Analyzing Chaucer's Use of Genres in The Canterbury Tales

In reading several of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales - and presenting an in-depth look at "The Nun's Priest's Tale" in-depth - it became astonishingly clear that Chaucer didn't limit himself to one genre per tale. Although several, if not all, of his tales were based on existing literature or oral traditional stories, he took these tales to a new level through the use of a mix of genres, interweaving one genre upon the other like a finely crafted tapestry. They ended with a beautifully presented, meticulously crafted work of such fine craftsmanship that the reader could not help but be stunned and breathless upon the realization of the many factors at work in creating what can seem, at first, to be a simple story.

In reading and studying several of Chaucer's tales through this light, it becomes a difficult task to limit any of his tales to strictly one paradigm of story-telling; it is, in fact, quite impossible. I contend that all of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales are written as a mix of genres, lovingly handcrafted through the use of a blending of genres to come to a greater conclusion than could be had by limiting them so. I will study, in particular, the roles that different genres play in "The Nun's Priest's Tale," as I firmly believe that this tale is one of the most sophisticated and telling tales of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, and I will hold the mirror of the fantastic Chaunticleer up to some of the other tales and see what genres do in the context of some of the tales.

In order to study the different roles the many genres play in The Canterbury Tales, it is essential todefine these genres. Many were popular during the Chaucer's time, and can be seen quite clearly in all of his tales. The first of these genres is the Beast Fable. This genre had been, up until that point, used as a model for children's literature and oral tales. The Beast Fable is oobviously a tale about animals, but one where "animals are used as embodiments or caricatures of human virtues, vices, prudences, and follies ... and the other typical qualities of mankind" (Boitani 47). In other words, they outright pain or horror that one could feel at seeing themselves painted so clearly in a tale as a less-than-perfect character can be softened through the use of animals.

Beast fables are usually "brief cautionary anecdotes that use the obvious resemblances between man and animals to point a moral or push a proverb home entertainingly" (Boitani 54). And the point is made quite clearly that this, indeed, is the case (at least on one level) in the tale of Chaunticleer, in which the chickens are more deliciously human than any of the travelers had been up to this point! Furthermore, according to Helen Cooper, the beast fable was "an ambivalent genre in the Middle Ages...appropriate for elementary instruction, but is could also be used as a vehicle for sophisticated rhetoric" (Cooper 341). We see this at its illustrative best in "The Nun's Priest's Tale," in which Chaunticleer is a super-chicken, a Chicken Above All Other Chickens, well-versed in philosophy and rhetoric, using both more fluently and naturally than we had previously seen in any of the human characters presented in The Canterbury Tales. Ironic? Of course, but a lovely juxtaposition of the animal behavior so prevalent in men, and of the gentilesse that can be seen in Chaunticleer.

How, then, does Chaucer use the beast fable to his advantage, and how does he use it differently that it had been used before? Traditionally, the beast fable had been about "how things are, rather than how things ought to be;" in this case, however, Chaunticleer and Pertolete exemplify many of the ways things ought to be: marriage, philosophical debate, and a well-developed psychology (Cooper 341). Ironically, their marriage is the most healthy of all the marriages we see in the tales, with the possible exception of Dorigen and Averigus in The Franklin's Tale. This, then, leads us to an entirely different genre, mixed in with the beast fable: the romance.

The romance is used widely and in a variety or ways within The Canterbury Tales. According to Jeawhan Kim, in Chaucer's Tales, "romances explore the notions of love and war, usually in a refined setting. They revolve around highly idealized behavior and courtship. Women basically act beautiful and remote; men try to impress the women with their prowess and virtue; the course of true love never runs smooth" (220). We see this theme run throughout a plethora of the Tales: In "The Knight's Tale," we see "Courtly Love" as defined by Cappelanus: love causes illness that actually changes that way a sad lover, Arcite, looks. Palamon and Arcite risk death to win "favor" with the lady; Many trials and tribulations are had to win the hand of the lovely Emelye. The idea of love in this tale is explained in the end as a Godly construct, as an ideal toward which to aspire:

The Firste Moevere of the cause above,
Whan he first made the faire cheyne of love,
Greet was th'effect, and heigh was his entente.
. . .
For with that faire cheyne of love he bond
The fyr, the eyr, the water, and the lond
In certeyn boundes, that they may nat flee (2987-2993)

According to this quotation, love is made with the very elements of the earth, and is that Platonic ideal. Can a human ever get to that love? No, but Palamon and Arcite clearly strive to get as close to it as they can, and take some serious physiological, psychological and mortal "hits" as a result of pursuing this high intent of love.

We see the romance in a much different, and very sad, version in "The Clerk's Tale," in which Walter loves the fair Griselde so much, and she clearly loves him too, but because of class structures, they can never have an "even" or remotely equitable marriage. He tries, and has grand ideas in the beginning, when he says to his people:

Lat me allone in chesynge of my wyf,

That charge upon my bak I wole endure;

But I yow preye, and charge upon youre lyf

That what wyf that I take, ye me assure

To worshipe hir, whil that hir lyf may dure,

In word and werk, bothe heere and everywheere,

As she an emperoures doghter weere. (106-112)

He wants the charge of choosing his own wife so that he alone can pick one, from whatever class he chooses, that he will love forever - more importantly, however, is how his people will treat her. He wants a wife that will be treated "as she an emperoures doghter were" (112). And the irony of this entire passage is that he gets exactly what he wants: the people of his lands do treat her as a heavenly queen. It is he, however, who cannot overcome his trust issues in her due to her circumstances of birth. The genos topos "problem" that comes through in this tale is powerful and moving, and prevents two people who love each other from having any kind of fulfilling, equal relationship. Even in the end, after Walter has tortured Griselde for twenty years - and has, essentially, tortured himself - she forgives him. But is this any kind of situation that can end well? Probably not, and I think that Chaucer was using this tale as an exaggerated version of the problems that occur when genos plays such a huge role in a marriage. Like the Beast Fable, this tale has a moral tale, although hidden quite well, and the moral is heartbreaking.

In "The Miller's Tale," we see an entirely different version of "romance," leaning much more to the area of "lewd behavior" rather than true romance! It does, in fact, mock the idea of "Courtly Love" and stands as a sort of opposition to "The Knight's Tale." Absolon is the poor Courtly Love Oaf, who receives nothing but the memory of Allison's buttocks on his lips as the remains of his romantic pursuits. Instead of looking strong and virile, Absolon looks ridiculous, and very much like a foolish sop who spends too much time playing with his lovely blond locks.

Additionally, the old man, John, looks ridiculous as well, spending far too much time doting and believing in his young wife (who, according to medieval thought, would NEVER be satisfied by the silly carpenter). All he gets for his trouble and devotion is an extended evening on the roof and the label of cuckolded husband. The "winner" of sorts, Nicholas, certainly does not suffer in the ways that Absolon and John do, but does end up with a nicely branded bottom. This really isn't too bad of a punishment, considering his "Courtly Love" consisted of grabbing Allison's crotch before he ever talked to her.

It is the cunning and devious Allison who escapes any branding of any kind - literal or figurative. She certainly cannot be blamed for not wanting John and for desiring the virile Nicholas. She is cunning and wily and manipulative, and everything works out her way! In this "Love" story, it is the most shrewd who win at the end, and therefore bring and entirely different idea to the notion of romance than we've seen before in the tales.

And then, of course, we see the romance in "The Nun's Priest's Tale," in which the two fowl have a fulfilling , and NOT foul (!), sexual relationship, which is a very different picture than the sexual relationships we've seen up until this point. As Chaucer indicates when he writes that Chanticleer 'feathers' Pertelote several times during a night:

He fethered Pertelote twenty tyme,

And trad hire eke as ofte, er it was pryme.
He looketh as it were a grym leoun,
And on his toos he rometh up and doun;
Hym deigned nat to sette his foot to grounde.
He chukketh whan he hath a corn yfounde,
And to hym rennen thanne his wyves alle. (3177-3183)

Clearly, he was a robust, sexually fulfilled chicken - and Pertolote is just as willing and happy to "comply" as he is. Unlike the other tales, however, where sex is either for revenge, or unhappy, or simply not mentioned, the sexual activity here occurs as an end to itself. This is reminiscent of the Wife of Bath, who believes that sex doesn't always need to be for procreation, and can be had for its own sake. What a novel idea!

Beyond the sexual nature of their relationship, the interplay between Chanticleer and Pertelote reveals a sharp wit and depth of emotion. The two behave as would a normal married couple: they bicker with each other, flatter each other, and advise each another, but never truly at the other's expense. Pertelote is constantly telling him that his dream means nothing, and to take a laxative. He takes her advice in good stead, finally, but they have a long, involved "discussion" about this and what dreams mean philosophically. To inject a personal observation, doesn't this occur often in a true relationship? Small issues getting blown into six-hour-long conversations that relate, in some way, to something philosophical that has happened somewhere in the world! But I digress. Chanticleer is stubborn but does relent to Pertelote's rationality, but when he does he gets a final "joke" (or is it revenge?) on her. He says:

For whan I se the beautee of youre face,
Ye been so scarlet reed aboute youre yen,
It maketh al my drede for to dyen;
For al so siker as in principio,
Mulier est hominis confusio, --
Madame, the sentence of this latyn is,
womman is mannes joye and al his blis. (3161-3166)

And he is saying, quite literally, that "woman is man's confusion," yet her tells her that "woman is man's delight and bliss." It is hard to tell if he means this as a private joke to himself or as some sort of ironic joke to his lady faire, but whatever the intention of the brave Chaunticleer, it turns out that both meanings have a deeper meaning; Pertelote does confuse Chaunticleer, but even with her slight nagging and their bickering, he loves her immensely. She is both of these things to him.

The narrative thrust of the Nun's Priest's Tale is minimal, but the actions that it does contain give an equal share of praise and mild criticism to both the husband and wife. There is an equitability here that is simply not found in the other tales between husbands and wives. Chanticleer is absurd to believe that his illness is caused by some psychic portent (or is he?) and rightly follows his wife's sane advice to find herbs to cure himself. However, when he does so, his prediction comes true ­ - he is chased by a fox.

This relationship - between CHICKENS! - is a , a stark contrast with the sexual transactions that occur in the more dramatic tales, and occurs out of some genuine emotion in contrast to the lustful encounters many of Chaucer's tales. It is, in my opinion, the most loving and "real" relationship shown in the tales. It is a true romance, without worries about class or courtly ideals or anything that would limit the feeling. It is simply about the love that two pretty amazing chickens have for one another.

Another genre used to great effect in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is the "Dream Vision," which are tales in which the narrator or protagonist receives guidance through a dream, thus bypassing medieval restrictions on fiction, for how could "fiction" be involved when it was the natural thought process of the dreamer? The Dream Vision figures heavily in "The Nun's Priest's Tale," and comes from a variety of sources throughout the Middle Ages. According to the common view of the dream vision, here were several sources for the dream. God could be the "maker" of the dream, or it could be an evil presence, such as Satan, even in the form of an incubus or succubus or some other sexual "lurer" or a natural cause, like indigestion, such as is suggested by the lovely Pertolote in "The Nun's Priest's Tale" (Finlayson 500). The common view of the Dream Vision in the Middle Ages was:

1) the dreamer falls asleep in the midst of some life crisis or emotional impasse;

2) the dreamer, almost always a male, finds himself in a beautiful natural place (locus amoenus), often an enclosed garden filled with beautiful plants, animals, etc. (hortus conclusus); (For Chanticleer, it's his own yard)

3) the dreamer encounters a guide figure who instructs the dreamer and/or leads the dreamer to one or more allegorical visions; (we don't see a guiding figure in this dream vision, however)

4) the dreamer may interrogate the guide figure about the significance of the visions, but often this does not produce satisfactory results; (again, did not happen)

5) something within the dream causes the dreamer to awaken before the full significance of the dream can be explained. (His wife woke Chanticleer up!) (List taken from Williams, 160)

Both Pearland Piers Plowman are significant dream visions that were most likely known by Chaucer's intended audience and were widely popular due to the appearance of fiction without that actual fiction "label." The dream vision came directly from Boethius, and was a popular form. In The Nun's Priest's Tale, however, Chaucer puts a significant "twist" on the dream vision. The audience doesn't actually get to see the dream - they just get to hear about it! The Locus Enclosus for Chanticleer is his own yard - the beautiful place about which he is dreaming - because, for Chanticleer, can anything be more beatiful? Probably not. He is a happy, fulfilled chicken who is the most content in his own space.

There is not guide figure in this dream vision - and what does this mean? There is not a wide variety of literature on the subject, but my own opinion is this: Chaucer wanted the audience reading the tale to be the guide figure for the dream. What does this mean? Instead of having someone to "give away" the answers to his audience, Chaucer wanted to audience to come up with their own questions and refelct upon them, answer Chaunticleer, but also answering themselves. It makes sense that, in a tale where the culpability, gullibility, guile and boastfulness of the characters are examined, the human readers would have to look at these things and try and guide the chickens through the mucky world of flaws and dirt. It is the actual questions that the tale poses that Chaucer was trying to get across to his audience, and that is why this tale is the most sophisticated of all that we've read.

In The Nun's Priest's Tale Chaucer displays what could be seen as some of the biggest "flaws" or weak points of the time and puts them into context with his animal characters. It is ludicrous, at first sight, to have chickens involved in a debate, especially one of such a philosophical significance. However, could it be that these chickens are having a debate of more importance than some of the debates taking place at the time? Could Chaucer have been saying that the rhetorical power of the Middle Ages was being lost in petty arguments? In an era when men are fighting over money and "killing death," what does it say about the complexity of the debate the chickens have? I find it very telling and paradoxical work of genius.

Chaucer takes the stereotypes that had, up until that point, been incredibly limiting, and turned them around. More than that, he criss-crossed them, making this seemingly simple tale more effective, meaningful and complex than any of the other tales. Moral tales - seen in previous beast-fables - were limiting, at best, and contained a simple, single moral at the end. The moral was useful, but incredibly difficult to apply in a mixed-up, messed-up, less than idyllic world. By taking the beast-fable and weaving in several other genres, Chaucer makes the stereotypes meaningless and brings a new level of importance to the common place. What can be more common that chickens? However, these chickens are not common at all. Indeed, they are the most spectacular breed of chicken every produced, and some would say they were superior (GASP!) to many humans of the day. With this level of complexity, would a single, simple moral be appropriate any more? Certainly not, and this is how "The Nun's Priest's Tale" ends - with a moral from nearly everyone, and several more left in the minds of the readers! Like life, the end is neither black nor white, and the moral is never simple, nor can it be constructed. It comes out of debate, experience, and character - and we get all three of these in this tale.

Chaucer blurs the generic distinctions in his works by using elements from two, three, or even four genres in most works. We see this most progressively in "The Nun's Priest's Tale," but throughout his others as well. It is never a simple tale of romance: instead, a romantic tale can also be about class distinctions and have a moral element and even through in some religious commentary as well. It is this fantastic layering that makes Chaucer, in my opinion, so much more interesting to modern readers like me than many other works: the multi-generic works are harder to "solve," less determinate in meaning, closer to what we moderns expect, than much other medieval writing. The sophistication and accessibility offered by the Great Chaucer relate to us in a personal, telling, and moving manner, leaving us awed and even, if we are lucky, little bit changed - for the better - by his words on the page.

Sources

Boitani, Piero, and Anna Torti, eds. Genres, Themes, and Images in English Literature : From the Fourteenth to the Fifteenth Century : The JAW Bennett Memorial Lectures, Perugia, 1986. Tübingen: Gunter Narr, 1988.

Chaucer, Geoffrey,d.1400., and Vincent Foster Hopper, eds. Canterbury Tales, Selected; an Interlinear Translation by Vincent F Hopper; Canterbury Tales Selections. Brooklyn,: Barron's Educational Series, 1948].

Chaucer, Geoffrey,d.1400., V. A. Kolve, and Glending Olson, eds. Canterbury Tales Selections; the Canterbury Tales : Fifteen Tales and the General Prologue : Authoritative Text, Sources and Backgrounds, Criticism. 2nd ed. ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2005.

Cooper, Helen. The Canterbury Tales. 2nd ed. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.

Finlayson, John. "Reading Chaucer's Nun's Priest's Tale: Mixed Genres and Multi-Layered Worlds of Illusion." English Studies: A Journal of English Language and Literature 86 (2005): 493-510.

Kim, Jaewhan. "The Genre of Canterbury Tale." The Journal of English Language and Literature 38: 213-27.

Newhauser, Richard. "The Parson's Tale and its Generic Affiliations." Closure in the Canterbury Tales: The Role of the Parson's Tale. Ed. David Raybin and Linda Tarte Holley. Kalamazoo, MI: Western Michigan University, 2000. 45-76.

Pearsall, Derek. "Chaucer's Religious Tales: A Question of Genre." Chaucer's Religious Tales. Ed. C. David Benson and Elizabeth Robertson. Cambridge, England: Brewer, 1990. 11-19.

Pugh, Tison. "Chaucer and Genre: A Teaching Model for the Upper-Level Undergraduate Course." Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching 9: 45-60.

Williams, Deanne. "The Dream Visions." The Yale Companion to Chaucer. Ed. Seth Lerer. New Haven, CT: Yale UP, 2006. 147-178.