Chaucer Subjectivizes the Oath: Depicting the Fall from Feudalism into Individualism in the 'Canterbury Tales',
- Author / Editor
- Roney, Lois.
Chaucer Subjectivizes the Oath: Depicting the Fall from Feudalism into Individualism in the 'Canterbury Tales',
- Published
- Liam O. Purdon and Cindy L. Vitto, eds. The Rusted Hauberk: Feudal Ideals of Order and Their Decline (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1994), pp. 268-98.
- Description
- In Chaucer's three most noble, most feudal tales, the meaning of the characters' oaths is subjectively conditioned by their makers--reflecting a decline from the feudal ideal that oaths could be objectively understood. The subjectivity of oaths is demonstrated in conflicting interpretations of the "brotherhood oath" of Palamon and Arcite in KnT, in the neglect of intention in Dorigen's "rash promise" in FranT, and in the escalated fulfillment of Griselda's "obedience oath" in ClT.
- Alternative Title
- The Rusted Hauberk: Feudal Ideals of Order and Their Decline
- Chaucer Subjects
- Knight and His Tale.
- Franklin and His Tale.
- Clerk and His Tale.