Chaucer's Art of Characterization in the Prologue of the Canterbury Tales

Chaucer is the first great painter of character because he is the first great observer
of it among English writers, In fact, next to Shakespeare, Chaucer is the greatest
delineator of character in English literature. In The Canterbury Tales Chaucer tried
to paint faithfully the body and soul of the fourteenth century life. Before The
Canterbury Tales we do not know a poem of which the primary aim was to depict
and display the truthful spectacle of life.
It is the greatness of Chaucer that in the Prologue his twenty nine characters drawn
from different classes of society represent the fourteenth century society as vividly
and clearly as Pope represented early eighteenth century life in his poems such as
The Rape of the Lock and Dunciad. In the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales
Chaucer's England comes to life. We meet the Knight travel-stained from the war
and as meek as a girl in his behavior; the Squire with curly locks 'embroidered' like
a meadow full of fresh flowers, white and red; the Yeoman clad in coat and hood
of green; the Prioress, earnest to imitate the manners of high society; the jolly
Monk; the wanton and merry Friar; the drunkard Cook; the Merchant; the Oxford
Clerk; the Lawyer; the Doctor; the Dartmouth Sailor; the Summoner; the Pardon;
the Reeve; the Wife of Bath; the gentle Parson; the five guildsmen; the Ploughmen
etc. All these characters are vivid and nicely sketched in the Prologue, which is a
veritable picture gallery.

In presenting the characters, Chaucer follows the method of an artist with a brush
in his hand, but his method in painting the characters is primitive. He is primitive
also by a certain honest awkwardness, the unskilled stiffness of some of his
outlines, and such an insistence on minute points as at first provokes a smile.
Chaucer has adopted no definite pattern in the description of portraits. He seems to
amass details haphazardly. Sometimes the description of the dress comes first and
then he describes physical features. Sometimes he begins with analysis of character
and adds touches of dress afterwards describes physical features. Sometimes he
begins with analysis of character and adds touches of dress afterwards.

Chaucer has shown his characters by presenting them as foils to each other. The
Summoner and the Friar, the Miller and the Reeve, the Prioress and the Wife of
Bath, the Cook and the Manciple, the conscientious Parson and the unscrupulous
Pardoner are foils. All his pilgrims are severally distinguished from each other; and
not only in either inclinations, but also in their appearances and persons. Even the
grave and the serious characters are distinguished by their several sorts of gravity;
their discourses are such as belong to their age; their calling and their breeding
such as are becoming of them and of them only.

In the Prologue various characters comprise all sorts and conditions of men, some
of them are so real that they can be easily the sketches devised to provide a
representation of the chief classes of English society under the higher nobility.
Moreover, the sketches not only give typical traits of temperament, appearance and
manners, but incorporate the essentials of medicine, law, scholarship, religion, the
theory of knighthood and also a satire on faults in social life; they summarize the
noblest ideals of the time and the basest practices. The result, therefore, is a
conspectus of medieval English society; it would be possible to use the Prologue as
the basis for a survey of fourteenth century English life.

Chaucer's characters are both individuals and types. The Knight is a chivalrous
character of all ages. He is a great warrior and a conqueror who in every age stands
as the guardian of man against the oppressor. But the Knight has been
individualized by his horse, dress and gentle and meek behavior. The young Squire
stands for the type of warriors who are not always lost in the dreams of warfare,
but are also interested in singing and playing upon a flute. But he has been
individualized by his curly locks, embroidered clothes, and his short coat with long
wide sleeves. The Yeoman is the type of expert archers, but he has been
individualized by his cropped head and his brown visage. The Prioress is the type
of a woman who tries to imitate courtly manners, but she has been individualized
by her nasal tone, tenderness of heart, and her physical features

The monk is a type of the monks who had deserted their religious duties and
passed their, time in riding and keeping greyhounds for hunting. But Chaucer's
Monk is an individual with a bald head and rolling eyes glowing like fire under a
cauldron. Chaucer's Friar is a type of those friars who were wanton and jolly,
interested in gay and flattering talk. But Chaucer's Friar is individualized by his
melodious voice, his skill in singing songs and by his knowledge of taverns and
barmaids. In Chaucer's time The Clerk of Oxford represented studious scholars
who devoted their time in the acquisition of knowledge, but he is also an individual
person with his volumes of Aristotle, his hollow cheeks, grave looks and
threadbare clock. The Man of Law is a typical figure. The Doctor of Physik with
his love of gold and his little knowledge of the Bible is a typical doctor. But the
Man of Law and the Doctor of Physik have also been individualized by their
physical traits and features. There are many other characters who represent their
class, their profession, but they are also individual figures with notions,
idiosyncrasies, arguments and particular physical features. Thus Chaucer has
maintained a balance between the typical and the individual features of a character.

The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales presents a social group of persons, larger and
more diversified. Chaucer's group of pilgrims is not schematically representative of
English society, but covers well enough the main social elements. The nobility and
the lowest class of laborers are excluded as it was unlikely for them to travel in the
fashion of this group.

Canterbury Tales as an Estates Satire

The Canterbury Tales, written towards the end of the fourteenth century by
Geoffrey Chaucer, is considered an estates satire because it effectively criticizes,
even to the point of parody, the main social classes of the time. These classes were
referred to as the three estates, the church, the nobility, and the peasantry, which
for a long time represented the majority of the population.

Because of increased social mobility, (which greatly helped Chaucer himself) by

the time Chaucer wrote Canterbury Tales, a person did not necessarily belong to an
estate by birth, but rather by their work or actions. In addition, many of Chaucer's
characters do not fit in to any of the estates, but are actually a part of the middle
class.
The Parson is the only traveler representing the church that practices what he
preaches.
First Estate: The Church
Made up of the clergy, this estate essentially encompassed those who spent a great
deal of time in prayer. In this time, clergy held a somewhat different function than
what we think of today, with many members laboring outside of the church or
having a family in addition to their clerical duties. The character of the Parson is
probably the best example of the first estate. While some of the other travelers also
belong to the clergy, they show evidence of emerging changes in social structure,
such as intellectualism and social mobility, and reflect influences outside of those
stereotypically associated with the clergy.
The Parson, by comparison, is mainly concerned with "holy thought and work" as
the clergy ideally should be. Because he is described as a poor man who doesn't
threaten excommunication to extract tithes, his work within the clergy appears to
be his prime focus. The Knight is an aristocrat who tells a tale of courtly love.

Second Estate: The Nobility

This estate includes large landowners, knights, those with extensive time for
leisure and those who spent time in battle.
The character of the knight is a good example of the second estate. The knight is
concerned with travel, battle, chivalry and fame. He does not work for a living, nor
is concerned with such menial tasks as making a living, money, or labor. As a
nobleman, these tasks all lie outside his realm and are taken care of by others,
notably those of the third estate.
In a notable departure from earlier works focusing on the nobility, the knight is
never described in terms of his lineage. For example, much of the text of the
Beowolf epic is taken up by describing each character's ancestry at length. By
contrast, all we know of the knight in Canterbury Tales is that he has served as a
warrior in the Crusades.
The Plowman becomes an idealized figure of the laboring class.

Third Estate: The Peasantry

Peasants are people who worked for a living under a feudal system. The third
estate performed the work necessary to support and enable the income and lifestyle
of members of the Church and Nobility.

This estate is well-represented by the plowman, who is very much concerned with
toil and work. He is depicted as hardworking and poor, but most importantly, does
not complain about his poverty, and seems to have no desire for riches. The
plowman is obedient, and accepting of his lot. He has no problem doing the work
so that others can profit. The plowman literally carries dung for a living, the
bottom of the proverbial barrel.
Realism has its own importance in literature. “Canterbury Tales” is considered
as portrait gallery because of realism and realistic images that Chaucer has
sketched from 14th century. It is better to understand realistic literature before
discussing Geoffrey Chaucer realism in “Canterbury Tales”.

Literary movement regarding realism started hundreds of years after Chaucer’s

death, however, that did not mean writers were unaware about realism. Poets like
Chaucer knew how to present reality in poetry. It is better to say that Chaucer was
the first who presented reality in poetry. Nevertheless, realistic literature means the
literary work that is close to reality. Characters, setting, story and atmosphere seem
real in realistic literature. If we closely observe Geoffrey Chaucer “Canterbury
Tales” we find it close to reality because everything in it is based on the technique
of realism.

Characteristics of Realism:
There are certain characteristics of realism that are:

1. Close to reality.
2. Instead of plot, characters are more important.
3. Importance of class.
4. No or only believable exaggeration.
5. Natural language
6. Unbiased opinions
Literature before Chaucer:
Before Chaucer, there was too much exaggeration in literature. It was far away
from reality. Most of the writers used to tell fairy tales. Stories were from Utopian
worlds. Those types of Stories attracted only those people who used to spend most
of their times in imaginations. People did not find any reality in them, therefore,
most of the stories were similar. People wanted to read about themselves. They
wanted stories in which people like them should have been portrayed.

Boccaccio was first who decided to write realistic stories. He created realistic
framework in which he knitted characters close to reality, however, he was Italian.
Chaucer was the first English poet that wrote poetry with the technique of realism
as evident from his book “Canterbury Tales”. This book contains real characters,
real story, real description of images and real setting. Chaucer tried to sketch
everything as he saw in his way to Canterbury. Readers also feel in the same.

Geoffrey Chaucer realism in “Canterbury Tales”:

Let’s discuss Geoffrey Chaucer realism in “Canterbury Tales” in view of the
definition and characteristics of realistic literature.

Close to reality:
Chaucer’s observation is very minute. He has unique quality of observing things
and remembering them. When he went to Canterbury along with caravan, he
observed every pilgrim very minutely. He observed his clothes, profession, color
and class. He remembered everything and when he wrote “Prologue to the
Canterbury Tales”, he mentioned everything in detail. Chaucer is a great storyteller
too. As poet, he had to imitate different things of life yet he did never go beyond
limits of reality. “Canterbury Tales” seems historical events instead of a poetic
work due to close reality in this book. Geoffrey Chaucer told us a story and we
believed in him.

In addition to physical appearance of characters, we observe their behavior, dress

and etiquette and listen their stories. Even, we believe on their stories, which they
told each other. We accept that people like “The Parson” and “The Knight” are
there in the world. We believe that the world is mixture of good and bad people.
Someone can be as good as “The Parson” and as corrupt as “The Pardoner”.

Instead of plot, characters are more important:

It is one of the most important characteristics of realism that plot loses its
importance. In realistic literature, writers focus on their characters. Geoffrey
Chaucer too focuses on his characters. “Canterbury Tales” is a story that Geoffrey
Chaucer tells his readers in poetic form in order to show realism in Canterbury
Tales but there is no plot in it. What appeals us is the characters of his books, who
are lively creatures. He has sketched every character minutely. He has not left
anything to observe.
Every character tells us a story. It is Geoffrey Chaucer realism that each story suits
the narrator in “Canterbury Tales”. Everyone tells story based on his own
experiences, which adds realism in Chaucer’s book. If one is morally good, he tells
virtuous story. The bad one, on the other hand, tells a sinful story. For instance,
“The Knight” tells a noble story, “The Miller” a lustful story and “The Reeve” tells
a story based on morality “tit for tat”.

Suffice is to say that Geoffrey Chaucer focuses more on his characters and less on
plot of his story, which we should call Chaucer’s realism in “Canterbury Tales”.

Importance of class:
Chaucer paints at least one character from every class. It is not wrong to say that
Geoffrey Chaucer is representative of his age because he discusses completely
English society of 14th Century in his book “Canterbury Tales” through the
technique of realism.

“The Knight”, “The Squire” and “The Yeoman” represent the fighting class. “The
Doctor”, “Man of Law”, “The Clerk” and Chaucer himself belong to liberal
professions. , “The Ploughman”, “The Miller”, “The Reeve” and “The Franklin”
are are men of landed interest. “The Merchant” and “The Shipman” are traders.
Crafts are represented by “The Wife of Bath”, “The Carpenter”, “The Weaver”,
“The Dyer”. “The Cook”, “The Manciple” and Host are also there. “The Parson”,
“The Summoner” and “The Canon” are from clergy class. Monastic order is
represented by “The Monk”, “The Prioress” “The Nun”, “The Friar” and “The
Pardoner”. Hence, we find every class in “Canterbury Tales” which prove that
Geoffrey Chaucer focused mainly on realism.

No or only believable exaggeration.

Chaucer did not exaggerated anything. In order to understand exaggeration we may
quote an example from Milton’s “Paradise Lost”.
Milton compares Satan’s shield with moon and his spear with Mast of a ship. He
exaggerates things in order to make his poem epic. Nevertheless, Chaucer never
did any type of exaggeration. Instead he sticks to reality and show his readers what
he himself saw once.
Natural language and Realism in Geoffrey Chaucer “Canterbury Tales”:
Natural language also forces us to believe on the technique of realism that
Geoffrey Chaucer has used while writing “Canterbury Tales”. Characters talk and
tell us stories but they never talk in scholarly language. Their language remain
natural. For example, “The Man of Law” knows only a few legal terms and he
repeats them every time. Noble class talks in noble manners. Clergy class sticks to
ecclesiastical language. Even the stories they tell have natural language. Hence, we
believe that Chaucer does not provide their characters dialogues instead they speak
their natural language.

Geoffrey Chaucer Unbiased opinions and Realism in “Canterbury Tales”:

“Canterbury Tales” lacks morality as Geoffrey Chaucer did never give a single
opinion, perhaps to add realism in it. He portrays pure reality. If we believe that
“The Parson” is virtuous, it is not because Chaucer tells us but because we see his
virtuous tasks. Clergy class is entirely corrupt but Chaucer never say it. He just
show us. It is on the reader what he decides. Unbiased opinion is perhaps the most
important ingredient of realism and Geoffrey Chaucer has added it in “Canterbury
Tales”.

In view of the above characteristics of realistic literature, it can safely be

concluded that “Canterbury Tales” is undoubtedly a realistic story.
a. Medieval Chivalry
Chaucer’s England was predominantly medieval in spirit, and the most outstanding
feature of the middle Age was chivalry and knighthood. It is in “The Prologue to
Canterbury Tales” that Chaucer reflects very clearly the chivalric spirit of the
medieval times. Chaucer reflects the fading chivalry of the middle Age represented
in the character of the Knight, and the rising chivalry of his own times reflected in
his young son, the Squire.

The Knight is a true representative of the spirit of medieval chivalry which was a
blend of love, religion, and bravery. He has been a champion of not fewer than
fifteen mortal battles in the defense of religion.
However, it is in the Age of Chaucer that the spirit of true chivalry was breathing
its last. The Knight was the true symbol of the old world of knighthood that was
losing its ground giving place to a new conception of chivalry represented by the
Squire, who, in spite of his military exploit, was a man of happy-go-lucky nature.
He has as much taste for revelry as for chivalry. He is “a lover and a lusty
bachelor”. He is singing and fluting all the day.
b. Political Conditions
In the “Prologue to Canterbury Tales”, Chaucer realistically presents the political
conditions of his times. He refers to the “Peasant’s Revolt” of 1381 in the Clerk’s
Tale and in the Nun’s, Priest’s Tale. In the Clerk’s Tale, he refers to the ‘stormy
people’, their levity, their untruthfulness, their indiscretion and fickleness, their
garrulity and their foolishness. In the Nun’s Tale, Chaucer says:
The very reason why there is only few references to the movement of the people
out for grabbing power from nobility in “The Canterbury Tales” is that Chaucer
had no love and liking for the rabblement. Another important national event, taking
place in the Age is the “The Black Death” or the terrible plague of 1384 – 89. The
allusion to this event comes in Chaucer’s character-sketch of the Doctor of Physic:
“He kepte that wan in pestilence”.
There is then a latent reference to Lollardism,--The Lollard’s Movement started by
John Wycliffe in 1377 for the reformation of the church, in the delineation o the
“Poor Parson”, who like a Lollard, (one of Wycliffe’s disciplines) believed in
simple living and high thinking.

c. Rise of the Merchant Class

For the first time in history, the trading and artisan section of society were coming
to their own in the age of Chaucer. The fourteenth century in England witnesses
the rise of the rich and prosperous merchants and tradesman. They carried
profitable business with European countries and were laying the foundation of
England’s industrial prosperity. Small traders and handicraftsmen grew into power
and began to behave like aldermen and well-to-do citizens. The importance and
self-consciousness of the smaller tradesmen and handicraftsmen increased with
that of the great merchants. The middle class people contested seats for Parliament.
Chaucer makes reference to the rise of trades and merchants during his times, and
his Merchant is the type o the merchants who were gradually coming into
prominence. The picture of the average merchants has a familiar ring about in:
With the fast expansion in trade and commerce, merchants had become prosperous
and so had the craftsmen whose goods they traded in. We are told by Chaucer that
the Haberdasher, the Carpenter, the Weaver, the Dyer, and the Tapicer were well
clothed and equipped. Their weapons were not cheaply trimmed with brass, but all
with silver. They were so respectable-looking. They were no longer despised by
the nobility.
d. Medical Profession
Chaucer’s portrait of the Doctor of Physic is fairly representative of the theory and
practice of medicine in his age. The knowledge of astronomy or what we should
call astrology was a must or a physician as all the physical ailments were supposed
to be the consequences of the peculiar configurations of stars and planets. That is
why the Doctor of Physic too was “grounded in astronomy”. However, as a type
character of the physicians of the day, he had no time for reading the Bible; “His
study was but little on the Bible”. Most probably, it is because he had not much
time to spare from his professional studies. He had amassed a fortune in the year of
the great plague and was keen to keep it with him. It also gives a sly dig at him for
his gold-loving nature.

e. Religious Condition of the Age

Through the ecclesiastical characters in “The Canterbury Tales”, Chaucer
constructs a representative picture of the condition of the church and its ministers
in his age. He does not strike pointedly at the corruption among the clergymen of
the times but he certainly presents realistically the fatty degeneration that had set in
religious life of his age. The clergymen instead of devoting their time and energy
to religious meditation have given themselves up to profligacy, and Epicureanism.
Chaucer does not attack like Wyclif or Lollard any principle or dogma o Christian
Catholicism, but certainly he cannot tolerate the growing corruption, laxity of
discipline and love o luxury prevailing among the clergy. He, therefore, satirises
these depraved and fallen ecclesiastics of his times. There are seven ecclesiastical
characters dealt with by Chaucer in “The Canterbury Tales”, not counting the nun
and the chaplain in attendance upon the Prioress. The seven ecclesiastical
characters are the Prioress, the Monk, the Friar, the Clerk of Oxford, the Parson,
the Summoner, and the Pardoner. It may be pointed out, at the very outset, that
Chaucer presents the clergymen of his times in a most unfavourable light. The only
ecclesiastical characters whom Chaucer admires and whom the readers admire also
are the Clerk and the Parson for whom Chaucer has nothing but praise. The other
characters belonging to the church are ridiculed and satirized. Chaucer exposes the
follies, the absurdities, the monetary greed, the hypocrisy, and, on the whole, the
irreligious nature of these men of religion. These clergymen are not only most
worldly-minded but also dishonest, immoral, and corrupt.

The Prioress comes first. A study of the conditions prevailing in Chaucer’s time
would show that Chaucer creates this Prioress straight from his own world. The
Prioress bothers more about modish etiquette than austerity. This Prioress is
essentially well-bred but she is also individualized. She has a romantic name,
Eglantine. She indulges in certain vanities which belonged, either wholly or partly,
to many nuns of Chaucer’s time. A Prioress was not expected to swear at all, but
Eglantine swears by Saint Loy, the seventh-century courtier-turned saint.
Besides, Nuns were also forbidden to keep pets of any kind but Eglantine
possesses little dogs upon which she lavishes affection and care, even feeding them
with meat and expensive white bread.
She cannot hide her love of jewelry. Her rosary is too elaborate or a nun, and the
brooch she wears, bearing an ambiguous motto, should not be worn by a nun.
The Prioress indeed corresponds to the character of prioress as they were in the
fourteenth century.

The Friar is a jolly beggar who employs his tongue to carve out his living. He is a
representative of his class. He is a “limiter”, that is, a friar who has secured the
begging rights in a specified area. He knows how to induce all the women in that
area to give him money or food in response to his “dalliance”. He has a way with
him. He knows all the latest songs, with which he entertains the fair wives with
presents of ornamental knives and pins, and his initial blessing of each house he
visits is pleasantly satisfying. When he visits richer or more important people, his
manner changes; he becomes courteous and humble. He is only ready to hear
confessions, and to sell absolution for money, which is, of course, his greatest sin.
He will have nothing to do with lepers or with the poor. He will deal only with
those who can be a source of profit to him.
The Monk is also satirically portrayed. The Monk is a fat well-fed individual who
is more interested in hunting than in the performance of his religious duties. He
neither labours with his hands nor pores over a book in the cloister. The Monk
does not fast or deny himself costly garments; instead he loves a fat swan the best
of any roast; he wears the finest gray for in the land, an elaborate gold pin in the
shape of a love-knot, and costly supple boots. He owns greyhounds which are swift
as birds, and in his stables are many valuable horses. Thus, Chaucer’s Monk is a
lively representative of his class.

The Summoner is basically wicked. He teaches a sinner not to feel afraid of the
archdeacon’s curse because money, he says, will set everything right. The
Summoner has all the young people of the parish under his thumb as he knows
their secret and acts as their advisor. The Summoner will readily excuse a fellow or
keeping a mistress for a year, if he is given only a quart of wine. He is sexually
immoral himself, because he can take advantage of a girl, that is he will seduce a
girl, if he gets the opportunity.

It is clearly noticed that the Summoner is a depraved fellow. He will excuse a

fellow fully for the sin of keeping a mistress for a year only for a quart of wine. It
also fully signifies that he loves to drink wine.

The Pardoner, who is the Summoner’s friend and comrade, is a despicable parasite
trading in letters of pardon with the sinners who could ensure a seat in heaven by
paying hard cash. The Pardoner, we are told, has come straight from the papal
court at Rome, and he bears a bag full of pardons. The Pardoner carries with him,
as relics, a pillow case which he claims to be part of the Virgin Mary’s veil, and a
piece of cloth which he claims to be part of the sail of St. Peter’s boat. He also has
a cross made of brass but studded with gems, and some pig’s bones which he
claims to be a saint’s relics. He well knew how he must preach and speak in a
biting tone in order to obtain money from the congregation.
The Clerk and the Parson, as has already been said above, are worthy of respect
and admiration. The Clerk is a devoted student of logic, and he would rather have
twenty volumes of Aristotle than rich robes or a fiddle. His outer coat is threadbare
for he is poor, even his horse is as lean as a rake. What money he receives from his
benefactors, he spends on books and learning, and he repays the benefactors by
heartfelt prayers for their souls.

He never displays unseemly levity in behaviour. He does not speak one word more
than is necessary; when he does speak, he is brief, to the point, and always noble in
his meaning. He is glad to learn and glad to teach.
The Parson is apparently a follower of Wyclif who revolted against the corruption
of the church. He is a learned man faithfully preaching Christ’s gospel and
devoutly instructing his parishioners. He emphasizes two facts: if gold rusts, iron
will do far worse; and if the shepherd is foul, the sheep cannot be clean.

He is holy and virtuous, meek and polite. He is no hireling but a worthy shepherd
to his flock. The Parson will not leave his parishioners “to sink in the mire”, in
order that he may make more money by running off to London to become a
chantry priest or to seek a position in some guild: “he was a shepherd and noght a
mercenaire”. Although he is good, he does not hesitate to reprimand anyone who
shows no repentance. He treats those of high or low position in exactly the same
way.

f. Condition of Lower Class

Chaucer represents faithfully the rise of the low classes and the voice that they
made for better conditions of life. In the Clerk’s Tale, Chaucer refers to the
“stormy people”, their levity, untruthfulness, indiscretion, fickleness, and garrulity.
The labourers clamoured for their rights and defied the authority of the landlords.
However, there were in the midst of this upsurge among the servants and labourers,
a class of conservative workmen who were still devoted to their old ways of living,
and paid respect to the higher authorities. Chaucer’s Ploughman faithfully
represents the class of conservative labourers who were devoted to the masters and
were faithfully performing the normal course of activities.

g. Condition of the Inns and Table Manners

Chaucer also portrays the conditions of the inns of his times and the table manners
of the pilgrims. In the Prologue, we can see that inns were situated at some
distances, and beer was also served in places other than these inns. There is also a
disquisition on table manners of the age in the Prologue. Each guest brought his
own knife, but for common use there were no forks. At the beginning and end of
dinner everyone washed his hands.

h. Love of Display and Extravagance

Chaucer represents faithfully love for display and extravagance both in the upper
and the lower classes of the fourteenth century England. This love for display is
shown in several characters of the Prologue. The young Squire’s garments were
embroidered like a meadow all full of fresh flowers, white and red.

The prioress carries a coral rosary with large dividing beads of green, and on it
there hangs a brooch of the brightest gold on which there is first written a crowned
“A” and then the words “Love conquers all”.

A Haberdasher, a Carpenter, a Weaver, a Dyer, and a Tapestry-maker are all

clothed in one kind of livery prescribed by a distinguished and great organization.
The clothes of all these persons are freshly and newly trimmed. Their knives are
mounted, not with brass, but with silver which has been rubbed perfectly clean.
The Wife of Bath decks herself with “kerchiefs” and finery. Her kerchiefs are
finely woven, and the kerchiefs she wears on her head on a Sunday must have been
ten pounds in weight.

i. Revival of the Classical Learning

Through the character of the Clerks of the Oxford, Chaucer has presented the
interest that people of this age started taking in the classical writers. The New
learning began to be popular at the time, as can be seen in the case of the Clerk of
Oxford. He is an austere scholar who prefers twenty books of Aristotle’s
philosophy on his bed’s head to gay clothes and musical instruments.

CONCLUSION
“The Canterbury Tales” gives us a fairly authentic and equally extensive picture of
the socio-political conditions prevailing in England in the Age of Chaucer. Each of
the pilgrims hails from a different walk of life, and among themselves they build
up an epitome of their age. Each of them is a representative of a section of society
as well as an individual. Chaucer was a delineator of reality. In all these ways, it
can be said that Chaucer is the chronicler of his age and reflects his century not in
fragments but almost completely. He heralds the birth of the new humanism and
the dawn of the Renaissance, and at the same time he vividly brings before us the
traditions and conventions which his age had inherited from the Middle Ages.
TWELFTH NIGHT
After braving several cases of mistaken identity, accidental gayness, awkward
sexual tension, and the general tomfoolery symbolic of the festival of Twelfth
Night, our heroine Viola finds herself in the final scene of the final act preparing
for marriage festivities. The heteronormative status quo appears to have been
restored with the righting of the ambiguously gendered pairings: Viola is finally
together with her beloved Duke Orsino, and Olivia appears satisfied with her
replacement Cesario, Sebastian. A closer examination of various scenes in the
play, however, suggests that perhaps the significance of these romantic pairings is
not to establish heterosexuality as the social norm, but rather to challenge the entire
notion of gendered identity and sexuality all together. By operating outside of a
discrete heteronormative representation of binary gender identities to achieve her
desired ends, Viola demonstrates that gender is a fluid identity and not a rigid role
assigned at birth according to genitalia.

After being shipwrecked at the start of the play, Viola must figure out a way to
survive in the foreign land of Illyria. Since the Countess Olivia, the only potential
female protector, is too distraught over her brother’s death to receive any visitors,
Viola decides that her second best course of action will be to enter the service of
Duke Orsino. As part of her survival scheme, she discards her gown and masks her
female gender with the disguise of a male page. Her masculine clothing proves to
be such a convincing disguise that several characters–Feste, Olivia, Antonio, and
Sir Andrew–confuse her outright with her brother Sebastian– her twin brother, no
less. For Feste and Sir Andrew, the outcomes of their confusion are amusing and
harmless (though humiliating, in Sir Andrew’s case). For Antonio and Olivia,
however, the results are far graver: Antonio, mistaking Viola for his beloved
Sebastian, is left feeling betrayed and abandoned, whereas Olivia, mistaking
Sebastian for her beloved Cesario, finds herself wed to a perfect stranger. So eerie
is the twins’ similarity that, when the two are finally reunited on stage in the final
act, Orsino can’t help but utter:

One face, one voice, one habit, and two persons,

A natural perspective, that is and is not. (5.1.214-215)

This comment, combined with the bizarre fact that Viola is not explicitly named
until this very scene, creates an interesting situation. If Viola and Sebastian are so
similar that various characters can seamlessly interchange them, then perhaps they
aren’t two separate characters after all. Instead, the play suggests they are actually
two sides–feminine and masculine–of the same self.

Shakespeare’s play is far from the first instance in which such an idea was
explored. In fact, the concept of gendered duality predates Elizabethan England
altogether. The classic Greek myth of the Androgynos is explained in Plato’s
Symposium. The Androgynos were hermaphroditic beings that possessed a perfect
balance of male and female qualities. The gods feared their power so much that
“their punishment at the hand of Zeus was to be sliced in half, like an egg or apple,
the severed skin being pulled together by a sort of pucker string at the belly-
button” (Charles 331). After being thrust apart, the male and female halves strove
to be harmoniously united once more. Shakespeare directly references this tale
through the astonished Antonio, who upon seeing what he supposes are two copies
of Sebastian, cries:
Have you made division of yourself?

An apple cleft in two is not more twin

Than these two creatures. (5.1.220-223)

In the context of this myth, Viola and Sebastian’s uncanny sameness points
towards the duality and interchangeability of gender identity and suggests that
discrete binary gender is itself a myth. Gender identity is a sliding scale; people are
not necessarily exclusively male or female, but can possess a mixture of both
masculine and feminine qualities. Casey Charles argues in Gender Trouble in
Twelfth Night that Viola’s transvestitism:

not only upsets essentialist constructions of gender hierarchy by successfully

performing the part of a man as a woman, but in her hermaphroditic capacity as a
man and woman…she also collapses the polarities upon which heterosexuality is
based by becoming an object of desire whose ambiguity renders the distinction
between homo and hetero-erotic attraction difficult to decipher. (Charles 127-128)

The fact that Viola was played by a young boy on the Elizabethan stage adds yet
another level to the already dizzying maze of gender identity and romantic
attraction that Shakespeare has created. In a patriarchal Renaissance society that
barred women from the stage and “sought the similitude in boys and women,”
female roles were almost exclusively played by young boys (Orgel 70). Thus, the
Elizabethan Viola was a three-fold character: a young boy actor playing a
shipwrecked young woman playing a male page. The unwitting lesbian attraction
of Olivia (also played by a man) to Cesario is now doubly homoerotic, as is the
affection Orsino has for his new page. The notion that audiences were willing to
suspend disbelief and convince themselves that the Viola on stage was a young
woman playing a boy–not simply a boy playing another boy–further destabilizes
the illusion of male and female separateness by suggesting that gender is simply a
performed role. As Orgel suggests in regard to the success of boys playing female
roles, “the age of the actor is as irrelevant as the gender: womanliness is simply a
matter of acting” (Orgel 70). Given that certain productions of Twelfth Night have
utilized the same actor for both Viola and Sebastian calls into further question the
nature of gender identity as represented in the play. In short, the character Viola
was an allegorical hermaphrodite conjured up for the stage.

Renaissance audiences were fascinated by the multi-layered concept of the

hermaphrodite. It embodied the union of opposites and the harmony created by
their joining together, an important symbol in an age defined by conflicts such as
those between the Church and the advances of empirical science. The
hermaphrodite was viewed simultaneously as “pure idea and grotesque image…an
amusing freak and a serious symbol of the marriage of true minds and bodies at the
turn of the seventeenth century” (Charles 129). While some thinkers interpreted the
pagan myth about the male and female halves of the Androgynos seeking their
opposites to fit religious views on the sanctity of heterosexual marriage, others
construed it as a commentary on the duality of gender and viewed a hermaphroditic
soul as ideal. Live, breathing hermaphrodites, on the other hand, were considered
“unnatural prodigies” (Charles 127). Viola echoes this belief by declaring herself a
“poor monster” because her dual gender is causing both Olivia and Orsino to fall in
love with her.
Nonetheless, Viola completely embraces the concept of a similar kind of third
identity that, like the hermaphrodite, lies beyond the scope of binary gender.
Though she dons a boy’s clothing, Viola does not present herself as a boy; rather,
she presents herself as a eunuch. Viola is curiously specific about this detail when
speaking with the captain about her plan for survival. When she learns that the
Countess Olivia, similarly orphaned and mourning the loss of her brother, refuses
to answer petitions due to her intense grief, Viola decides:

I’ll serve this duke.

Thou shalt present me as a eunuch to him.

It may be worth my pains, for I can sing,

And speak to him in many sorts of music. (1.2.51-54)

As Viola’s vocal abilities are not further mentioned in the play, it becomes clear
that she does not decide to disguise herself as a eunuch simply because eunuchs,
like the castrati of the Church, were known for their high-pitched voices. Castrated
boys, like hermaphrodites, straddled the divide between the male and female
genders. If she disguised herself as a regular boy, Viola would not be able to
approach Olivia, who has sworn off men for seven years in mourning of her
brother. Nor would she be able to approach Orsino, who might mistake her as
competition for Olivia’s affections. Thus, by becoming a eunuch, Viola renders
herself sexless and therefore non-threatening to either character. This androgynous
identity also serves as protection by removing the sexual vulnerability she would
have as a lone woman. Stephen Orgel links Viola to her anagrammatic counterpart
Olivia, stating that, “she seems to be proposing a sexlessness that is an aspect of
her mourning, that will effectively remove her, as Olivia has removed herself, from
the world of love and wooing” (Orgel 54). Clearly, Viola’s androgynous identity as
the eunuch Cesario is a key factor in her survival in Illyria.

Despite renouncing her female gender identity, Viola does not completely
relinquish her feminine qualities when trying to achieve her means. Rather, she
evokes elements from both genders and fluidly switches between them in order to
best handle whatever situation comes her way. In her first scene with Olivia, Viola
utilizes her first-hand knowledge of the “feminine” mind in combination with her
non-threatening androgynous appearance in order to win the countess’s attention.
Likewise, Viola relies on her woman’s point of view and personal experiences
when discussing the nature of love with Orsino. The duke, fed up with Olivia’s
constant rejections, dismisses a woman’s ability to love as being like “appetite, no
motion of the liver, but the palate” (2.4.86-87). Viola as Cesario corrects
Orsssino’s rude view of female love with the authority of a male confidant by
stating that she knows “too well what love women to men may owe. In faith, they
are as true of heart as we” (2.4.105-106).

As the progression of the above two scenes reveals, however, Olivia’s

androgynous ruse is not entirely foolproof. Shortly after her meeting with Olivia,
Viola finds herself in possession of a love token from the newly smitten countess.
With horror, Viola realizes that in one brief exchange she has managed to do what
all other men in Illyria have failed to do–win Olivia’s heart. To Olivia, Cesario
stands out from all of the other men in her life. He does not pursue her
romantically, he does not bore her with endless treatises about her beauty, and he
enjoys entertaining her wit. He understands precisely the way her mind works,
which baffles Olivia. Cesario’s mysterious nature and androgynous appearance
only further intrigue her, giving her room to mold him into her perfect romantic
vision and therefore allow her attraction to him to grow. When Viola realizes what
she has done to Olivia, she curses her male costume for this knotty situation.
“Disguise, I see thou art a wickedness wherein the pregnant enemy does much!”
she laments, blatantly suggesting how easily social gender perception can be
affected by something as changeable as clothing (2.5.26-27).

With Orsino, Viola finds herself in the reverse situation. Though she loves Orsino,
she cannot openly act upon her affections, as Orsino clearly prefers to romantically
pursue women instead of eunuchs. She can only subtly hint at her feelings,
blending female identity with her sexually ambiguous and vaguely masculine
appearance:

My father had a daughter loved a man

As it might be, perhaps, were I woman

I should your lordship. (2.4.106-108)

Viola proceeds to weave a tale of a sister who wasted away due to the terrible
burden of a secret and unrequited love. When Orsino asks if the sister died from
her grief, Viola further collapses the separateness of her male and female identities
in her response:

I am all the daughters of my father’s house,

And all the brothers too–and yet I know not. (2.4.120-121)

Once again, Viola’s mixed-gender language suggests that male and female are
equivalent and therefore exchangeable identities. Furthermore, her consistent
ability to nimbly adopt, discard, and blend male and female aspects in order to
adapt to her ever-changing surroundings lends itself to the notion that gender
identity exists on a gradient scale rather than as a strict male-female binary. Viola’s
skill at juggling male and female genders, however–despite successfully preserving
her well-being–comes at a great cost to her romantic life; despite allowing her to
be in constant close contact with the object of her affections, the ambiguous gender
of her disguise prevents her from openly professing her love to Orsino in a socially
acceptable manner.

Orgel sums up Viola’s precarious situation, stating that “Viola as a eunuch, then,
both closes down options for herself and implies a world of possibilities for others–
possibilities that were, to a post-Reformation Protestant society, particularly
(perhaps temptingly) illicit” (Orgel 56). Orsino is not completely ignorant of
Cesario as a tempting romantic option, however. The tension between Orsino and
his new page is not merely a one-sided, frustrated crush on Viola’s part. In an
exchange between Viola and one of Orsino’s attendants, it is revealed that Orsino
is exceptionally fond of his new page:

Valentine: He hath known you but three days, and already you are no stranger.
Viola: …is he inconstant, sir, in his favors?

Valentine: No, believe me. (1.4.1-7)

Furthermore, Orsino wastes no time in marveling at how lovely Cesario is, noting
his “smooth and rubious lips” and his high-pitched “maiden’s organ,” an
unintentional double entendre hinting at the page’s true sex. This slight
homoerotic tension between Orsino and Cesario is not fretted upon much, partly
because the smitten Viola doubtless enjoys the attention, and partly because such
behavior wasn’t particularly startling in Shakespeare’s time. The Renaissance
view of love and attraction was far different from the relatively modern notion that
one can identify oneself based on sexual attraction and gender identity. As Orgel
notes, “To use the terms homosexual and heterosexual to describe the pre-
enlightenment situation… is anachronistic and misleading” (Orgel 64).

Thus, we return to the ending of the play. At first glance, the proposed
relationships seem heteronormative. Upon closer inspection, several aspects of the
interaction between Viola and Orsino remain vague. Orsino continues to refer to
Viola as “boy” after her reveal; though his tone is affectionate, this address is
troubling because it does not resolve the crisis of Viola’s binary gender identity
with finality. Furthermore, Viola lacks a scripted costume change into her “maiden
weeds”– her main identifiers in the play as a woman. This leaves Orsino married to
Cesario, and Olivia wed to a person who is both “maid and man.” Viewed in
context of the subtleties of gendered love and sexual attraction presented in the
play, this ambiguous marriage of characters only reaffirms the notion that gender
and sexual identities are fluid characteristics that the self creates and performs
based upon cultural norms and individual preference.
Gender Roles and Gender Relations in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night
The themes of gender roles and gender relations frequently appear in William
Shakespeare’s plays and are readily apparent in Twelfth Night. The character Viola
learns firsthand how gender identity plays a crucial role in how one is treated by
other men and women when she assumes the identity of a man named Cesario.
During the Elizabethan era, roles for men and women were predetermined, and
women had many more limitations than did men. In Twelfth Night, Viola is able to
circumvent these limitations placed upon her by society by dressing in male attire
and taking on the role of a male in order to obtain a job. The way in which the
main character, Viola, is treated and perceived by the other characters and how she
acts while taking on a male persona demonstrates how differently men and women
relate to one another based on the perceived differences between the genders.

Historical Context
Some scholars believe that Shakespeare was gay or bisexual, based on his sonnets
in which he proclaimed his love for a young man. Homosexuality was looked
down upon in Elizabethan culture as it was seen as a deviation from standard
gender norms, but that didn’t stop him from exploring themes of gender identity
and questioning traditional gender roles in his plays. Viola’s feelings for Orsino
could be viewed as having homosexual connotations because she was taking on the
role of a man (Arias Doblas). Likewise, “Viola's successful wooing of Olivia” in
the play can also be interpreted as homoerotic because Viola is actually a female
and Oliva becomes attracted to her. Though Olivia believed Viola to be a male, she
still became attracted to someone who was actually a female (Ake). The way
Shakespeare played with traditional gender roles in his plays may indicate his
feelings regarding gender roles and gender relations in society.

Gender Roles and Gender Relations in Twelfth Night

Shakespeare used the characters and plot to communicate his ideas about gender
relations to the audience. The main character is able to shed societal expectations
by disguising herself as a male. As a woman, Viola believed that there was no way
that she would be able to find work in order to survive, so she decided to take on a
male persona. This reason for taking on a male persona is important because it
demonstrates how differently men and women were treated when looking for work
during this time period. Men were afforded more freedom to take on different
types of jobs, whereas women were expected to get married and stay at home to
raise children. According to Phyllis Rackin, during Shakespeare’s time,
inequalities between each gender were “[s]actioned by law and religion and
reinforced by the duties and customs of daily life, they were deeply embedded in
the fabric of culture (Rackin, 27).” Men and women were seen as being completely
different, and the idea that either can take on either type of role went against the
prevailing cultural attitudes of the time.

In “Gender Trouble in Twelfth Night," Casey Charles claims that Elizabethan

society was more patriarchal, homophobic, and misogynistic than today’s society,
but that this polarized view of gender existed to mask “a decided anxiety about
what is feared to be the actual fluidity of gender.” That is to say, the strict gender
roles enforced by Elizabethan society hid a deep seated fear that men and women
aren’t really that different from each other when cultural roles are stripped away.
The ways in which men and women relate to one another were based completely
on traditional gender roles, and the idea that gender could be fluid was threatening
to Elizabethan ideas of gender relations. Charles goes on to discuss the fascination
with the idea of “hermaphrodites” and individuals who possess both male and
female traits during this time period (Charles, 124-5). This idea of an individual
who walks the line between male and female is represented by Viola in Twelfth
Night. Though there were some women who did cross-dress during this time
period, particularly in urban settings, it was frowned upon because it violated
traditional gender expectations. Furthermore, male actors portrayed both male and
female characters in theater during this time period, and these male actors dressed
as female characters on stage were permitted to violate anti-crossdressing laws.
Though this was accepted as a part of theater, that didn’t stop “antitheatricalists
from railing against the transvestite theatre, which was seen as unnatural (Arias
Doblas).” Elizabethan audiences would likely have been both captivated and
offended by this play. It blurs the distinction between traditional male and female
gender roles, but some people in this society were fixated on the idea of people
who have both male and female traits.
Gender Relations in Shakespeare’s Other Works
The theme of gender relations appears quite frequently throughout Shakespeare’s
works. Twelfth Night is often compared to As You Like It, which also features a
cross-dressing female protagonist. The Merchant of Venice and The Two
Gentlemen of Verona also feature cross-dressing females. These characters explore
the theme of gender relations by challenging traditional gender roles and
expectations. Gender relations was explored in a very different way in Taming of
the Shrew. In Taming of the Shrew, a “difficult” woman at first refuses to bow
down to a man, but in the end is “tamed” by her abusive new husband. The play
starts with Katherina refusing to follow traditional gender expectations, but in the
end becomes a dutiful wife after being manipulated by her husband, Petruchio.
Petruchio eventually breaks Katherina psychologically by withholding food and
sleep from her, as well as employing various other methods of psychological
control in order to get her to bend to his will and become a dutiful wife. The way in
which Katherina relates to men changes throughout the course of the play and is
completely different to Viola’s relationship with the men in her life. Gender
relations are portrayed in different ways in Shakespeare’s works.

These Themes in Modern Popular Culture

The theme of gender relations is still very much part of today’s culture. We still
see the same themes that Shakespeare used in his plays play out in contemporary
popular culture. Two examples of works of contemporary culture with a similar
theme to Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night are the films Motocrossed and She’s the
Man. In addition to featuring similar themes, both of these films are loosely based
on Twelfth Night, illustrating the enduring influence of Shakespeare’s work. As
with the original play, the plots of both Motocrossed and She’s the Man revolve
around a young girl who takes on the persona of a male in order to blend in to a
male dominated section of society. Unlike in the original play, however, the stakes
don’t seem to be as high for the girls in either adaptation as they are for the original
Viola, who feels she must present herself as a man in order to survive after her
brother’s alleged death.

Conclusion
The theme of gender relations endures because, even in our contemporary culture,
men and women are treated differently based on their genders, even if attitudes
regarding gender roles are beginning to change. Women are still seen as being
weaker than their male counterparts in the workplace and men are still seen as the
stronger sex. These different stereotypes of each gender still color the way in
which we relate to each other based on gender and women are still seen as less
capable in certain professions and activities than are males. Shakespeare’s legacy
continues to influence modern culture because his plays were based on themes that
common people could easily relate to, and continue to relate to even today.
Because of the universal themes in Shakespeare’s plays, his work will continue to
influence future generations.