charting character and caricature in chaucer ’ s “ the canterbury tales ” mr. cleon m. mclean...

Charting character and caricature in Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales”

Mr. Cleon M. McLean

Department of English

Ontario High School

Johann Kaspar Lavater

was a Swiss pseudo-scientist whose four-volume Essays on Physiognomy (1783) analyzed almost every conceivable connotation of facial features and supplied line drawings of chins, eye sockets, foreheads, mouths, and noses, with interpretative adjectives for each.

Physiognomy

In the middle ages, people held the belief that your personality type was directly related to your physical appearance and character.

People in Chaucer’s time held the belief that the four humors (moistures) were a source of disease and personality types. This theory also involved the alignment of the planets (astrology).

Physiognomy

Physiognomy was a science that judged a person's temperament/behavior and character based on his or her anatomy (the structure of the body). Physiognomy is important in Chaucer's descriptions of the pilgrims in the General Prologue.

The Four Humors/Dispositions

1. Sanguine (hot moisture)

2. Choleric (hot and dry moisture)

3. Melancholy (cold moisture)

4. Phlegmatic (cold and dry moisture) These are normally connected to the

four natural elements

Physiognomy

Physiognomy in Silhouette

Physiognomy

Row one: brutal and cynical

Row two: benevolent and tender

Rows three and four: stupid and highly sexual

Physiognomy in “TCT”

The most exaggerated facial features are those of the peasants.

The Miller represents the stereotypical peasant physiognomy most clearly, because he is round and ruddy, with a wart on his nose. The Miller appears rough and therefore suited for rough, simple work.

The Pardoner's glaring eyes and limp hair illustrate his greediness and avarice.

Humor: Sanguine

Description: blood; hot and moist; causes cheerful personality, sensuality, talkers, lively/impulsive, vivacious, nervy/changeable/outgoing/extrovert

Examples from “TCT”: The Wife of Bath Hubert the Friar The Franklin

Humor: Choleric

Description: yellow/bile; hot and dry moisture; causes angry personality, unkindness,wrath, instability. Also,

pride/confident positive/ self-reliant/ leaders/aggressive/ gutsy/tactless/workaholics

Example from “TCT”: The Reeve

Humor: Melancholy

Description: black bile; cold moisture; causes gloominess/depression and delusion/pensiveness, orderly, analytical, profound, faithful, resentful, reticent, negative

Humor: Phlegmatic

Description: phlegm; cold and dry moisture; causes sluggishness or apathy/ sloth, obesity, laziness/ serene, listeners, negotiators, content, peaceful, dry-humored/ anxious, indecisive, slow, shy

Essay Outline

1st paragraph: Define your character 2nd paragraph: Define the personality/humor

type that best fit/describe your character 3rd paragraph: Compare your character to the

type of humor, using quotes 4th paragraph: What does the reader learn

about your character’s description? How can this relate to today’s world?

Essay Outline Example

1st paragraph: The Miller is “broad, knotty and shortshouldered”- has a RED beard

2nd paragraph sanguine—blood, impulsive, interrupts

choleric—yellow bile, angry

3rd paragraph The miller is a lively talker; he Interrupts the knight

He is also choleric and prone to anger and unkindness

4th paragraph

Introductory Paragraph

1. Hook: two or three related sentences about the Late Medieval Period

2. Author and text: state Geoffrey Chaucer and "TCT," and finish the sentence (or two) with a fact about "TCT," such as the fact that it is a framed story with rhyming pastoral couplets, 31 pilgrims on their way to Canterbury, satire on medieval institutions and social classes, etc

3. Thesis: subject + 2 opinions= chosen character + 2 important descriptions which help us understand the character's class/occupation/disposition/vice/virtue

Introductory Paragraph

Roughly from the eleventh to the fifteenth century, the people of Western Europe belonged to one homogenous society with a common culture and a common set of beliefs. The single institution that did the most to promote this unity was the Medieval Church. In Geoffrey Chaucer’s Late Medieval poem, “The Canterbury Tales,” thirty-one pilgrims travel to Canterbury to see Saint Thomas a Becket. In this framed story, the friar, one of the pilgrims, is a greedy and corrupt ecclesiast.