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Chaucer’s style and contribution

JM Manly on the obverse of the Cambridge History of English Literature, “The fourteenth century was a dark time in the history of English.” This statement is both historically and linguistically correct when applied to the medieval period. The English language was in infancy and required the hands of a craftsman and the mind of a genius to reach maturity. This task was left to none but Chaucer because other notable writers of the time, namely Wycliffe, William Langland, and Gower, wrote little in English. Even Shakespeare had doubts about the future of English in the 16th century when much had already been accomplished, but it was Chaucer who adopted a different style of writing in English. Literature and language were in the process of formation, which were laid on firm foundations by Chaucer. That is why Dryden hails Chaucer as “Father of English literature.”

English is linguistically divided into three periods: Old English dating from the 5th to the 14th century, Middle English from the 14th to the 18th century, and Modern English from the 18th century to the present day. Chaucer was born in what is called the era of Middle English. His style and contribution to the English language are remarkable. That is why the obverse of David Daiches, “with Chaucer the English language matured”. The observation is true as earlier writers such as King Alfred used English as it was and made no significant changes.

The Prologue is Chaucer’s most famous and established work in which he uses a narrative style to express his point of view. He uses various poetic devices to enliven his style. Chaucer followed the rhetorical principles established by Gaufred de Vinsauf in his “Nova Poetria. These principles are description and narrative. His descriptive and narrative technique is nowhere as visible as in the Canterbury Tales. In the prologue, he mainly uses the style Descriptive and in the Tales, it employs the narrative style. Most notably, it consumes the style that Robert P. Miller asserts, “Chaucer subtly adapted language and perspectives to his individual storytellers and thus established a model for Shakespeare and the Elizabethan” . playwrights “Why Robert Miller or David Daiches credit Chaucer can best be understood by examining the salient features of their style.

First of all, Chaucer’s style is marked by lucidity of expression, cheerful originality, and ease free from ambiguities and straightforward philosophical maxims. When describing almost all of his characters, he uses colloquial language that is easy for a common man to understand. For example, says Chaucer, Knight was so tame as the Leete maiden or prioress that no bite falls from his lips. His similes and metaphors are used appropriately throughout the Prologue. Second, his style is neither bookish nor cluttered. His style is rather cultivated and adapted to both the intellectuals and the layman. This is why The Prologue has been popular with men of all levels of understanding. Third, the style is humorous and ironic. His style is not pointed like that of Juvenal or Swift, he does criticize society, in fact his Prologue is a criticism of life in the words of Matthew Arnold as literature should be, but he goes from character to character with a smile and uses the irony. as his weapon to attack the follies of society instead of satire. His tongue-in-cheek comments on Monk, What to Study and Make Hymenopteran Wood, and other observations by Chaucer are worth citing. Lat Austyn has her exchange with the hymn reserved. Chaucer comments wryly about Monk, I think his opinion was good. His light and ironic style places hers with Horace. Fourth, Chaucer takes the description of his characters from the positive traits and jumps to the negative ones to scare the reader. Squire, Prioress and Wife of Bath are good characters in the opening lines, it is just after a few comments that we come to understand their true nature. Fifth, his style is not flashy. He does not display his art through his style. We simply see the image of society and not the technique through which it was drawn. That is why Chaucer believes in Swift’s words that real art lies in the concealment of art.

His style is narrative, descriptive and reflective and has all the qualities of speech. His sentences are short and simple in structure. His stylistic qualities and poetic genius contributed to English what no one else did before his time, as David Daiches proved with Chaucer, the English language and literature grew to full maturity. No other Middle English writer has his skill, his scope, his complexity, and his great human perspective. His light humor and ironic pieces have rendered such services to the English that they can only be compared to those of the Emperor Augustus in ancient Rome, who found Rome as brick and left it as marble. An appropriate comment from Lowell will finally conclude the theme that Chaucer found English in dialect and left it as a language.

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