, according to the Latin translation of Petrarch (in the student's story). True, some echo with the motifs and plots developed by Boccaccio in the Decameron can also be found in the stories of the skipper, the merchant and Franklin. Of course, this roll call can be explained by an appeal to the general tradition of short stories. Other sources of The Canterbury Tales include Yakov Voraginsky's The Golden Legend, fables (in particular, those of Mary of France) and The Romance of the Fox, The Romance of the Rose, chivalric novels of the Arthurian cycle, French fablios, and other works of the medieval , partly of ancient literature (for example, Ovid). Meletinsky also says that: “Legendary sources and motifs are found in the stories of the second nun (taken from the Golden Legend, the life of St. Cecilia), a lawyer (the story of the vicissitudes and sufferings of the virtuous Christian Constanta dating back to the Anglo-Norman chronicle Nicola Trivet - the daughter of the Roman emperor) and a doctor (ascending to Titus Livius and the "Roman of the Rose" story of the chaste Virginia - the victim of lust and villainy of Judge Claudius). In the second of these stories, legendary motifs are intertwined with fabulous ones, partly in the spirit of the Greek novel, and in the third - with the tradition of Roman "valor". A touch of legend and a fairy-tale basis are felt in the student's story about Griselda, although the plot is taken from Boccaccio.

Representatives of various strata of society went on a pilgrimage. According to the social status of the pilgrims can be divided into certain groups:

High society (Knight, Squire, church ministers);

Scientists (Doctor, Lawyer);

Landowners (Franklin);

Owners (Melnik, Majordom);

Merchant class (Skipper, Merchant);

Artisans (Dyer, Carpenter, Weaver, and so on);

Lower class (Plowman).

In The General Prologue, Geoffrey Chaucer introduces the reader to practically every pilgrim (simply by mentioning his presence, or by giving details of his character). The "General Prologue" in some way forms the reader's expectations - the expectation of the main mood and theme of the story, the subsequent behavior of the pilgrim. It is from the "General Prologue" that the reader gets an idea of ​​what stories will be told, as well as the essence, the inner world of each pilgrim. The behavior of the characters presented by Chaucer reveals the essence of their personalities, their habits, personal lives, moods, good and bad sides. The character of this or that character is presented in the prologue to the "Canterbury Tales" and is revealed further in the story itself, prefaces and afterwords to the stories. “Based on Chaucer's attitude to each character, the pilgrims participating in the journey can be organized into certain groups:

Ideal images (Knight, Squire, Student, Plowman, Priest);

"Neutral" images, descriptions of which are not presented in the "Prologue" - Chaucer only mentions their presence (clerics from the environment of the Abbess);

Images with some negative character traits (Skipper, Economy);

Inveterate sinners (Carmelite, Pardoner, Bailiff of the church court - they are all church employees) ".

Chaucer finds an individual approach to each character, presenting him in the General Prologue.

“In the poetic Canterbury Tales, the compositional setting was national - the setting of the scene: a tavern by the road leading to Canterbury, a crowd of pilgrims, in which, in essence, the entire English society is represented - from feudal lords to a cheerful crowd of artisans and peasants. In total, 29 people are recruited into the company of pilgrims. Almost each of them is a living and rather complex image of a person of his time; Chaucer masterfully describes in excellent verse the habits and clothes, the manner of carrying himself, the speech characteristics of the characters.

As the characters are different, so are Chaucer's artistic means. He speaks of a pious and brave knight with friendly irony, because the knight looks too anachronistic with his courtesy in a rude, noisy crowd of the common people. About the son of a knight, a boy full of enthusiasm, the author speaks with tenderness; about the thieving majordomo, miser and deceiver - with disgust; with mockery - about the brave merchants and artisans; with respect - about a peasant and a righteous priest, about an Oxford student in love with books. Chaucer speaks of the peasant uprising with condemnation, almost even with horror.

The brilliant genre of literary portraiture is perhaps Chaucer's main creation. Here, as an example, is a portrait of a weaver from Bath.

And the Bat weaver chatted with him,

Sitting famously on the pacer;

But to the temple

One of the ladies squeeze in front of her, -

Instantly forgot, in a furious pride -

About kindness and kindness.

Pretty and ruddy face.

She was an enviable wife.

And survived five husbands,

Crowds of girl friends, not counting.

What has changed in six and a half centuries? Is that the horse gave way to a limousine.

But soft humor gives way to harsh satire when the author describes the seller of indulgences he hates.

His eyes shone like those of a hare.

There was no vegetation on the body,

And the cheeks are smooth - yellow, like soap.

It seemed he was a gelding or a mare,

And though there was nothing to brag about,

About this he himself bleated like a sheep ...

As the work progresses, the pilgrims tell various stories. Knight - an old courtly plot in the spirit of a knightly novel; carpenter - a funny and obscene story in the spirit of modest urban folklore, etc. In each story, the interests and sympathies of a particular pilgrim are revealed, which achieves the individualization of the character, the task of depicting him from the inside is solved.

Chaucer is called the "father of realism". The reason for this is his art of a literary portrait, which, it turns out, appeared in Europe earlier than a pictorial portrait. Indeed, when reading The Canterbury Tales, one can safely speak of realism as a creative method that implies not only a truthful generalized image of a person, typifying a certain social phenomenon, but also a reflection of the changes taking place in society and a person.

So, the English society in Chaucer's portrait gallery is a society in motion, in development, a society in transition, where the feudal order is strong, but outdated, where the new man of the developing city is revealed. It is clear from the Canterbury Tales that the future does not belong to the preachers of the Christian ideal, but to business people, full of strength and passions, although they are less respectable and virtuous than the same peasant and country priest.

The Canterbury Tales laid the foundation for a new English poetry, based on the entire experience of advanced European poetry and national song traditions.

Based on the analysis of this work, we came to the conclusion that the genre of the Canterbury Tales was strongly influenced by the genre of the short story. This is manifested in the features of the plot, the construction of images, the speech characteristics of the characters, humor and edification.

1.2. ELEMENTS OF A KNIGHT NOVEL IN THE CANTERBURY TALES

Since in the time of J. Chaucer the novel and, in particular, the romance of chivalry were one of the main genres of literature, the writer simply could not ignore them. He used elements of courtly romance in The Knight's Tale.

In general, “a novel (French Roman, German Roman, English novel; originally, in the late Middle Ages, any work written in Romance, and not in Latin) is an epic work in which the narrative is focused on the fate of an individual personality in the process of its formation and development, deployed in the artistic space and time, sufficient to convey the "organization" of the personality. Being the epic of private life, "the image of feelings, passions and events of the private and inner life of people" [cit. according to 5, 330], the novel presents individual and social life as relatively independent elements that do not exhaust and absorb each other, and this is the defining feature of its genre content.

In the Middle Ages, the romantic tendency is most fully manifested in the genre of chivalric romance, which brought with it freedom of narration, liveliness of dialogues, psychological “portraiting” of characters (“The Tale of Tristan and Isolde”). The narrative traditions of the French chivalric romance predetermined for a long time the leading position of French literature in the development of the novel.

One of the most common genres in medieval literature was the chivalric romance (French roman chevaleresque, roman de chevalerie; German Ritterroman, hofischer Ro¬man; English romance of chivalry, Spanish romance; Italian romanzo cavalleresco; Czech rytifsky roman) , which largely determined the literary development in the named era. “It arose in a feudal environment during the heyday of chivalry, for the first time - in France in the middle. 12th c. He took from the heroic epic the motives of boundless courage and nobility. In the chivalric novel, the analysis of the psychology of the individualized hero-knight, who performs feats not in the name of the family or vassal duty, but for the sake of his own glory and glorification of his beloved, comes to the fore. The abundance of exotic descriptions and fantastic motifs brings the chivalric romance closer to folk tales, the literature of the East and the pre-Christian mythology of Central and Northern Europe. The development of the chivalric romance was influenced by the rethought legends of the ancient Celts and Germans, and by the writers of antiquity (Ovid). The most popular were novels about the Knights of the Round Table, about the legendary King Arthur of the Britons, about the love of Tristan and Iseult, about the search for the Holy Grail. The cheerful ideal of free love and the search for adventure gives way to a Christian-ascetic beginning in later chivalric romances. Originally the romance of chivalry was in verse; from ser. 13th c. his prose adaptations appear (for example, the cycle about Lancelot). Knightly novels were also created in Germany and England. The poetics of the chivalrous romance influenced the heroic epic, which was recorded at that time in the written tradition, the development of prose and versification (in particular, the Alexandrian verse). In parallel with the chivalric novel, the chivalric tale and short story developed. Already in the 13th century. parodies of the chivalric romance appear. In the 15th century. the genre declined, but with the advent of book printing it revived again in the form of popular prints (including in Russia in the 17th and 19th centuries). In Spain, the romance of chivalry flourished during the Renaissance, filled with his ideas. Cervantes in Don Quixote did not ridicule the chivalric romance as such, but epigone adaptations and continuations of the best examples of the genre. Attempts by writers of a precision direction in the 16th-17th centuries. revive the chivalrous romance, acquired the character of a conditional stylization.

In the prologue to The Canterbury Tales, all the pilgrim characters are most vividly presented as unique individuals, which distinguishes the work from any other novels of the Middle Ages. The author's approach to the description of the characters is notable for the fact that the author approaches the description of the participants of the pilgrimage in detail:

35: But nathelees, whil I have tyme nd space,

36: Er that I ferther in this tale pace,

37: Me thynketh it acordaunt to resoun

38: To telle yow al the condicioun

39: Of ech of hem, so as it semed me,

40: And whiche they weren, and of what degree,

41: And eek in what array that they were inne…

35: But still, as long as there is a place and time,

37: I think it would be appropriate

38: Tell you about the position

39: Each of them, as they seemed to me,

40: And what they were, and to what extent,

41: And about their outfits...

Considering the image of the Knight as an ideal figure presented by Chaucer, the embodiment of dignity, nobility and honor, but at the same time having some shortcomings, we will conduct a study of the Knight's story, taking into account the structure of the story and the poetic means used by the author to create the completeness of the image of the character.

The story tells about the love of two cousins ​​- Palamon and Arsita - for the daughter-in-law of the Duke of Athens, Emilia. The cousins, being princes of a hostile state, are imprisoned in a dungeon by order of Theseus, from the high tower of which they accidentally see Emilia and both fall in love with her. Enmity breaks out between the cousins, and when Theseus learns of the rivalry between the two brothers, he arranges a jousting tournament, promising to give the winner Emilia as his wife. By the intervention of the gods, Palamon wins; Arsita dies by accident; the story ends with the wedding of Palamon and Emilia.

It should be noted that the Knight's tale is one of the longest tales presented by the Pilgrims. One gets the impression of the solemnity, majesty of the narrative, since the narrator often deviates from the main action, presenting the audience with large fragments of detailed descriptions, often not related to the development of the plot itself (description of the women of Thebes, mourning the death of their husbands, description of temples, festivities, battles). Moreover, the Knight, as the story progresses, interrupts himself several times, returning to the main characters and to the main development of the plot:

"885: But al that thyng I moot as now forbere.

1000: But shortly for to telle is myn entente.

1201: But of this story list me nat to write.

885: But I must forget about that now.

1000: But my intention is to tell you briefly.

1201: But that's not what I want to tell you about.

2965: But shortly to the point thanne wol I wende,

2966: And maken of my long tale an ende. 2965: But I'll get to the point quickly,

2966: And I will complete my long story.

“Long passages representing descriptions of temples, ceremonies, armor of warriors emphasize the pretentious luxury of knightly life. The descriptions are rich in figurativeness and metaphorical, although, as some researchers note, they are standard: "...Palamon in this fightyng were a wood leon, and as a crueel tigre was Arcite ..." ("...Palamon in this battle is like a mad lion, and like a ferocious tiger - Arsita ... "); in describing the captives, Palamon and Arsita; the author does not go beyond the standard epithets: "woful" ("poor"), "sorweful" ("sad"), "wrecched" ("unfortunate"), "pitous" ("miserable") - epithets that are repeated throughout narrations".

The central figures of the narrative (unfolding of the action) are Palamon and Arsita, but most researchers note that Duke Theseus is the central image. He is presented at the very beginning of the story as an ideal image, the embodiment of nobility, wisdom, justice and military virtues. The narrative opens with the introduction of the duke, a description of his virtues, although it would be logical to expect at the very beginning of the story the introduction of the central figures of the narrative, Palamon and Arsita. Theseus appears as a model of chivalry, an ideal figure, and then - a judge in a dispute between Arcita and Palamon. The greatness of the duke is confirmed by military victories and wealth:

859: Whilom, as olde stories tellen us,

860: Ther was a duc that highte Theseus;

861: Of Athenes he was lord and governor,

862: And in his tyme swich a conquerour,

863: That gretter was ther noon under the sonne.

864: Ful many a riche contree hadde he wonne;

865: What with his wysdom and chivalrie,

866: He conquered al regne of femenye...

952: This gentil duc doun from his courser sterte

953: With herte pitous, whan he herde hem speke.

954: Hym thoughte that his herte wold breke,

955: Whan he saugh hem so pitous and so maat,

956: That whilom were of so greet estaat;

957: And in his armes he hem alle up hente,

958: And hem conforteth in ful good entente,

959: And swoor his ooth, as he was trewe knyght…

987: He faught, and slough hym manly as a knyght

988: In plein bataille...

859: One day, as the old tales say,

860: There was once a duke named Theseus;

861: He was ruler and lord of Athens,

862: And he was such a warrior at that time,

863: What was not mightier than him under the sun.

864: He captured many rich countries;

865: By his valor and wisdom

866: He conquered the kingdom of the Amazons...

952: The good-hearted duke dismounted

953: With a compassionate heart, as I heard their speech.

954: He thought his heart would break his heart,

955: When I saw them so miserable and weak

956: What was not more unfortunate than them;

957: And he raised his whole army,

958: And gently comforted them,

959: And swore like a true knight...

987: He fought and slew many like a knight

988: In combat"

Theseus is an ideal image in terms of knightly virtues: he protects those who need it, has knightly prowess in battles, is prudent in controversial matters, and is sensitive to the suffering of others. So, as we have seen, the Duke of Athens, Theseus, is presented to the reader as a model of chivalrous behavior, an ideal image, which will then act as a judge in a dispute between two brothers.

“The structure of the story is unusual for a simple narrative as a development of any plot. The symmetry of the structure of the story, the symmetry of the images, the pretentious static descriptions, the rich symbolism suggest not focusing on the search for artfully drawn images, not on moral conclusions - all the reader's attention is focused on the aesthetic impression of the story.

At the lexical level, a large number of epithets were noted (when describing characters, temples, rituals), but the standardity, repetition of epithets does not allow us to determine the stylistic coloring of the text. To a greater extent, the stylistic coloring of the text, the lyricism of the story is presented with the help of parallel constructions, enumeration (that is, at the syntactic level).

“The images presented are more symbolic than real. The images are revealed by the structure of the story - the structure presupposes the role and position of each character in the story, his characteristics (if any), symbolism.

The story presents the reader with an augmented image of the Knight as the image of a romantic hero.

At the same time, Chaucer rethinks the genre tradition of the chivalric romance. The writer presents all the characters as unique individuals, approaches their description in detail; creates the ideal image of the Knight, as the embodiment of the dignity of nobility and honor; uses a large number of epithets and metaphors; especially rich in imagery of his descriptions of nature and terrain.

1.3. THE INFLUENCE OF OTHER GENRES OF MEDIEVAL LITERATURE ON THE "Canterbury Tales"

As mentioned earlier, The Canterbury Tales is an encyclopedia of poetic genres: here is a courtly story, and a household short story, and a la, and a fablio, and a fable, and a parody of knightly adventurous poetry, and didactic narrative in verse.

The stories of the monastery chaplain and the steward have a fable character. The story of the seller of indulgences echoes one of the plots used in the Italian collection Novellino and contains elements of a folk tale and a parable (the search for death and the fatal role of the found gold lead to the mutual extermination of friends).

The most vivid and original are the stories of the miller, the majordomo, the skipper, the carmelite, the bailiff of the church court, the canon's servant, which reveal closeness to the fablio and, in general, to the medieval tradition of the novelistic type.

The spirit of the fablio emanates from the story of the Bat weaver about herself. In this narrative group, there are the themes of adultery and the tricks of cheating and counter-tricking associated with it (in the stories of the miller, the majordomo and the skipper), familiar to both the fablio and the classic short story. In the story of the bailiff of the church court, the brightest description of the monk who extorts the gift of the church from the dying is given, and the rude response joke of the patient is sarcastically described, rewarding the extortionist with stinking “air”, which still needs to be divided among the monks. In the story of the Carmelite, another extortionist appears in the same satirical vein, "the sly one" and "the dashing fellow", "the despicable bailiff, pimp, thief". At the moment when the church bailiff tries to rob the poor old woman, and she sends him to hell in despair, the devil present at the same time takes the soul of the bailiff to hell. The story of the canon's servant deals with the popular theme of exposing the roguery of the alchemists.

The innovation of J. Chaucer lies in the synthesis of genres in one work. So almost every story of his belongs to a certain genre, and this makes his "Canterbury Tales" a unique encyclopedia of genres of the Middle Ages.

Thus, we have come to the conclusion that Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is a unique encyclopedia of medieval literary genres. Among them are a courtly tale, and a household short story, and a le, and a fablio, and a folk ballad, and a parody of knightly adventurous poetry, and a fable, and didactic narrative in verse.

2. REALISM J. CHAUCERA AND THE GENRE SPECIFICITY OF HIS WORKS

“The essence and basis of the book is its realism. It includes portraits of people, their assessment, their views on art, their behavior - in a word, a living picture of life.

Not without reason did Gorky call Chaucer the “father of realism”: the rich painting of portraits of his contemporaries in his poetic “Canterbury Tales” and, even more so, their general concept, such a clear clash of old feudal England and new England of merchants and adventurers, testify to Chaucer’s belonging to the literature of the Renaissance.

“But the category of realism is a complex phenomenon that has not yet received an unambiguous definition in the scientific literature. During the discussion in 1957, several points of view on realism emerged. According to one of them, realism, understood as plausibility, fidelity to reality, can be found already in the earliest monuments of art. From another point of view, realism as an artistic method of cognition of reality arises only at a certain stage in the history of mankind. Regarding the time of its origin, there is no complete unity among the supporters of this concept. Some believe that the conditions for the emergence of realism develop only in the 19th century, when literature turns to the study of social reality. Others associate the genesis of realistic art with the Renaissance, believing that at this time writers begin to analyze the influence of society and history on a person.

Both of these statements are correct to a certain extent. Indeed, realism as an artistic method was fully developed only in the 19th century, when a direction known as critical realism developed in European literatures. However, like any phenomenon in nature and society, realism arose “not immediately, not in finished form, but with a certain gradualness, going through a more or less long process of formation, formation, maturation” [cit. according to 8, 50]. It is natural, therefore, that some elements, certain aspects of the realistic method are also found in the literature of earlier eras. From this point of view, we will try to find out what elements of the realistic method appear in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. As you know, one of the most important principles of realism is the reproduction of life in the forms of life itself. This formula, however, does not imply realism or plausibility in the modern sense of the word, which is mandatory for works of all historical periods. As Acad. N. I. Kondrad: “The concept of “reality” carried a different content for writers of different centuries. “The love potion in the novel Tristan and Isolda is not “mysticism” at all, but simply a product of the pharmacology of that time. . .»» .

The idea of ​​reality, which found its expression in the Canterbury Tales, was largely based on medieval ideas. Thus, "reality" in the late Middle Ages included astrological representations. Chaucer took them quite seriously. This is evidenced by the fact that in the Canterbury Tales, characters and situations are often determined by the position of the stars and heavenly bodies. An example is The Knight's Tale. Astrology in Chaucer's time combined medieval prejudices and scientific astronomical knowledge. The writer's interest in them is manifested in the prose treatise "On the Astrolabe", in which he explains to a certain "little Lewis" how to use this ancient astronomical instrument.

Medieval philosophy often declared real not only objects surrounding a person, but also angels, and even human souls. The influence of these ideas can be seen in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. His view of the world includes Christian miracles, which are narrated in the "Abbess's Tale" and in "The Lawyer's Tale", and the fantasy of the Breton le, which appears in "The Tale of the Weaver from Bath", and the idea of ​​​​Christian longsuffering - in "The Story of the tale of an Oxford student. All these representations were organic for medieval consciousness. Chaucer does not question their value, as evidenced by the inclusion of such motifs in The Canterbury Tales. For Chaucer, as a writer of the earliest stage of the English Renaissance, it is not a denial of medieval ideals that is characteristic, but a somewhat ironic attitude towards them. This is manifested, for example, in the Oxford Student's Tale, which details the story of the patient Griselda, popular at that time. The daughter of a poor peasant, she becomes the wife of a large feudal lord, who demands unconditional obedience from her. Wanting to test Griselda, her husband and master orders the children to be taken away from her and fakes their murder. Then he deprives Griselda of all property and even clothes, expels her from the palace and announces his decision to marry again a young and noble girl. Griselda meekly fulfills all the orders of her husband. Since obedience is one of the basic Christian virtues, at the end of the story, Griselda is fully rewarded for it. The husband returns his favor to her, she again becomes the mistress of the whole neighborhood and meets with the children whom she considered killed.

Chaucer's hero conscientiously retells a well-known parable. But his final words are ironic:

It was ful hard to fynde now-a-days

In al a town Grisildis thre or two.

It would be very difficult these days

Find two or three Griseldas in the whole city.

The conclusion of the narrator-student is very revealing. It reflected the understanding of unrealism, the implausibility of ideas that were part of medieval reality.

Realistic tendencies in Chaucer's art have not fully formed, they are in the making. In relation to the literature of the XIV century. one can hardly speak of the reproduction of reality in the forms of reality itself. However, the author of The Canterbury Tales is distinguished by a completely conscious desire for a truthful depiction of life. Confirmation can be the words that the writer puts into the mouth of a pilgrim named Chaucer. In the "prologue to The Miller's Tale," he expresses concern that not all storytellers will follow the rules of a good thane in their stories. "Apologizing for the obscenity that occurs in some stories, Chaucer the Pilgrim says:

I moot reherce

H tales alle, be they bettre or

Or elles falsen son of my mateere.

I have to convey

All their stories, be they good or

Or fake a part of mine

works".

The poet strives to reproduce these stories in a form that is as close as possible to the one in which they were allegedly told during the pilgrimage. The Canterbury Tales reveals, albeit in a rudimentary form, a creative attitude towards a realistic reproduction of life.

Domestic literary critics, regardless of whether they recognize realism in the literature that preceded the 19th century, believe that the identification of realism features in the works of different eras contributes to a correct understanding of continuity in the development of artistic creativity. So, R. M. Samarin, speaking about the realism of the Renaissance, notes its close connection with the fruitful traditions of medieval art.

Chaucer's work belongs to a complex and transitional historical period, uniting contradictory trends: the originality of the Canterbury Tales largely stems from the fact that the writer continues medieval traditions, interpreting them in a new way. This is manifested, for example, in the ways of characterizing the characters. The artistic method of realism involves the depiction of typical heroes in typical circumstances. The French researcher J. Bedier, analyzing the fablio, one of the main genres of medieval literature, noted that typification was still weak in it. He probably meant typification, as it was understood in the 19th century.

The character of the hero of that time was determined by his position on the hierarchical ladder, however, since antiquity, in scientific treatises and their popular transcriptions, there have been ideas about the influence of external circumstances on a person’s character. Of course, the circumstances were often understood in a metaphysical, and even in an astrological spirit. In the era of Chaucer, fiction begins to look for the reasons for certain features of the human personality, not just in the position of a person within the feudal hierarchy, but in himself and in external circumstances. Attempts by writers of the late Middle Ages to penetrate the secrets of human psychology relied on the teaching of temperaments dating back to Hippocrates, according to which all people were divided into choleric, melancholic, sanguine and phlegmatic. Each type of temperament corresponded to certain character traits. Chaucer was probably familiar with this doctrine, since its influence is felt, for example, in the portrait of the majordomo. The words and deeds of the hero confirm this characterization.

One of the most important circumstances that shape the character of a person, in the time of Chaucer, was considered astrology. According to astrological concepts, the star under which a person was born affects his character. Thus, the weaver from Bath claims that her abundance of love was predetermined by Venus, and her warlike spirit by Mars. Both of these planets were in the sky at the hour of her birth.

In some cases, Chaucer shows the influence of social circumstances on the character of his hero. In this regard, the image of the miller Simkin from the Majordomo's Tale is very curious. The dishonesty of millers was a well-known fact, so it is no coincidence that in Chaucer's time there was a riddle: "Who is the most courageous in the world?" - "The miller's shirt, because she hugs a swindler every day." Depicting his hero as a thief, the writer follows the medieval ideas about the people of his profession. However, Chaucer is not limited to class and professional characteristics. Simkin is a representative of the wealthy strata of the third estate, so there are many features in his image that are due precisely to this circumstance. He is a man with a pronounced sense of dignity, comically turning into swagger. But he has no traditional reasons for pride: he is not of noble origin, he did not accomplish great feats of chivalry. The basis of the miller's independence is his wealth, created by himself through deceit and theft. In the face of Simkin, the Canterbury Tales is an attempt to show a socially conditioned character.

One of the main features of realistic art is the ability to reveal the typical in the individual and through the individual. Since such a technique was unknown to medieval literature, writers of that time usually limited themselves to a brief typical description, for example, in a fablio. In contrast, Chaucer gives his characters individualized features. The individualization of images in the Canterbury Tales is due to certain processes that took place in the society and ideology of the 14th century. The early Middle Ages, according to D.S. Likhachev, “does not know someone else’s consciousness, someone else’s psychology, someone else’s ideas as an object of objective representation,” because at that time the individual had not yet separated from the collective (estate, caste, corporation, workshop). However, in the time of Chaucer, in connection with the growth of entrepreneurship and private initiative, the role of the individual in the life of society increases, which serves as the basis for the emergence of individualistic ideas and trends in the field of ideology.

"In the XIV century. the problem of the individual sounds in literature, art, philosophy, religion. P. Mrozkowski connects the tendency towards individualization with the ideas of scotism, which "emphasized the beauty of each given individual object." The founder of this philosophical and theological trend was Dun Scotus (1266-1308). In the well-known dispute between medieval realists and nominalists, he took the position of a moderate nominalist. According to J. Morse, in the teachings of Okot, two points are of the greatest value: the idea of ​​the primacy of will over reason and the idea of ​​the uniqueness of the individual. For us, the second position is more important, which is connected with the dispute about the reality of abstract concepts. According to Duns Scotus, the phenomena denoted by these concepts really exist: after all, humanity consists of individuals. The possibility of combining them into one is due to the fact that the difference between individuals is not generic, but formal. All human souls belong to the same genus, they have a common nature, so in the aggregate they can be called humanity. But each soul has an individual form. “The very existence of a separate soul,” writes, analyzing the views of Duns Scotus, J. Morse, “consists in its uniqueness. The soul has not only quidditas ("whatness", spirituality), but also haecceitas ("thisness", ...individuality) ... It is not only "soul", but "this soul"; likewise, the body has not only corporeality, but also individuality. Man is not just a human being, he is a human being, and this quality determines his belonging to humanity.

In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer uses various methods of individualization. He emphasizes the features of the appearance and behavior of the participants in the pilgrimage: a wart on the nose of the miller, the forked beard of the merchant, the motto on the brooch of the abbess. Often the writer resorts to characterization by deed. In this regard, the image of the carpenter John is indicative. In The Miller's Tale there is no author's description of this hero, all the traits of his character appear as the action develops. The carpenter's kindness is revealed by Chaucer in the next episode: he himself goes to visit Nicholas when he feigns despair over the supposedly expected flood. Chaucer makes John gullible and not very smart. The reader understands this when the carpenter takes Nicholas' prediction at face value. Chaucer's hero is not selfish, he is able to take care of others. When he learns of the impending disaster, he worries not about himself, but about his young wife:

"How? well, what about the wife?

Should Alison really die?

Almost for the first time in the history of English literature, Chaucer individualizes the speech of his characters. He uses this technique to characterize students Alan and John in The Majordomo's Tale; In the speech of these scholars, a northern dialect is noticeable. According to some Western literary critics, in the time of Chaucer, northerners were considered rude and uncouth people. This fact exacerbates the resentment that Alan and John inflict on their master. They seduce his wife and daughter, whose “nobility of origin” the miller is very proud of.

The above considerations allow us to speak of the realism of the Canterbury Tales, although “its features are still of an initial, rudimentary nature, different from the nature of later and mature realism. These features are due to the close connection between the literature of the early Renaissance and medieval culture.

The realism of J. Chaucer contributed to the rethinking and reassessment of genre canons. The writer did not remain within the canons of the realistic elements of the inner and outer world. Chaucer's realism became a prerequisite for a genre synthesis, which was discussed more than once throughout the work.

With Chaucer, the various original genres with which he operates not only coexist within the framework of one collection (this was also the case in medieval “examples”), but interact with each other, undergo partial synthesis, in which Chaucer already partly echoes Boccaccio. . Chaucer, like Boccaccio, does not have a sharp opposition between "low" and "high" plots.

The Canterbury Tales is a completely Renaissance (by type) encyclopedia of English life of the 14th century, and at the same time - an encyclopedia of the poetic genres of the time: here is a courtly story, and an everyday short story, and a le, and a fablio, and a folk ballad, and a parody on chivalric adventurous poetry, and didactic narration in verse.

In contrast to the extremely schematic representations of representatives of various social and professional groups in medieval narrative literature, Chaucer creates very vivid portraits of the social types of English medieval society (namely, social types, and not "characters," as literary scholars sometimes define Chaucer's characters). This depiction of social types is given not only within the framework of individual specific short stories, but no less in the depiction of storytellers. The social typology of pilgrims-storytellers is clearly and amusingly manifested in their speeches and disputes, in autocharacteristics, in the choice of plots for the story. And this class-professional typology is the most important specificity and peculiar charm in the Canterbury Tales. It distinguishes Chaucer not only from his medieval predecessors, but also from most of the novelists of the Renaissance, in whom the general human generic principle, on the one hand, and purely individual behavior, on the other, in principle dominate the class traits.

The Canterbury Tales is one of the remarkable synthesis of medieval culture, remotely comparable in this quality even to Dante's Divine Comedy. Chaucer also has, although to a lesser extent, elements of medieval allegorism, alien to the short story as a genre. In the synthesis of the Canterbury Tales, the short stories occupy a leading place, but the synthesis itself is much wider and much more important for Chaucer. In addition, the synthesis of genres by Chaucer is not complete, there is no complete “novelization” of the legend, fable, fairy tale, elements of chivalrous narration, sermons, etc. Even novelistic “stories”, especially in the introductory parts, contain verbose rhetorical arguments about various subjects. with examples from the Holy Scriptures and ancient history and literature, and these examples are not narratively developed. The autocharacteristics of the narrators and their disputes go far beyond the framework of a short story as a genre or even a collection of short stories as a special genre formation.

COURSE WORK ON THE TOPIC:

"WAYS OF CHARACTERISTICS OF HEROES INCANTERBURYSTORIES J. CHAUCERA"

Work completed

Ershova Ekaterina Vladimirovna

student of the 2nd year of the 205th group

Faculty of Philology

Scientific adviser:

Belskaya Olga Viktorovna

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 3
5
II. CLASSIFICATION OF HEROES. 10
2.1 POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE HEROES. 10
2.2 SOCIAL CLASSES. 12
CONCLUSION. 24
List of used literature. 26
Bibliography. 26

INTRODUCTION

I. Kashkin. Geoffrey Chaucer // Geoffrey Chaucer. The Canterbury Tales. M., 2007.
Popova M. K. Literary and philosophical origins of the "Canterbury Tales" by J. Chaucer. Voronezh, 2003.

Furnivall, "The six text edition of Canterbury Tales" (Oxford, 1868) and "Life records of Chaucer" (1875);
Koch, "Chronology of C."s writings" (1890);
Skeat, "Legend of good women" (1889);
Skeat, "S."s minor poems" (1888);
"Originals and analogues of Canterbury Tales
J. Fleury, "Guide to Chaucer" (1877), etc.

Follow the author's character description system;
Find the connection between the characters of the heroes and their stories;
Highlight possible classifications of heroes;
Group the heroes according to the classes of medieval society;
Compare depicted classes with real classes of the Middle Ages;
Analyze the specifics of medieval society.

I. THEORETICAL ASPECTS OF THE CANTERBURY STORIES.

II. CLASSIFICATION OF HEROES.

2.1 POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE HEROES.

2.2 SOCIAL CLASSES.

Aristocracy.
Upper class in medieval society. Only one percent of the population belonged to this class. They were members of royal families, nobles, knights, squires. Chaucer shows three representatives of the aristocracy: a knight, a squire, a yeoman. It is through these characters that one can learn about the life of the aristocracy of that time.

Knight. This hero is an exemplary representative of the aristocracy, because. he has all her good features: gallantry, truthfulness, honor, generosity, courtesy. He has an impressive military career. He participated in the battles that took place in different parts: Alexandria, Lithuania, Russian land, Andalusia, Layas, Satalia, Belmaria, Tremissen. And wherever the knight went, he was revered and respected. Although he was dressed in a doublet, shabby chain mail, in a holey hem, and not in fashionable aristocratic robes, his appearance suggests that he is a real knight.

Squire. He is the son of a knight and, accordingly, belongs to the class of aristocrats from birth. He is dressed in more elaborate clothes than his father. His appearance and kinship with a knight indicate his belonging to the aristocratic class.
By the efforts of skillful ladies' hands
His outfit was embroidered like a meadow,
And all sparkled with marvelous colors,
Emblems, overseas animals. 1, c.31]
Chaucer says that the squire will also soon become a knight, but it seems that the chivalry interests the young man less than his father. He is more interested in love affairs.
He was a squire and fought there,
Than he sought favors from his beloved. 1, c.31]
He also possessed all the skills that were needed by aristocratic youth.
All day he played the flute and sang,
He knew how to put together songs,
He could read, draw, write,
Fight on spears, deftly dance. 1, c.31]
That. the knight is shown gallant and courteous, while his son represents a different shade of aristocratic life - love affairs, fashion, festivities, cheerful leisure. The squire is not the kind of person who will run to fight with a terrible dragon, he will prefer to just take part in jousting tournaments for the sake of glory and honor.

Yeoman. By definition, a yeoman is a person hired by the nobles to serve them. But Chaucer describes him more as a soldier than as a servant. It focuses on his attire and weapons rather than his personality and place in society.
Yeoman was with him, in a caftan with a hood;
Behind the sash, like the outfit, green
Sticking out a bunch of long, sharp arrows,
Whose feathers the yeoman knew how to save -
And the arrow of nimble hands obeyed.
With him was his great mighty bow,
Polished like new.
There was a thick-set yeoman, shaven-headed,
Cold wind, scorched by the sun,
Forest hunting he knew the law.
A lush bracer tightened the wrist,
And on the road from military gear
There was a sword and a shield and a dagger on the side;
On the neck barely shimmered with silver,
Green bandage hidden from view,
The worn face of Saint Christopher.
A turium horn hung on a sling -
Was a forester, must have been that shooter.[ 1, p.31-32]

Clergy.
Chaucer shows the representatives of the clergy in the light in which they were perceived by the people of that time. The following heroes belong to this class: the abbess, the monk, the Carmelite, the priest, the seller of indulgences and the bailiff of the church court.

Abbess. She was the head of the monastery. Most often in the Middle Ages, this position was occupied by wealthy people from aristocratic families. The description of the abbess makes it clear that she also came from an aristocratic family. This is evident in her education.
And fluent French
Like they teach in Stratford, not funny
Parisian hurried accent. 1, c.32]
But her origin becomes more obvious after a description of her manners and habits.
She kept herself dignified at the table:
Do not choke on strong liquor,
Slightly dipping your fingers in the gravy,
He will not wipe them on his sleeve or collar.
Not a speck around her device.
She wiped her lips so often
That there was no trace of fat on the goblet.
Waiting your turn with dignity
I chose a piece without greed. [ 1, c.32]
All this gives us the opportunity to understand why Chaucer described her immediately after the representatives of the aristocracy. From her description it is clear that of all the representatives of the clergy, she is closest to the aristocracy.

Monk. He is another example of clergymen living the life of aristocrats. He was passionately fond of hunting and could not stand the monastic charters. they forbid his favorite pastime - hunting.
Cheerful disposition, he could not stand
Monastic languishing prison,
Charter of Mauritius and Benedict
And all sorts of prescripts and edicts.
But in fact, because the monk is right,
And this harsh charter is outdated:
He forbids hunting for something
And teaches us too cool:
A monk without a cell is a fish without water.[ 1, c.33]
Monastic life is boring for him and he likes ladies, kennels, revels. He does not like work, he spends all the money of the chapel as his own.
And although such monks are reproached,
But he would be an excellent abbot:
The whole district knew his stable,
His bridle jangled with buckles,
Like the bells of that chapel
The income from which he spent as his own. [ 1, c.33]
etc.................