History of the English Literature

1. Style in Shakespeare and Chaucer
Prepared by-Daya Vaghani
Batch-2020-22 (MA sem-1)
Paper –History of English Literature
Roll no-07
Enrollment no-3069206420200017
Email id -dayavaghani2969@gmail.Com
Submitted to-S.B. Gardi Department of English Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji
Bhavnagar University

2. GEOFFREY CHAUCER
• 1340-1400
• English Poet and author
• The father of English
Literature
• philosopher and astronomer

3. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
• 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616
• an English playwright, poet, and actor,
• Dramatist
• "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard")

4. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
• Geoffrey Chaucer lived from 1343-1400, coincided with Middle Ages
• His works were composed between 1374
• William Shakespeare lived from 1564-1616, approximately 200 years after Chaucer
• Most of his plays and poetry were written between 1589 and 1613
• Both lived in England
• Both Spoke English
•

5. CHAUCER'S USE OF REPETITION
• Chaucer uses repetition in a didactic way, as opposed to the conventional decorative way.
• This style of repetition is highly appropriate in a work such as the Canterbury tales because ideas
that start in the General Prologue are continued later in their respective tales.
• In just the General Prologue, Chaucer uses repetition over 640 times.
• Chaucer repeats the word "penitence" in the Parson's Tale to emphasize its meaning
• Chaucer's overall view is that repetition should be reserved for instructional purposes only

6. SHAKESPEARE'S USE OF REPETITION
• In contrast to Chaucer, Shakespeare uses repetition purely for
style.
• In his tragedy Macbeth, while witches are stirring a caldron he
repeats the line" double, double, toil and trouble" to emphasize
their intent and characterize them as malicious.
• Later in the play, he uses repetition again to describe similar
instances of grim, spooky situations.
• In that instance, he used repetition to set the mood, which sharply
contrasts the way Chaucer uses the technique.

7. CHAUCER'S USE OF SOURCES
• Chaucer's works draw heavily from classical Greek and Roman
literature.
• Due to Medieval convention ,there was little
possibility of genuine poetic application.
• Boccaccio's Il Filostrato
Il Filostrato
Troilus and
Criseyde
Troilus and
Cressida

8. Shakespeare's use of Sources
• Similarly to Chaucer, Shakespeare uses classical Greek and Roman literature.
• Shakespeare uses such works because they were taught in Grammar Schools
of Shakespeare's time .
• He incorporated the sources into his works by combining the history of the
classic literature with modern style, and ultimately working around the
iambic pentameter.
• The reliance on iambic pentameter resulted in a condensed version of these
sources when they appear in his plays, contributing to Shakespeare's trend of
reducing poetic expression to essentials

9. CHAUCER'S USE OF IMAGERY
• Chaucer leaves the interpretation of imagery up to his audience.
• In sharp contrast to Shakespeare, Chaucer does not provide the reader with
details to reconstruct scenes
• The prison/garden in 'The Knight's Tale' is an example of imagery where
Chaucer has Withheld the symbolic significance of the subject.

10. Shakespeare's use of Imagery
• Most of Shakespeare's imagery is focused on common objects that appear in
everyday life.
• Like Chaucer, Shakespeare uses descriptions of objects people of the time would
recognize, although Shakespeare provided more detail.
• In contrast to Chaucer's primarily visual imagery, Shakespeare uses a lot of
kinetic imagery in his descriptions.

11. CHAUCER'S USE OF FIGURATIVE
LANGUAGE
• Chaucer's use of figurative language and devices is consistent with other fourteenth
century writers.
• In Troilus and Criseyde , Chaucer provides an illusion of realism that leads to
forgetfullness of his characters.
• Chaucer's poetic development is characterized by the gradual replacement of formal
rhetorical devices by methods of composition based on close observation of life.

12. SHAKESPEARE'S USE OF FIGURATIVE
LANGUAGE
• Shakespeare uses figurative language to expand his characters and
• compare them and their actions to natural events.
• Shakespeare employs variations of this technique in his plays, therefore making use of
the figures of language to create humor and to depict villainy and low life .
• He made metaphors to nature quite often, which points to his knowledge of nature.
• Of all these images, nature and outdoor life, by far the greatest number is devoted to
one aspect of nature, which one might call the gardener's point of view, showing
intimate knowledge and observation of growth, propagation, grafting, pruning,
weeding, ripeness and decay .

13. REFERENCES
• Ackroyd, Peter (2006). Shakespeare: The Biography. London: Vintage. ISBN 978-0-7493-8655-9.
• Kolve, V.A.; Olson, Glending (2005). The Canterbury tales: fifteen tales and the general prologue:
authoritative text, sources and backgrounds, criticism. A Norton critical edition (2 ed.). New York: W.W.
Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-92587-6.
• Long, William J. (1909), English Literature, Its History and Its Significance for the Life of the
English Speaking World, Public domain.
• Mabillard, Amanda. Shakespeare's Writing Style. Shakespeare Online. 20 Aug. 2000.