How does Chaucer combine realism and convention through the character and words of the Franklin?
The Franklin character is portrayed as a convention primarily by being a Franklin a nameless type. Chaucer’s audience is aware of the typical attributes of a Franklin so it is then up to Chaucer to further the character by incorporating realism through aspects of his personality. Therefore giving the reader a connection with the character and make them appreciate him more as a person.
In the prologue of the Franklin’s tale Chaucer makes his Franklin and individual, by showing his insecurity as a citizen in the shadow of the aristocracy, shown in his disdainful treatment and interruption of the squire.
“’In faith, Squier, thow hast thee wel yquit
And gentilly. I preise wel thy wit,’
Quod the Frankeleyn, ‘considerin thy yowthe’”
His patronising attitude reveals his insecurity portraying him as a realistic character but also adding to the conventional Franklin image. A Franklin being a ‘freeman’ he was rich and would have held a good position owning his own land, but he would never be at the same level as the noble classes and there would have been the obvious social climb and striving for further power Chaucer’s audience would have probably observed amongst Franklin’s. We see how the Franklin is striving for a better position for his own family incorporating the convention of the social climb and the realism of his family life.
“I have a sone, and by the Trinitee,
I had levere than twenty pound worth lond
Though it right now were fallen in myn hond,
He were a man of swich discrecioun
As that ye been.”
Through other more specific attributes of the Franklin realism is conveyed such as the outstanding generosity and hospitality of the man and his wide learning and travelling.
Chaucer further combines realism and convention in the tale the Franklin tells. At first it appears a very conventional unoriginal tale of courtly love, stolen from a Breton Lay, such was the style at the time to give your own twist on an existing story rather than make your own. It is full of stereotypical images you’d expect from a courtly love story. With the setting of a lady and a knight in the garden and then the characters themselves starting off as being solely types of the knight, lady and squire and how these characters all stay within their roles. The knight leaves the lady to go on a quest.
Personalities come in all shapes and sizes, however, they often contrast with ones occupation or societal ranking. Geoffrey Chaucer shows readers this through The Canterbury Tales as he describes the lives and his views of each character. The Prioress, the Monk, and the Friar, all get on the narrators bad side as they try to portray themselves as someone they were not destined to be. An important aspect of medieval societal values is being true to ones ranking among others and these characters are the complete opposite of whom they truly are. Through these characters, Chaucer shows how these flaws can damage the way others perceive someone.
As in a few of Chaucer's tales, he once again asks a discussion question. This time the question is, “Who seemed the finest gentlemen to you?” The debate for who is the finest gentleman is between the three characters, the knight, the magician, or the squire. All three characters each show modest characteristics of a fine gentlemen during the Franklin’s Tale.
In “The Pardoner’s Tale,” Geoffrey Chaucer masterfully frames an informal homily. Through the use of verbal and situational irony, Chaucer is able to accentuate the moral characteristics of the Pardoner. The essence of the story is exemplified by the blatant discrepancy between the character of the storyteller and the message of his story. By analyzing this contrast, the reader can place himself in the mind of the Pardoner in order to account for his psychology.
...irony, the corruption he believes can be found in the Church, pointing at its common tendency in this time to take advantage of the people through its power. He also shows through the Pardoner that perhaps immoral people cannot guide people to morality, through subtle lines such as “For though myself be a ful vicious man,/ A moral tale yit I you telle can” (GP 171-172). Through Chaucer’s portrayal of the Pardoner in this tale, the audience is able to see that the Pardoner is a self-absorbed, greedy man that mirrors what the author thinks of the Church, and that the Pardoner is the exact opposite of what he preaches, which also points towards the supposed corruption of the Church. The irony found throughout this work serves the important purpose of bringing attention to the dishonesty and fraud Chaucer believes can be found in the Roman Catholic Church at this time.
Chaucer is a medieval author best known for his witty Canterbury Tales. He “was born between 1340 and 1345, probably in London. His father was a prosperous wine merchant” (BBC). Drawing inspiration from what he had experienced in his lifetime, Chaucer wrote his problems about his society with a series of short stories, names the Canterbury Tales. These tales are abnormal, due to being written in English, instead of Latin, like most stories of that period. Also, there is lots of examples of satire within the text. Within the General Prologue, Pardoner’s Prologue, and Wife of Bath’s Prologue, Chaucer uses both types of satire to reach his intended audience, which is the common public.
The structure Geoffrey Chaucer chose for his masterpiece, The Canterbury Tales, of utilizing a melange of narrative voices to tell separate tales allows him to explore and comment on subjects in a multitude of ways. Because of this structure of separate tales, the reader must regard as extremely significant when tales structurally overlap, for while the reader may find it difficult to render an accurate interpretation through one tale, comparing tales enables him to lessen the ambiguity of Chaucer’s meaning. The Clerk’s Tale and The Merchant’s Tale both take on the institution of marriage, but comment on it in entirely different manner, but both contain an indictment of patriarchal narcissism and conceit.
Chaucer used controversies to create character. He wanted his characters to teach the readers something new about life. The Wife of Bath and the Pardoner demonstrate Chaucer’s way of creating characters based on the sexuality of the medieval period.
The Franklin is on page 223 of the Norton Anthology of English Literature, seventh edition volume one. His passage discusses his grand hall and all of the food he always has on hand and ready to eat in case someone shows up.
Chaucer’s book The Canterbury Tales presents a frame story written at the end of the 14th century. It narrates the story of a group of pilgrims who participate in a story-telling contest that they made up to entertain each other while they travel to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. Because of this, some of the tales become particularly attractive for they are written within a frame of parody which, as a style that mocks genre, is usually achieved by the deliberate exaggeration of some aspects of it for comic effect. Chaucer uses parody to highlight some aspects of the medieval society that presented in an exaggerated manner, not only do they amuse the readers, but also makes them reflect on them. He uses the individual parody of each tale to create a satirical book in which the behaviours of its characters paint an ironic and critical portrait of the English society at that time. Thus, the tales turn satirical, ironic, earthy, bawdy, and comical. When analysing the Knight’s and the Miller’s tale, one can realise how Chaucer mocks the courtly love convention, and other social codes of behaviour typical of the medieval times.
In “The Franklin’s Tale,” Chaucer seems to put importance to the values that were not valued by most people in the particular time period that he is writing in. In this tale, Dorigen and Averagus marry for love in an equal union, which is found rare in the Medieval time period in Europe. Most women were not treated as equals in a marriage. In the end when Dorigen ends up being true to her husband, they stay together; this is likely because of the relationship they had. It is evident how Chaucer values fidelity by the way that Dorigen and Averagus’ marriage plays out. It seems that because of their healthy relationship, Chaucer rewards them for it by working their hardships out.
...not change the style of the tale, referring to the tone and language used, but also the way that he appoints this overrated thing that love posses. As in “The Miller’s Tale” does not exist the courtesy or any other important value for society, Chaucer tries to express his own opinion about courtly love through the tale of the Miller saying that this not happen in everywhere or part of the society, demonstrating that the ideals of being a knight is very far away of the convention of what he thinks is valuable to society.
Chaucer uses the Prioress, the Monk and the Friar to represent his views on the Church. He makes the three model members of the Church appear to have no problems with self-indulgence, greed, and being unfaithful to their vows. He displays his anti skeptical thoughts of the faults of the medieval church by making fun of its teachings and the people of the church, who use it for personal gain. Chaucer see’s the church as corrupt, hypocritical and greedy.
To conclude, Chaucer sure loves the use of satire. It is one of his main uses when making fun of the church to help prove his point. Every one of his characters was made up by him to reflect his view points of the church. In other words, just because a person has a certain title or label for themselves, does not mean that they are really like they say they are. No one is what they seem.
Geoffrey Chaucer was a on a mission when he wrote The Canterbury Tales. That mission was to create a satire that attacked three major institutions. Raphel displays, “Medieval society was divided into three estates: the Church (those who prayed), the Nobility (those who fought), and the Patriarchy. The General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales is an estates satire.” Chaucer wanted to shed light on the institutions that were taking advantage of the everyday man. Chaucer does this by making up tales about certain people that she light to the undercover world of the institutions. In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer uses satire to attack the Church, the Patriarchy, and the Nobility.
The description of the two caracters follows the pattern generally used by Chaucer in the Prologue : physical details, the temper, the external appearance, the station in life and also, the behaviour.