The man Of Law
Ok... since most of y'all slept during my jawn.... here are the notes...
the themes are probably the most important parts.
Man Of Law
The General Prologue
Lawyer considered a respected man
Conceited because of his profession
Busier than he actually is
Accompanied by the Franklin
=> In that time a lawyer would assumedly be a man that worked his way into a higher class
Introduction
The host asks the Man of Law to remain idle no longer, commenting that it is growing late.
The Lawyer agrees to the host’s request and begins to ponder a story
The Lawyer remarks in complaint that most stories of love, wives and myths have already been told or retold
Then the Lawyer before finally deciding on a tale lists several famous medieval tales and explains their redundancies in history
Prologue to the Tale
The Lawyer before his tales goes on a short rant about the general publics reverence of Christ
He looks to the events of Christmas and the blame people put on God to show his point
Before he begins his tale he explains that the story he will tell was told to him by a miller
Analysis of Prologue
"Thou blamest Christ, and thou say'st bitterly, He misdistributes riches temporal;" This quote is intended to enhance the Lawyer’s point. He finds that people often blame God for their shortcomings. The issue of the blame of God is dealt with in the Biblical Story of Job.
"And so, at Christmas, merrily may ye dance! Ye search all land and sea for your winnings," This is an issue that still goes on today. In modern times people refer to this as the commercialization of Christmas. Basically the Lawyer intends to point out that the point of Christmas is often times forgotten, and as this quote suggests people turn to merry dancing and riches instead of reverence of God at Christmas time.
Analysis of Prologue Continued
The issues of loyalty and the strength of Christianity are common motifs in the Man Of Law’s tale.
The fact that the Man Of Law got his story from a miller suggests that it may not be the most common tale thematically for a lawyer to tell. Ironically the story corresponds to all of the lawyers beliefs.
Tale. One. [A fine girl]
The lawyers tale begins with a group of traders going from Syria to Rome.
In Rome they meet a girl named Constance, and they think she's pretty fine.
When they return to Syria they tell their Sultan about the girl and he becomes fascinated with her.
The Sultan desires to marry the girl without even meeting her, but to his dismay he was told that she wouldn’t be able to marry him because he was a Muslim and she was a Christian
He converted to Christianity and advised others to do the same so that he could marry Constance.
Then he was given her hand in marriage. Constance was not happy of this, but as a woman she felt she had no choice.
Tale Analysis. One.
The beauty of a women is shown to have a dramatic effect on men. Here this point is exaggerated when the Sultan desires Constance without even setting eyes on her.
Ironically Constance feels she has no power as a woman, when in fact she has a great amount of power over men.
The "war" between Christianity and Islam is a seemingly ongoing battle that is dealt with in this story.
Tale. Two. [A wedding and an angry mom]
When the Sultana (the Sultan’s Mom) hears about her sons actions she is happy that her son is happy but enraged by his choice to denounce the Islamic faith.
She compares Constance to the Biblical character Eve.
She decides to hold a banquet in honor of the marriage. Deceitfully she plans to kill everyone in attendance.
Her plan fails however because the only survivor of her massacre was Constance herself.
Tale Analysis. Two., continued
One ongoing issue though out the lawyer’s tale is the issue of loyalty. Here the Sultana attempts to stay loyal to her son, but at the same time she wants to stay loyal to her religion. Ultimately her religion takes precedence over her sons happiness.
The comparison between Eve and Constance comes from the biblical character Eve. Eve attempted to convert others to Christianity using deceit. Those she tricked merely lied to her and truly accepted the Islam faith. Ironically, the character Esther is a much more suitable choice for a comparison, because Constance was forced into a similar predicament that she did not want to be in and used her beauty and intelligence to overcome.
Through Chaucer description it is clear that he favors the Christian faith, and he cleverly puts down the Islamic faith.
Tale Analysis. Two.
The fact that the only survivor of the Sultana’s massacre was Constance could symbolize the power of Christianity. Christianity had to struggle through much oppression, and yet it overcame.
Tale. Three. [Power of Prayer]
Constance was then forced to travel back to Italy via Boat, yet she had no way to navigate.
Her lack of Navigation caused her to be on the boat for several years. She survived on her Christian prayers.
Eventually she came upon the shores of Northcumberland.
There she lived with a warden of a castle and his wife Dame Hermangild.
The couple were pagans so she was afraid to reveal her identity.
Tale Analysis. Three.
The survival of Constance is an allusion to a New Testament Biblical story. Once Jesus survived forty days and forty nights in the desert on prayer alone. The Christian beliefs of Lent and Easter are derived from this.
Tale. Four. [revelation!, Murder!]
The couple learns of Constance’s true identity from a blind man. They are scared and so they convert to Christianity.
Around her, the King of the Castle Alla has waged war against the Scots
A knight falls is influenced by Satan and falls in love with Constance.
She does not like him back, and he becomes very angry.
In the middle of the night, the knight kills Dame Heringold and places the knife he uses by Constance.
Tale Analysis. Four.
Here I find another reference to Eve. In the Bible Eve was deceived by Satan. Once again Chaucer disproves the comparison between the Constance and Eve, by placing a reference to Eve upon another character.
Also Constance’s control over men is shown here. Her beauty leads a noble knight to murder.
The Character Alla seems to be a reference to the Muslim God.
Tale. Five. [Power of Prayer, part deux]
No one believes that Constance was the murder but she is accused anyway by the Knight.
She is brought to the castle’s jail, and is sentenced to death.
Alla overhears Constance praying to God for a miracle, and he starts to question the knights accusation
Alla decides to have the knight swear his words on a Bible and upon doing so he is knocked down by the power of God.
Seeing this Alla sentences the knight to death, frees Constance and immediately converts to Christianity.
Tale Analysis. Five
It is obvious that the Lawyer looks down upon the Islamic faith. The greatest example of Chaucer’s mockery of the faith is when a Muslim by the name of Alla, converts to Christianity.
Motif= once again Constance’s loyalty and prayer saves her life.
Tale. Six. [A wedding and an angry mom, part deux]
Alla and Constance get married!!!!!!!
Alla leaves because of the war with the Scots.
Constance stays home and has their first baby, a boy named Mauritus.
Constance and Alla communicate via letters, but Alla’s mother, angry about Alla’s conversion, intercepts the letter and changes the content.
Alla thinks that their child is evil
Constance thinks that Alla hates her and that she has banished to go back onto the boat with the child.
Tale Analysis. Six.
Angry mother…. And the lawyer complains about the retelling of stories… hmmm, hypocrite
Once again the Lawyer bashes the Islamic faith, and portrays Islamic women in a very negative way
Tale. Seven. [things start to get weird]
Alla comes home and kills his mom, but Constance has already gone, because she thought she had been banished.
Alla is back on the boat, but a man came along with her and tried to rape her. God saved her, and the man drowned.
Tale Analysis. Seven
Once again God saves Constance, implying her importance to him… to be explained in a second.
Alla chooses his loyalty to his wife and not his mother and avenges Constances banishment.
Tale. Eight. [Falling Action]
Now Chaucer switches back to Syria, where the Romans have waged war on Syria for the deaths of those at Constance’s banquet.
Meanwhile a senator runs into Constance and brings her home to Rome
And at the same time Alla is grieving in Rome.
Tale. Nine. […happy ending.]
In the end everyone reunites.
Constance & Mauritus and Alla
Constance and her father
Everyone is happy!
Mauritus eventually becomes king
Alla and Constance return home
Tale Analysis. Nine.
Here Constance’s importance to God is somewhat explained.
Rome is considered the Holy Roman Empire and all of their emperor's have a story glorifying them, usually dealing with God.
Final Analysis.
The structure= The prose was somewhat off and did not follow typical AABB structure. It was very disorganized, as was the entire plot. This could be Chaucer’s slight mockery of the stereotypical disorganization associated with lawyers.
Works Cited. Holla!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_of_Law's_Prologue_and_Tale
http://www.bookrags.com/notes/ct/PART1.htm
colfa.utsa.edu/chaucer/ec28-6.html
the themes are probably the most important parts.
Man Of Law
The General Prologue
Lawyer considered a respected man
Conceited because of his profession
Busier than he actually is
Accompanied by the Franklin
=> In that time a lawyer would assumedly be a man that worked his way into a higher class
Introduction
The host asks the Man of Law to remain idle no longer, commenting that it is growing late.
The Lawyer agrees to the host’s request and begins to ponder a story
The Lawyer remarks in complaint that most stories of love, wives and myths have already been told or retold
Then the Lawyer before finally deciding on a tale lists several famous medieval tales and explains their redundancies in history
Prologue to the Tale
The Lawyer before his tales goes on a short rant about the general publics reverence of Christ
He looks to the events of Christmas and the blame people put on God to show his point
Before he begins his tale he explains that the story he will tell was told to him by a miller
Analysis of Prologue
"Thou blamest Christ, and thou say'st bitterly, He misdistributes riches temporal;" This quote is intended to enhance the Lawyer’s point. He finds that people often blame God for their shortcomings. The issue of the blame of God is dealt with in the Biblical Story of Job.
"And so, at Christmas, merrily may ye dance! Ye search all land and sea for your winnings," This is an issue that still goes on today. In modern times people refer to this as the commercialization of Christmas. Basically the Lawyer intends to point out that the point of Christmas is often times forgotten, and as this quote suggests people turn to merry dancing and riches instead of reverence of God at Christmas time.
Analysis of Prologue Continued
The issues of loyalty and the strength of Christianity are common motifs in the Man Of Law’s tale.
The fact that the Man Of Law got his story from a miller suggests that it may not be the most common tale thematically for a lawyer to tell. Ironically the story corresponds to all of the lawyers beliefs.
Tale. One. [A fine girl]
The lawyers tale begins with a group of traders going from Syria to Rome.
In Rome they meet a girl named Constance, and they think she's pretty fine.
When they return to Syria they tell their Sultan about the girl and he becomes fascinated with her.
The Sultan desires to marry the girl without even meeting her, but to his dismay he was told that she wouldn’t be able to marry him because he was a Muslim and she was a Christian
He converted to Christianity and advised others to do the same so that he could marry Constance.
Then he was given her hand in marriage. Constance was not happy of this, but as a woman she felt she had no choice.
Tale Analysis. One.
The beauty of a women is shown to have a dramatic effect on men. Here this point is exaggerated when the Sultan desires Constance without even setting eyes on her.
Ironically Constance feels she has no power as a woman, when in fact she has a great amount of power over men.
The "war" between Christianity and Islam is a seemingly ongoing battle that is dealt with in this story.
Tale. Two. [A wedding and an angry mom]
When the Sultana (the Sultan’s Mom) hears about her sons actions she is happy that her son is happy but enraged by his choice to denounce the Islamic faith.
She compares Constance to the Biblical character Eve.
She decides to hold a banquet in honor of the marriage. Deceitfully she plans to kill everyone in attendance.
Her plan fails however because the only survivor of her massacre was Constance herself.
Tale Analysis. Two., continued
One ongoing issue though out the lawyer’s tale is the issue of loyalty. Here the Sultana attempts to stay loyal to her son, but at the same time she wants to stay loyal to her religion. Ultimately her religion takes precedence over her sons happiness.
The comparison between Eve and Constance comes from the biblical character Eve. Eve attempted to convert others to Christianity using deceit. Those she tricked merely lied to her and truly accepted the Islam faith. Ironically, the character Esther is a much more suitable choice for a comparison, because Constance was forced into a similar predicament that she did not want to be in and used her beauty and intelligence to overcome.
Through Chaucer description it is clear that he favors the Christian faith, and he cleverly puts down the Islamic faith.
Tale Analysis. Two.
The fact that the only survivor of the Sultana’s massacre was Constance could symbolize the power of Christianity. Christianity had to struggle through much oppression, and yet it overcame.
Tale. Three. [Power of Prayer]
Constance was then forced to travel back to Italy via Boat, yet she had no way to navigate.
Her lack of Navigation caused her to be on the boat for several years. She survived on her Christian prayers.
Eventually she came upon the shores of Northcumberland.
There she lived with a warden of a castle and his wife Dame Hermangild.
The couple were pagans so she was afraid to reveal her identity.
Tale Analysis. Three.
The survival of Constance is an allusion to a New Testament Biblical story. Once Jesus survived forty days and forty nights in the desert on prayer alone. The Christian beliefs of Lent and Easter are derived from this.
Tale. Four. [revelation!, Murder!]
The couple learns of Constance’s true identity from a blind man. They are scared and so they convert to Christianity.
Around her, the King of the Castle Alla has waged war against the Scots
A knight falls is influenced by Satan and falls in love with Constance.
She does not like him back, and he becomes very angry.
In the middle of the night, the knight kills Dame Heringold and places the knife he uses by Constance.
Tale Analysis. Four.
Here I find another reference to Eve. In the Bible Eve was deceived by Satan. Once again Chaucer disproves the comparison between the Constance and Eve, by placing a reference to Eve upon another character.
Also Constance’s control over men is shown here. Her beauty leads a noble knight to murder.
The Character Alla seems to be a reference to the Muslim God.
Tale. Five. [Power of Prayer, part deux]
No one believes that Constance was the murder but she is accused anyway by the Knight.
She is brought to the castle’s jail, and is sentenced to death.
Alla overhears Constance praying to God for a miracle, and he starts to question the knights accusation
Alla decides to have the knight swear his words on a Bible and upon doing so he is knocked down by the power of God.
Seeing this Alla sentences the knight to death, frees Constance and immediately converts to Christianity.
Tale Analysis. Five
It is obvious that the Lawyer looks down upon the Islamic faith. The greatest example of Chaucer’s mockery of the faith is when a Muslim by the name of Alla, converts to Christianity.
Motif= once again Constance’s loyalty and prayer saves her life.
Tale. Six. [A wedding and an angry mom, part deux]
Alla and Constance get married!!!!!!!
Alla leaves because of the war with the Scots.
Constance stays home and has their first baby, a boy named Mauritus.
Constance and Alla communicate via letters, but Alla’s mother, angry about Alla’s conversion, intercepts the letter and changes the content.
Alla thinks that their child is evil
Constance thinks that Alla hates her and that she has banished to go back onto the boat with the child.
Tale Analysis. Six.
Angry mother…. And the lawyer complains about the retelling of stories… hmmm, hypocrite
Once again the Lawyer bashes the Islamic faith, and portrays Islamic women in a very negative way
Tale. Seven. [things start to get weird]
Alla comes home and kills his mom, but Constance has already gone, because she thought she had been banished.
Alla is back on the boat, but a man came along with her and tried to rape her. God saved her, and the man drowned.
Tale Analysis. Seven
Once again God saves Constance, implying her importance to him… to be explained in a second.
Alla chooses his loyalty to his wife and not his mother and avenges Constances banishment.
Tale. Eight. [Falling Action]
Now Chaucer switches back to Syria, where the Romans have waged war on Syria for the deaths of those at Constance’s banquet.
Meanwhile a senator runs into Constance and brings her home to Rome
And at the same time Alla is grieving in Rome.
Tale. Nine. […happy ending.]
In the end everyone reunites.
Constance & Mauritus and Alla
Constance and her father
Everyone is happy!
Mauritus eventually becomes king
Alla and Constance return home
Tale Analysis. Nine.
Here Constance’s importance to God is somewhat explained.
Rome is considered the Holy Roman Empire and all of their emperor's have a story glorifying them, usually dealing with God.
Final Analysis.
The structure= The prose was somewhat off and did not follow typical AABB structure. It was very disorganized, as was the entire plot. This could be Chaucer’s slight mockery of the stereotypical disorganization associated with lawyers.
Works Cited. Holla!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_of_Law's_Prologue_and_Tale
http://www.bookrags.com/notes/ct/PART1.htm
colfa.utsa.edu/chaucer/ec28-6.html
posted by L Lazarow | 2:18 PM
1 Comments:
justin,
do you know if there was the same somewhat negative view of lawyers back then that exists today?
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