Chaucer’s Characterization Of The Clerk Of Oxford In The Canterbury Tales

The Clerk of Oxford is one of the pilgrims in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and he retells Petrarch’s Griselda story on the pilgrimage.Considering that the Clerk’s outward appearance is merely indicated and his inner life is merely suggested in The Canterbury Tales,we have to read between the simple details and the lines of his tale to reconstruct his full image.In order to appreciate Chaucer ’s characterization of the Clerk,this thesis analyzes the bare details in the Prologue and the Clerk’s Tale within the medieval context in terms of three scholastic radix traits-poverty,logic,and morality.By comparing Chaucer’s Clerk and other clerks in The Canterbury Tales,this thesis finds that Chaucer’s characterization of the Clerk is manifested in two ways:focusing on the typicality of the Clerk,Chaucer follows the tradition of medieval clerks in his own portrait-poor in goods,well-learned in logic,and blessed with moral virtue;but on the other hand,Chaucer creates some "inconsequent" details for the Clerk’s individuality,including the "Valuable" library of twenty books and the "problematic"story,which would be mistakenly interpreted if not being considered in the medieval context:the investigation of the Clerk ’s income and expenses shows that the Clerk is just a poor book-lover who lives with meagre money donated by his friends but is willing to spend every penny on books;the interpretation of the Clerk’s Tale by the medieval fourfold modes of meaning demonstrates that the tale is illogical at the literal level but is totally reasonable at the typological or allegorical level because it follows the tradition of exemplum to illustrate some virtue or vice with extreme instances.And the Clerk is not an anti-feminist as he appears because his intent is not to ask woman to imitate Griselda’s wifely patience but to teach a Christian virtue-constancy.These analyses may on the one side contribute to a better understanding of the Clerk;on the other side,the "modem clerks" could learn something from this medieval clerk,who keeps his life simple,his mind rich,and his responsibility fulfilled.