Oh, how disappointed I was! However, I don't know the correct placement of that disappointment - should it be on the Old English (OE) Modern English (ME*) mixture that I read; or should it be on myself for idealizing the Canterbury Tales (or Chaucer himself)? I do not know. Perhaps I will decide by the end of this writing/post.
I read part of the General Prologue (insert number of lines here). I knew I did not need to read the entire Prologue in order to get information about my tale of focus, the Wife of Bath. I did, however, read the entire (quite long) Wife Prologue and her tale. Tiring, these readings were. This is why I think the OE/ME mixture interfered with my enjoyment of the reading and created the disappointment (perhaps I am using the incorrect word...I shall see).
I will also admit to using Spark Notes. With the back and forth from OE to ME to footnotes to just notes..I lost a lot of the story idea. After reading SN, I think I missed much more than I realized.
The General Prologue
I wonder if Chaucer picked 29 travelers for a reason, or was it just a number he pulled out of the air. If he had lived long enough to finish all 29 stories, we'd have quite the book to read! I also wonder why he chose to write the stories of people in the order he did - that is, the book gives us 7 stories; why did he write these first, especially if he intended to write other tales to intermingle with these 7?
Spring is the time when all comes anew. Spring cleaning is a very old tradition - sweep away all the bad vibes that have collected while the house has been closed to the winter weather. Spring flowers and awakening of trees are likened to new or young love - we feel free-er and wish to enjoy time outside in the fields. Taking a pilgrimage at this time seems apropos.
As Chaucer becomes one of the people in the pilgrimage and recites the tales from memory, he becomes the unreliable narrator. Not that he lies or embellishes; but we know that by including himself with the travelers, he is influenced by the people on a 24/7 basis which leads him to prejudice of the people and the tales. However, he does give each person near equal time and place to tell their stories, even though they come from different social classes. Perhaps a kind of equality based on the fact that one person is no better than another.
The Wife of Bath
The humor of this story was lost on me the first time I read it (again, the back and forth). So, after reading SN, the second reading was quite fun, but also sad. I can see the feminist aspect - the Wife has not held back her wants, needs, desires, or truth. Yet, this is written from a man's point of view and, if we are to believe one of the interpretations, she uses cunning and deceit to get what she wants - which gives women a bad reputation.
But, let's consider for a minute that she felt she had to be cunning and deceitful to assert herself and get what she wanted. Considering there were so few choices for women in the 14th century - not only how they live their lives (with or without a husband) but how to survive in a male-dominated world. Her use of King Arthur's wife as the decider in the tale is the Wife's way of asserting the premise that women DO rule the world, if by cunning and deceit, so be it. After all, men will not listen (usually) directly to women - we (as women) must trick men's minds. That is, we convince our husbands that, it was not our (wife's) idea to put up shutters, but the man's idea; after all, what know we of shutters?
*I realize that ME usually stands for Middle English. Because I am not referring to Middle English in this writing, I am taking liberties and using ME as shorthand for Modern English.
