Parliament of Fowls analysis PDF

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Summary

Analysis of Chaucer's Parliament of Fowls and Book of the Duchess...

Description

Parliament of Fowls, lines 120-147.

As in the Book of the Duchess, the narrator draws inspiration from many literary sources, which are manifested in his dream. The most obvious is the Tale of the Dream of Scipion, which the narrator reads before he sleeps, in the hope that it will lead him to find the answers he is looking for (“thus to rede I nyl nat spare”). Scipio’s dream guide, Affrican, now becomes the narrator’s – since he “had red of Affrican byforn”. However, while Affrican showed Scipio Heaven, Hell and “the galaxye”, he shows the narrator the gates to the garden of love – raising an interesting comparison. The use of the phrase “blysful place” is used to describe Heaven in Scipio’s dream in line 83, and now to describe the garden of love in line 127. But it isn’t just a “blysful place” the narrator sees – while for Scipio Heaven and hell are different places, here both Heaven and Hell coexist in the garden of love. The link between love, Heaven and Hell is deepened by the repeated phrase written on the gate “thorgh me men gon…”. This line is directly drawn from Dante’s inferno, Canto III, when he faces the gates of Hell on which are inscribed the words “Through me the road to the city of desolation…”. Though Chaucer at first uses this phrase to describe the “blysful place”, the echo of Dante’s gates of Hell renders a dark and sinister undertone, suggesting all is not as it seems. Read in a different way, this could add humour because of the disparity between the following description of the “welle of grace” the narrator goes on to read, and Dante’s experience of Hell. The word “grace” further triggers images of Heaven. Reinforcing this link is the description of the birds later on in the poem – the “noise of foules” which “so loude rong” is reminiscent of the animalistic, almost bird-like imagery Dante describes of the “horror flapping round my head” in reference to the souls stuck between Heaven and Hell. This serves to reinforce the view that Chaucer sets forward of love as a gateway to either happiness or desolation, with the birds choosing their lovers perhaps representing the souls lost between Heaven and Hell – emphasising the gates’ assurances that love can lead to either “glad[ness]” or “sorwe”. The theme of nature, or the lack of it, is also a thread that runs through these paragraphs – and indeed through the entire poem. The use of the phrase “grene and lusty May” to describe the garden of love incites images of fertility and Springtime – and is also reminiscent of Troilus and Criseyde and The Knight’s Tale, in which the month of May plays an important role. The word grene is repeated from just one paragraph before, in the “wall[s] of grene ston” that surround the garden, which could suggest the harmonisation of nature and man through love, by combining the natural colour of green with man-made stone – a theme revisited in the birds choosing their love based on a social hierarchy. The nature theme is continued into the third paragraph – though not in such a positive way. The tree which shall never “fruyt ne leves bere” and the stream which is a “prysoun al drye” for the fish reverse all images of fertility, and suggest death and emptiness. These inscriptions are each on a side of the gate – and the obvious contradiction here of what love

can offer – either health and happiness, or death and pain – creates an image of the polar effects love can have, sending the dreamer into confusion.

In the second and third paragraphs, the narrator uses a range of poetic techniques to emphasise the contrast between the two gates and what each of them promise. His use of the rhyme scheme adds importance – “cure” and “endure” in the first paragraph, for example, incite images of health and lasting vitality, strengthened by their coupling through rhyme. This holds more weight when compared to the rhyming of “spere” and “bere” in the next paragraph – which suggest violence, emptiness and death. The use of iambic pentameter also adds to this, with the emphasis falling mainly on the nouns – such as “Welle”, “grace”, “May”, “Lust”, and also “Daunger”, “Disdayn”, “Prysoun”. The effect of this is, again, to add weight to the significant aspects of what the gates offer, which together lead to a considerable response in the dreamer. The dreamer’s reaction to this vision is firstly one of “errour” – a result of the differing advice from each side of the gate, to “sped thee faste!”, or “th’eschewing is only the remedye!”. We know he has no experience – “al be that I knowe nat Love in dede” – but that he relies on books to teach him about love. With this knowledge, we can understand his confusion at being offered two such different suggestions through writing – something he relies on so closely. Interestingly while he feels “fere”, he eventually enters the gates on the advice on Affrican – a character he was exposed to through reading; again, he places his trust in literature rather than his own intuition and feelings. The rhyme scheme in the last paragraph, as in the paragraphs before, adds emphasis to his words. His confusion between feeling “bolde” and “colde” is one example. As the gates say, the only way to avoid the pain of love is to avoid love altogether – though of course, this comes with the price of never experiencing the “good aventure” love can offer. Ultimately though, by the end of the poem the narrator has still experienced neither the joy nor the sorrow of love, yet continues to search for it in literature in the hope that he may find it in dreams – though never in real life....