Textuality » 3LSCA InteractingOSponza - Comparison between The Knight and The Merchant
by 2021-03-17)
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COMPARATION BETWEEN THE MERCHANT AND THE KNIGHT I’m going to start with the characterization of The Merchant. The Merchant is one of the characters described in the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer's. The poet starts the characterization of The Merchant with his physical appear with the expression “forking beard”. Then, the poet continues with his dressing style. The poet focuses the reader’s attention on his extravagance and his colored dress. With the expression “high on his horse he sat” the poet wants to connote his posture and he is ironic about these. Then, he recalls his dressing style and tells about his difference from the other merchants. With the expression “he told of his opinions and pursuits” the poet wants to highlight that he is egocentric. After that, with the expression “in solemn tones”, the poet uses the strategies of speaking style of the merchant to connote that he is full of himself. The first reference of the reader to understand that what the poet said is ironic is that from the beginning to now the poet tells about only his appearance, how he speaks, how he wears and not of his job. With the adjective “estimable”, associates to the merchant, the poet is ironic. In conclusion, the poet confirms the perception of the reader whit the expression “none knew he was in debt”. This expression apparently appears in contrast with the previous lines. But, when the intelligent reader thinks about all poem, he understands that the poet was ironic in all poem. To sum up, the strategies that the poet uses in this characterization are: indirect characterization, telling technique because the reader is influence by poet’s point of view, his physical appear, his speaking style, his thinking style, and his consideration of himself to show something that is not true, but he most important strategies used by the poet in the characterization is irony. Now, I continue with the characterization of The Knight. Socially, the Knight is by far the most prestigious person on the pilgrimage. This tale is contained in the Chaucer’s opera “The Canterbury Tales”. He has fought in many battles and served his king nobly. He is the very essence of chivalry, honor, and courage. For the poet, the knight is an example and he doesn’t laugh for his work. Similarly, he is the epitome of gentility, a man who loves truth, freedom, and honor. Everyone in the pilgrimage looks up to and respects him. Right from the start, the poet associates the knight to a gentleman to connote his gentility. The poet in this line tells about his reputation. This is important because the intelligent reader understands that, from the start, the poet praises the knight. Then the poet narrates his values, in particular, his four principal values: chivalry, truth, honor, freedom and courtesy. With this choice the poet wants to connote his loyalty for the king. Moreover, the word king recalls the word knight. The poet uses the absolute negation with the expression “no man more” to accentuate his uniqueness and his skills in war. The expression “as well in Christendom as heathenness” the poet wants to highlight his religion values. The church, in that moment, regulates all social classes. Then, the word “honored” recalls the word “honor” in the previous lines. In the eighth line the strategy used by the poet is his reputation. Moreover, the poet tells about his victory and his military career and to accentuate it he uses another absolute negation in the expression “no Christened man”. The Knight has battled the Muslims in Egypt, Spain, and Turkey, and the Russian Orthodox in Lithuania and Russia which are a religious battle. The battles are create in a climatic way. In this lines the strategy used is tell about his skill to highlight his modesty and that recalls the strategy of his reputation. Furthermore, the Knight wears a tunic made of coarse cloth, and his coat of mail is rust-stained, because he has recently returned from an expedition. For that the intelligent reader understands that, for the poet, another important knight’s value is his dress. From a lexical and syntactical point of view, the poet uses more time the figure of speech of alliteration for example in the nineth line with the words “winning” and “was” or in the seventeenth line with the words “when”, “were” and “won”. To sum up, the strategies that the poet uses in this characterization are: his reputation, his skills, indirect characterization, telling technique, his actions, his values, his hierarchical role in the society, his dressing style and absolute negation. The intelligent reader knows that Chaucer is famous because he uses a lot of time the strategies of irony but, in this case, he doesn’t use that. This is the reason why the intelligent reader understands that he respects him and his role in the society. In the characterization, Chaucer uses different strategies in the majority of characters, even if there is also a specular attitude. For example, in the comparison between character of the merchant and the character of the knight. The most important difference between these two poems is that Chaucer is ironic in “The Merchant” and that diminished the character of the merchant, while, in “The Knight” the poet praises the protagonist, and the strategy of irony is totally absent. His values described in the beginning of the poem are reclaimed in the end of the poem to accentuate this concept. Indeed, in the Knight the prevalent strategy is his reputation. The effect creates by the poem of “the Knight” is a positive effect, while, in “The Merchant” the effect is negative. The reputation of “The Knight” is most important difference between . in the Merchant stands up his falseness because the character wants to appear in a way that is not true.
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