Orlando Furioso And Medieval Romance

Ambiguity acts as a catalyst that evokes a certain feeling arousing an immense interest in something that is not definitive. This purposely sparks the audience to dive into the depths on the text to crystallize the uncertainties, and as a result, contemplate the meaning of the uncertainty as well. Throughout the story, Chaucer’s design constantly appears to shift depending on the particular interpretation of the reading; thus, incites uncertainty for the reader as they attempt to firmly pin down the author’s true intention. One of the permeating uncertainties revolves around his character, the Wife of Bath. Raising the question whether Chaucer was applauding or criticizing her, and the purpose of each option. By looking at multiple literary techniques used in the final passage before her tale, we can see that the ending prologue passage acts as a mirror to the final passage of the Wife of Bath’s Tale to illustrate the connections between the Wife of Bath and the old woman from her tale. Chaucer purposely leaves the audience contemplating the meaning of the colloquial fairy tale with regards to the likelihood of the reality of the Wife of Bath character actually existing to act as a warning to the males of the time period.

Description of Chaucer and his place in medieval society, both as author and narrator in the book.

I decided to choose Imagery because both of these stories are full of different creatures and scenes that need imagery to be told in its full glory. Beowulf is action packed and has descriptive battles and the Faerie Queene has many historical references that involve imagery.

In Edmund Spenser’s epic poem, The Farrie Queene, Spenser utilizes the strategy of incorporating many subplots and characters to emphasize allegorical concepts; especially, themes concerning the gender roles of women. Characters such as Florimell, Britomart, Malecasta, and Belphoebe, create a spectrum that contains different types of chastity that is seen among women. For instance, Florimell’s chastity depicts a beautiful woman who is committed to her virtue of chastity; however, because of her beauty, Florimell induces lust within men and constantly has her virtue being challenged and threatened. In contrast to Florimell, the protagonist of Spenser’s poem, Britomart, consists of a chastity that is more Christian oriented, yet it is a very immature chastity but ultimately, it is Britomart’s chastity that makes her stronger and even at times, weaker. Postulating these characters, Spenser can illustrate the different degrees and allegories of chastity.

To understand the two poems, their similarities, their differences and both their anti-war messages, one must really study the poems in depth, as both poems have a deep, unfathomable significance behind them.

The following close reading concerns itself with the Middle English Breton Lay Sir Degaré, though speculative, the poem’s composition has been dated to the 14th Century and the poem survives in six manuscripts and three early printed editions, it is a romance of high antiquity, preserved in the Auchinleck MS. Some suggest that the poem takes clear inspiration from the Middle English translation of Marie de France’s Le Fresne: Lay le Freine. Moreover, some propose that Sir Degaré is more accurately described as an emulation, believing it to be more an imitation made up from a variety of stories, as it borrows not only motifs but direct phrasing from Lay Le Freine. Not only do both texts share a similar rhyming scheme, rhyming couplets, and semi-alliterative lines, they are also similar in relation to common genre conventions. In this respect, the Breton Lay has been understood by many to be the predecessor to the modern fairy-tale, and indeed, Sir Degaré is enveloped in themes such as love, the supernatural, and critically, the correlation between the two constructs of gender, which themselves are manifested in the modern day fairy-tale.

Some scholars believe Spenser did not have sufficient education to compose a work with as much complexity as The Faerie Queene, while others are still “extolling him as one of the most learned men of his time”. Scholar Douglas Bush agrees, “scholars now speak less certainly that they once did of his familiarity with ancient literature”. In contrast, Meritt Hughes “finds no evidence that Spenser derived any element of his poetry from any Greek Romance”. Several questions still remain unanswered: Was Edmund Spenser as “divinely inspired” to write The Faerie Queene as Virgil and Ariosto were in their works? Or did Spenser simply lack creativity, causing him to steal his storylines from

Spenser portrays the idea that beauty remains a man’s greatest weakness and women practice beauty to attract men to do what they desire. In the poem, Spenser describes a woman’s attire as, “gold” and says that women trap men into a, “golden snare” (Gardner 462). At this point in the poem Spenser is using the literary element of metaphor to describe women. By drawing a comparison to a woman’s attire as gold, Spenser is illustrating that women have an alluring surface from the perspective of men. Gold is known to allure people and that is what has made it such a historically

It is important to state that Spenser has written The Faerie Queene an allegory, which is a

Epithalamion, a work by Spenser stands out from amultitude of sonnets in the renaissance tradition in this that the beloved gives in to the yearning of the lover and the latter achieves transcendence not in the demise of the beloved, but in the experience of love. By this Spencer apperars to have been trying ti reverse the role of the Queen and the courtier. This leads to Catherine Bates remarking thus, “Henceforth (it seems), the images of power and subjection which have structured the self-positioning of the poet and his mistress are changed round, for it is no longer the male poet who suffers in captivity but, rather, his beloved”

“The Wife of Bath’s Tale” uniquely suggests a progressive view of women’s concerns during that time period. The Wife of Bath, or Alyson, is purposely formulated by Chaucer as a rebel. Alyson is deliberately portrayed in an explicit way to rouse a shocking response from the reader. Her physical appearance and her stories of her past are discussed by Chaucer to provoke the reader to ponder how well she fits the mold of how women were supposed to act in this time period. Chaucer takes every medieval, anti-feminist stereotype imaginable to create defiant Alyson: a tenacious and

"The Faerie Queene" is similar to works of Beowulf because of its Anglo-Saxon epics. Also, Book I has a hint of classical and renaissance adventures. "The Faerie Queene" is a perfect combination of themes and motifs that was already introduced in other assignments. This makes Spenser's "The Faerie Queene" an epic poem. An epic poem is described as a long narrative in elevated style while presenting characters of high positions in adventures thus forming an organic whole through their relation to a central heroic figure and their development of events that play an important part to the history of a nation or race. The common characteristics of the main character is that the hero is played by a person of importance such who would have a historical or legendary significance. The

As Dryden had correctly remarked, Chaucer was a man of the most comprehensive nature, because he took into the compass of The Canterbury Tales the various manners and humors of the English society as an integrated whole in his age. Yes, the Morning Star of English Literature – Geoffrey Chaucer, is indeed a great story teller and his descriptive and narrative skills have been praised by critics over time and again. He is very simple, natural and an easy going poet who is humorous, but his humor is coarse, suggestive and often paradoxical. His description is very precise and his skills of narration made Kittredge call him the greatest of all narrative poets, without any boundary of era or language. The most unique characteristic feature of Chaucer’s narration is his sense of artistic detachment from his subjects. He is a creative artist which finds reflection in the variety of his methods of narration. This paper

The authors aimed at different purpose. This, alone, forces the the difference in handling the poetic matter. If Orlando Furioso can be categorised as Epic Romance, whereas Spenser's The Faerie Queen, here particularly Book I, seems to be shaped in the form of the Medieval Romance – the one with a quest-centered narrative. But what is really the difference?

Edmund Spenser was an English writer best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic ballad and fantastical moral story commending the Tudor tradition and Elizabeth I. He is perceived as one of the head experts of Modern English verse in its earliest stages, and one of the best artists in the English dialect.