Passage analysis-examine Chaucer’s poetic techniques in these lines.
Chaucer’s use of the poetic device of hyperbole in the line “I sette right,
noght, of all the vileyne that ye of wommen write, a boterflye” to
exemplify Proserpina’s disdain for the anti-feminist villainization of
women, stating she cares for it less than a “boterflye” which has
ephemeral connotations of insubstantiality, insinuating misogynistic
accusations against women are ignorant, and hold no moral substance.
Moreover, Chaucer’s use of the personification allegory of Pluto and
Prosperina in this passage nt only adds a supernatural gravitas to their
declarations, and so when Prosperina assertively states that “ I am a
womman, nedes moot I speke”, though the anaphora of the personal
pronoun “I” suggests a personal resonance with the antagonistic
“vileynye” women receive, the poetic device of the personification
allegory connotes that Prosperina is the self-appointed, incessant
defender of the female sex.
However, though Proserpina’s active and almost authoritarian defence of
the female sex is presented through the poetic device of the simile “ as
evere hool I moote brouke my trespasses (while I remain alive) I shal not
spare, for no curteisye” as being omnipresent, characterising her almost
proto-activism as embodying the qualities of perseverance and
endurance, this proffers a stark antithesis to the presentation of Pluto.
Though the term of endearment “dame” has connotations of reverence
and so doesn’t inherently connote a weak resolve, the exclamative “ I
yeve (give) it up!”, implies an inherently passive submission to
Proserpina’s moralising argument-insinuating either the sheer credibility
of her argument, so much so that even the god of the underworld must
offer a resigned conciliation, cementing Proserpina’s (and as a microcosm
of women female) superiority.
Moreover, female ingenuity is prevalent throughout this extract, but
perhaps is most notable through the poetic deep satirical irony in the last
line of Prosperina where she makes a declaration of sincerity that “for
sothe, I wol no lenger yow contrarie”, which superficially seems like a
pandering appeasement of male ego but, in actuality, it’s the male
microcosm of Pluto that has been battered into submission through a
nuanced debate by Proserpina dispensing of the belief that women “been
jangleresses” (are all chatterers)” . However, alternatively this poetic
device of characterisation of Prosperina as being wholehearted in her wish
to resolve conflict perhaps has alternative connotations of deception as
she will only “no lenger yow contrarie” when Pluto bent his rhetoric of “sit
me noght to lye” (not proper to lie) to her will that May’s “answere shall
she have”; perhaps, her wish to reconciliate is partly self-motivated, and
not wholly pure.
Chaucer’s use of the poetic device of hyperbole in the line “I sette right,
noght, of all the vileyne that ye of wommen write, a boterflye” to
exemplify Proserpina’s disdain for the anti-feminist villainization of
women, stating she cares for it less than a “boterflye” which has
ephemeral connotations of insubstantiality, insinuating misogynistic
accusations against women are ignorant, and hold no moral substance.
Moreover, Chaucer’s use of the personification allegory of Pluto and
Prosperina in this passage nt only adds a supernatural gravitas to their
declarations, and so when Prosperina assertively states that “ I am a
womman, nedes moot I speke”, though the anaphora of the personal
pronoun “I” suggests a personal resonance with the antagonistic
“vileynye” women receive, the poetic device of the personification
allegory connotes that Prosperina is the self-appointed, incessant
defender of the female sex.
However, though Proserpina’s active and almost authoritarian defence of
the female sex is presented through the poetic device of the simile “ as
evere hool I moote brouke my trespasses (while I remain alive) I shal not
spare, for no curteisye” as being omnipresent, characterising her almost
proto-activism as embodying the qualities of perseverance and
endurance, this proffers a stark antithesis to the presentation of Pluto.
Though the term of endearment “dame” has connotations of reverence
and so doesn’t inherently connote a weak resolve, the exclamative “ I
yeve (give) it up!”, implies an inherently passive submission to
Proserpina’s moralising argument-insinuating either the sheer credibility
of her argument, so much so that even the god of the underworld must
offer a resigned conciliation, cementing Proserpina’s (and as a microcosm
of women female) superiority.
Moreover, female ingenuity is prevalent throughout this extract, but
perhaps is most notable through the poetic deep satirical irony in the last
line of Prosperina where she makes a declaration of sincerity that “for
sothe, I wol no lenger yow contrarie”, which superficially seems like a
pandering appeasement of male ego but, in actuality, it’s the male
microcosm of Pluto that has been battered into submission through a
nuanced debate by Proserpina dispensing of the belief that women “been
jangleresses” (are all chatterers)” . However, alternatively this poetic
device of characterisation of Prosperina as being wholehearted in her wish
to resolve conflict perhaps has alternative connotations of deception as
she will only “no lenger yow contrarie” when Pluto bent his rhetoric of “sit
me noght to lye” (not proper to lie) to her will that May’s “answere shall
she have”; perhaps, her wish to reconciliate is partly self-motivated, and
not wholly pure.
