Analysis of Key Literary Works: Chaucer to Spenser
1. The Wife of Bath’s Tale
Genre: Fictional Autobiography, Confession, or Apologia
The prologue might be called a fictional autobiography, a confession, or an apologia (L., defense). Autobiography – the Wife of Bath recites her autobiography, announcing in her very first word that “experience” will be her guide. Yet, despite her claim that experience is her sole authority, the Wife of Bath apparently feels the need to establish her authority in a more scholarly way. She imitates the ways of churchmen and scholars by backing up her claims with quotations from Scripture and works of antiquity. Confession – In a morality play, a personified vice such as Gluttony or Lust “confesses” his or her sins to the audience in a life story. The Wife is exactly what the medieval Church saw as a “wicked woman,” and she is proud of it—from the very beginning, her speech has undertones of conflict with her patriarchal society. Apologia – Her prologue, which is far longer than her actual tale, is an example of an apologia – that is, a discussion to explain and defend one’s attitude, behavior, or perspective. In the Wife of Bath’s case, her prologue is told to defend her “love” of the marital state.
Romance in the Wife of Bath’s Tale
The Wife of Bath’s tale is an example of an Arthurian romance, a medieval narrative dealing with a knight and his adventures. The Arthurian romance includes elements of the supernatural, as well as a love interest. The supernatural element in The Wife of Bath’s Tale is the old, ugly woman who tells the knight on a quest what women want above all else, but for a price. This “loathly lady,” a typical motif in medieval literature, transforms into a beautiful, faithful wife, but only after the knight swears to let her rule the marriage.
Sometimes the Wife’s Tale is referred to as a Romance and the question is raised about whether or not this kind of tale is appropriate to the earthy (and, in the modern sense of the word, ‘unromantic’) Wife:
- Her opening words are typical of the genre, but she then subverts it by making her young knight an un-chivalrous rapist.
- The knight’s quest to please the impossible demands of a queen is to be expected, but not the resulting servitude to an ugly old woman.
- The sermons which obtrude into the text actually question the whole convention of chivalry.
- The reader’s expectations of a courtly tale in which women are rescued by men (knights) is overturned – it is a powerful woman who rescues a powerless man.
- The fairytale transformation at the end is only achieved on the woman’s terms.
2. Dr Faustus
Elements of Morality Play in Dr. Faustus
Dr. Faustus has many features of a Morality Play: just like Good Angels and Bad Angels, good and evil, old woman, seven deadly sins and the appearance of Lucifer, Belzebub and Mephistophilis to ensnare his “Glorious Soul”.
The Conflict between Good and Evil was a recurring theme in the Medieval Morality plays, and with the help of it Marlowe gives many moral messages to the audience. The good Angel and The Bad Angel- those characters are derived from the medieval morality plays. Dr. Faustus is like allegorical figures of a Morality Play. The series of dialogues spoken by Good Angel is another example of Morality Play. The appearance of seven deadly sins shows that Marlowe in Dr. Faustus adopted some of the conventions of the old Morality Plays. The seven deadly sins – Pride, Covetousness, Wrath, Envy, Gluttony, Sloth and Lechery, all those sins show that Old Morality Plays are also very much here in this play. The comic scenes of Dr. Faustus also belong to the tradition of Morality Play.
Problem of Power in Dr. Faustus
Early in the play, before he agrees to the pact with Lucifer, Faustus is full of ideas for how to use the power that he seeks. He imagines piling up great wealth, but he also aspires to plumb the mysteries of the universe and to remake the map of Europe. Though they may not be entirely admirable, these plans are ambitious and inspire awe, if not sympathy.
Function of Comic Scenes in Dr. Faustus
The comedy scenes used by Marlowe hold great significance in the context of the play as a whole by contributing to the characterisation of the protagonist – Faustus. Marlowe employed the same strategy Shakespeare used, that of employing a Fool to add humor and levity. Marlowe uses the fool the horse-courser for levity but also to convey important information. When the tone returns to more serious topics at the end of the play, there is a feeling that the play has slowed back down to real-time. The scenes themselves also touch on key themes: greed, stealing (Rafe and Robin, the Horse Courser) and of course, the ridiculousness of the Pope and the hierarchy of Catholicism.
3. The Spanish Tragedy
Revenge Tragedy Features
Revenge tragedy: Defines a genre of plays made popular in early modern England. Which characterizes revenge tragedy “as a tragedy whose leading motive is revenge and whose main action deals with the progress of this revenge, leading to the death of the murderers and often the death of the avenger himself.
Features of Revenge Tragedy
- Wronged revenge-seeker
- Ghosts
- Madness
- Delay
- Sinister intrigue
- A play-within-the-play
- Torture
- Multiple murders
- The realistic depiction of bloody violence onstage
Wronged revenge-seeker
4. A Midsummer’s Night Dream
Doublings and Repetitions
Shakespeare makes use of a literary technique called doubling to explore different sides of reality. For example, in act 1 he introduces the “daylight” queen and king, Hippolyta and Theseus. In act 2 he introduces the nighttime queen and king, Titania and Oberon, who can be seen as doubles of the first pair. Hermia and Helena are doubles in many ways––best friends who have been brought up together, and who are both frustrated in love. Even their names sound alike. As characters there is very little difference between Demetrius and Lysander. Both are simply young men in love. Repetitions – two worlds, play in a play, kings and queens etc.
Motif of Dream and its Dream
Dream theme in the work of William Shakespeare acts as camouflage, because due to the blurring of the two realities, fabulous events are hidden under the cover of night and sleep. In the case of this work, dream permeates the real world which causes difficulty in separating the two worlds – the dream and reality, these worlds merge into one.
In this work we see the duality of the world presented as clearly divided on to the real world they belong to the people and fantastic world in which they live elves and fairy creatures. But one summer day border between the two worlds is blurred, forest where the action is happening becomes a place where both operate waking and sleep. Las turns into a magical place thanks to the presence of elves and magic. At a time when people fall asleep, elves prove that anything is possible, eg. A man can change a donkey, or boyfriend madly in love suddenly out of love and he loves the girl he previously despised.
Desire and Sexuality
Helena wants to be treated very hard, aggressive (some kind of sado-maso) by Demetrius. Next Titania wanted to copulate with Bottom who were a donkey (some kind of zoophilia?)
Play Within a Play
In the book group of actors are making an act which is presented for king, so in the book which is a play is another play too.
5. The Faerie Queene
The Epic Elements
The Faerie Queene, however, also has many sources outside of the Bible. Spenser considers himself an epic poet in the classical tradition and so he borrows heavily from the great epics of antiquity: Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey and Virgil’s Aeneid. This is most evident at the opening of Book I, in which Spenser calls on one of the Muses to guide his poetry–Homer and Virgil established this form as the “proper” opening to an epic poem. The scene with the “human tree,” in which a broken branch drips blood, likewise recalls a similar episode in the Aeneid. However, while these ancient poets mainly wrote to tell a story, we have already seen that Spenser has another purpose in mind.
A Chivalric Romance
On one level The Faerie Queene can be read as a chivalric romance. The poem contains the characteristically romantic elements of jousting knights, damsels in distress, dragons, witches, enchanted trees, wicked magicians, giants, shining castles, dark caves etc. As in the romance, there are sprawling plots, marvellous adventures, heroic characters, ravishing descriptions, esoteric mysteries etc.
The Allegory
Redcrosse is the hero of Book I, and in the beginning of Canto i, he is called the knight of Holinesse. He will go through great trials and fight fierce monsters throughout the Book, and this in itself is entertaining, as a story of a heroic “knight errant.” However, the more important purpose of the Faerie Queene is its allegory, the meaning behind its characters and events. The story’s setting, a fanciful “faerie land,” only emphasizes how its allegory is meant for a land very close to home: Spenser’s England. The title character, the Faerie Queene herself, is meant to represent Queen Elizabeth. Redcrosse represents the individual Christian, on the search for Holiness, who is armed with faith in Christ, the shield with the bloody cross. He is traveling with Una, whose name means “truth.” For a Christian to be holy, he must have true faith, and so the plot of Book I mostly concerns the attempts of evildoers to separate Redcrosse from Una. Most of these villains are meant by Spenser to represent one thing in common: the Roman Catholic Church. The poet felt that, in the English Reformation, the people had defeated “false religion” (Catholicism) and embraced “true religion” (Protestantism/Anglicanism). Thus, Redcrosse must defeat villains who mimic the falsehood of the Roman Church.