Respond to the quote below:
Joseph Conrad : There is something haunting in the light of the moon; it has all the dispassionateness of a disembodied soul, and something of its inconceivable mystery.
1. Discuss Journal
2. Review/Collect Chaucer-Style Characterizations
Literary Focus
Imagery and Character
Chaucer is a master of imagery, language that appeals to the senses. Most images are visual, but imagery can also appeal to our sense of hearing, smell, taste, or touch. In a few vivid words, sometimes using figures of speech, Chaucer creates a cast of characters as real to us as the characters in the latest novel—more real, perhaps, because Chaucer’s pilgrims exhibit all the essentials of human nature.
Chaucer relies on his readers’ knowledge of physiognomy. Based on some of Aristotle’s treatises, physiognomy compares varieties of people with animals and asserts that certain physical characteristics reveal one’s true character. Thus, when Chaucer’s contemporaries read that the Wife of Bath had “gap-teeth, set widely, truth to say,” they knew that the physiognomists believed that a gap between a woman’s two front teeth indicated not only that she would travel far but also that she was bold and amorous.
** Physiognomy:
** Physiognomy:
the face or countenance, especially when considered as an index to the character: a fierce physiognomy.
Analyzing Chaucer’s imagery. Below is a list of a few physical characteristics and their corresponding physiognomic interpretations. Choose a pilgrim who exhibits each characteristic. How does the physiognomic interpretation reinforce what you already know about the character’s nature?
No comments:
Post a Comment