Seminar Frankin\'s Tale claudia scheele PDF

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SEMINAR N. 5: EL ELEMENTO MÁGICO: “THE FRANKLIN’S TALE”

1. What is the attitude of this narrator on the rhetorical craft of poets? Does he consider himself one of them? Is it a reliable stance; is he really such a bad teller? The narrator attitude towards the rhetorical craft of poets is a cultured form of speech. Even thought he doesn’t see himself as one of them, a specially cultivated man who one has ever taught him the art of rhetoric. He warns the audience of his words as his perception of himself doesn’t shine for having a big self-esteem, that’s why before saying anything he says that he is not so good of a man as that is the portrait that he has of himself. 2. How are the elements of the courtly love code handled in this narration?: do we find the male suffering and the secret commitment between lovers equally in Dorigen’s relationship with Arveragus and Aurelius? In this narration we can see how the picture of love revolves around the concepts of the European literary image of nobility and chivalry in their love stories, the love affair between a noble woman and a knight. In this particular story the roles switched as the one who suffers is the woman and cries the exodus of Arveragus. Apart from this, the courtly love personifies the love between Averagus and Dorigen.

3. From the very beginning the question of power is suggested through the clear reference to marriage; what does the narrator think about it? In tos story faith and loyalty play a very importan part as the narrator gives very importance to these things while telling the tale. Moreover, we can highlight the fact that he doesn’t see marriage as a relationship of power or authority over the other, instead he believes that it’s something free for both parts, we can see this when he says “Love is a thing as any spirit free; Women by nature long for Liberty and not to be constrained or made a thrall, and so do men, if I may speak for all”.

4. What should the defining trait of couples in love be from his point of view? Love should not be understood as something that hurts you but as something that brings you joy, a faithful wife and husband that don’t try to control their partner,

5. Does the narrator understand Dorigen’s laments? The narrator understand her laments as she is grieving for her husband’s departure, she seems to be like time won’t fly and she is paralyze by it pouring and lamenting every day that passes by, the idea of him not coming back puts her in a new hell every time that thought crossed her mind. 6. What do you think the rocks might mean? What do they mean to her? These thoughts represented for her the idea of her husband’s death, she feared so much of loosing him that she would imagined situations of him crushing towards rocks and dying drawn in the middle of the ocean. These images represented fear, danger and basically loosing him. 7. What is the significance of the month of May in lyrical courtly compositions? The significance of the month of May is that it represents spring, where everything surrounded us blooms and we have perfect weather. It changes mood on people as everyone seems to be in a better place due to the weather and the ambiance. During this month we see her in a better place where that pain that she thought was gone be forever might not be so. 8. What is the narrator’s opinion about Aurelius? The opinion of the narrator about Aurelius is that he appreciates him, presented as an honorable man blessed with fame, beauty and wealth. He is not presented as perfect, he has flaws as he knows that he feels desire for a forbidden noble lady, his love for Dorigen is not proper of a man like him. 9. What are the classical references in this story and what is the effect they produce? The classical references that we can find in this story are shown by Dorigen, we can see that she would rather die than betrayed her husband. She mentions important women like Portia, Teuta or Valeria, who chose not to be unfaithful. She feels inspired by them. 10. Dorigen and Aurelius pray to the Christian and the classical gods respectively; do you think the magician’s art is presented as a more powerful alternative in the narration? It is understood as a more powerful alternative to christianity’s power because Aurelius goes to get help from a magician instead of praying to God.

11. What is the franklin’s comment about black magic and how does he present the magus? What is the lesson the franklin draws from this story? The lesson that we learn from this story is to never make a promise that you have no intention to keep. 12. Do you think he stresses the fact that the three male characters are equally noble or is there some kind of gradation in their graciousness to the others? In the story we can see a gradation in Aurelius’ behaviour at the beginning he is seen as selfish when he destroys the true love between Arveragus and Dorigen. The thing is that he ends up releasing her from her oath and she can be finally free to love, meanwhile, the Knight has a stable attitude during the entire story. We could say that all of three characters experience some sort of graduation through out the story, each of them on a different day but all of them being noble at heart. 13. Do you think this sort of magic is parallel to that of Sir Orfeo’s adventure? This sort of magic in my opinion has a strong parallel compared to Sir Orfeo’s story. However, they have different types of magic, Aurelius wishes the rocks to disappear to return to his wife, meanwhile in Sir Orfeo the magic has a more fairytale element in the story....