Canterbury tales

3. REALISM J. CHAUCERA AND THE GENRE SPECIFICITY OF HIS WORKS
“The essence and basis of the book is its realism. It includes portraits of people, their assessment, their views on art, their behavior - in a word, a living picture of life . Not without reason did Gorky call Chaucer the “father of realism”: the rich painting of portraits of his contemporaries in his poetic “Canterbury Tales” and, even more so, their general concept, such a clear clash of old feudal England and new England of merchants and adventurers, testify to Chaucer’s belonging to the literature of the Renaissance.
“But the category of realism is a complex phenomenon that has not yet received an unambiguous definition in the scientific literature. During the discussion in 1957, several points of view on realism emerged. According to one of them, realism, understood as plausibility, fidelity to reality, can be found already in the earliest monuments of art. From another point of view, realism as an artistic method of cognition of reality arises only at a certain stage in the history of mankind. Regarding the time of its origin, there is no complete unity among the supporters of this concept. Some believe that the conditions for the emergence of realism are formed only in the 19th century, when literature turns to the study of social reality . Others associate the genesis of realistic art with the Renaissance, believing that at this time writers begin to analyze the influence of society and history on a person.
Both of these statements are correct to a certain extent. Indeed , realism as an artistic method was fully developed only in the 19th century, when a direction known as critical realism developed in European literatures. However, like any phenomenon in nature and society, realism arose “not immediately, not in finished form, but with a certain gradualness, going through a more or less long process of formation, formation, maturation” [cit. according to 8, 50]. It is natural , therefore, that some elements, certain aspects of the realistic method are also found in the literature of earlier eras. From this point of view, we will try to find out what elements of the realistic method appear in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. As you know, one of the most important principles of realism is the reproduction of life in the forms of life itself. This formula, however, does not imply realism or plausibility in the modern sense of the word , which is mandatory for works of all historical periods. As Acad. N. I. Kondrad : “The concept of “reality” carried a different content for writers of different centuries. “The love potion in the novel Tristan and Isolda is not “mysticism” at all, but simply a product of the pharmacology of that time . . ." » .
The idea of reality, which found its expression in the Canterbury Tales, was largely based on medieval ideas. Thus, "reality" in the late Middle Ages included astrological representations. Chaucer took them quite seriously. This is evidenced by the fact that in the Canterbury Tales, characters and situations are often determined by the position of the stars and heavenly bodies. An example is The Knight's Tale. Astrology in Chaucer's time combined medieval prejudices and scientific astronomical knowledge. The writer's interest in them is manifested in the prose treatise "On the Astrolabe ", in which he explains to a certain "little Lewis" how to use this ancient astronomical instrument.⁹
Medieval philosophy often declared real not only objects surrounding a person, but also angels, and even human souls. The influence of these ideas can also be seen in Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales . His view of the world includes Christian miracles, which are narrated in the "Abbess's Tale" and in "The Lawyer's Tale", and the fantasy of the Breton le , which appears in "The Tale of the Weaver from Bath", and the idea of Christian long-suffering - in "The Story of the tale of an Oxford student. All these representations were organic for medieval consciousness. Chaucer does not question their value , as evidenced by the inclusion of such motifs in The Canterbury Tales. For Chaucer, as a writer of the earliest stage of the English Renaissance, it is not a denial of medieval ideals that is characteristic, but a somewhat ironic attitude towards them. This is manifested, for example, in the Oxford Student's Tale, which details the story of the patient Griselda , popular at that time . The daughter of a poor peasant, she becomes the wife of a large feudal lord, who demands unconditional obedience from her. Wanting to test Griselda , her husband and master orders the children to be taken away from her and fakes their murder. Then he deprives Griselda of all property and even clothes, expels her from the palace and announces his decision to marry again a young and noble girl. Griselda meekly fulfills all the orders of her husband. Since obedience is one of the basic Christian virtues, at the end of the story, Griselda is fully rewarded for it. The husband returns his favor to her, she again becomes the mistress of the whole neighborhood and meets with the children whom she considered killed.
Chaucer's hero conscientiously retells a well-known parable. But his final words are ironic:
It were ful hard to fynde now -a - dayes
In al a town Grisildis thre or two .
It would be very difficult these days
Find two or three Griseldas in the whole city .
The conclusion of the narrator-student is very revealing. It reflected the understanding of unrealism , the implausibility of ideas that were part of medieval reality .
Realistic tendencies in Chaucer's art have not fully formed , they are in the making. In relation to the literature of the XIV century. one can hardly speak of the reproduction of reality in the forms of reality itself. However, the author of The Canterbury Tales is distinguished by a completely conscious desire for a truthful depiction of life. Confirmation can be the words that the writer puts into the mouth of a pilgrim named Chaucer. In the prologue to The Miller's Tale , he expresses his fear that not all storytellers will follow the rules of a good thane in their stories .
I moot reherce
Ніг tales alle , be they bettre or
Or elles falsen son of my matere .
I have to convey
All their stories, be they good or
Or fake a part of mine
works ".
The poet strives to reproduce these stories in a form as close as possible to the way they were allegedly told during pilgrimages . The Canterbury Tales reveals, albeit in a rudimentary form, a creative attitude towards a realistic reproduction of life.
Domestic literary critics, regardless of whether they recognize realism in the literature that preceded the 19th century, believe that the identification of features of realism in the works of different eras contributes to a correct understanding of continuity in the development of artistic creativity. So, R. M. Samarin, speaking about the realism of the Renaissance , notes its close connection with the fruitful traditions of medieval art.