Literature Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 8

Literature - Essay ExampleHowever, readers expectations are not confirmed. Chaucer merely uses the features of the genres to communicate the messages of his own, to establish the themes and motives he is going to elaborate in his tales. The general prologue introduces the range of the thematic and stylistic elements developed in the collection.The reader domiciliate misunderstand the authors message, misled by the generic forms represented in the prologue. At first, a reader is likely to concentrate on the gallery of portraits, perceiving them as a satirical representation of different social classes contemporary to Chaucer. Ian Johnston (1998) suggests that it is necessary to distinguish between character and thematic analysis. As a rule, critics focused on the character analysis of the prologue, ignoring the thematic approach, which is the consideration of ideas and leitmotivs and the way how they are presented, modified, challenged and resolved by the end of the work. From themat ic perspective characterization plays a principal(a) role in the presentation of coordinating ideas. However, one is to bear in mind, that, unlike philosophical works, works of fiction do not offer keen arguments (though may contain them to some degree). Thus, it is not right to reduce a work of fiction to some simple moral. By this Johnston must rigorous that interpreting the general prologue as purely a work of satire we are likely to miss an opportunity to understand the real message of the author. first off of all, it is necessary to focus on the famous opening lines (1-18). These lines imitate the opening of the thirteenth-century French Romance of the Rose, an allegorical dream vision and love romance which was the best-seller of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. All the educated readers were familiar with that work, partially translated into English by Chaucer himself. Imitating the opening of the Romance, Chaucer plays with the readers expectations, suggests Debora B. Schwartz