Today's discussion revolving what is and isnt moral, along with who exactly should the audience pity, peaked an interest in me. My opinion, is that (apart from Chaucer's apparent desire to write as many sexually explicit stories as he can, and to create humorous tales), Chaucer created a twist of convention.
It is not the male who was the "player" and "wild" young hormonally-charged adult, but Alison, the woman. Im sure that from those days, and maybe even these days, it is much more likely to find a story where the male is the "player" and the one who gets away with it all. Here, Chaucer changes that and gives Alison this role, which I must say, is pretty refreshing.
After our in-depth class discussion, I have gained new pity for poor Alison, a young woman stuck with an old man she did not love. Not to mention Chaucer hints at the fact that her "natural" nature was of a more frivolous, flirtatious variety.
Thoughts?
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3 comments:
I agree with your opinion on the twist of convention, and I always find it interesting when an author does that. I never would have thought before that a medieval author would be interested in doing that. Our class discussion also made me feel more sympathy towards Alison, as it must be really horrible to be forced into a marriage. I still think that Nicholas is gross though, and probably should have been smacked..but by Alison. That would have been far more satisfying to me.
I feel the same way. At first I felt Allison was guiltier but nowI feel that Allison is actually in a sense 'wild' for the conventions of the times because she knows that she isn't in love and then since she has been forcefully tied down to her cage she tries to break free.
I also agree that it was very interesting and refreshing to read that the twist that a female (Alison) was the player instead of a male playing a female (although for either case it's not good). It's so tiring and annoying to see in movies, plays, films or read in books and magazines and see in my every day life how men are always being unfaithful to their female partner.
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