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학위논문 동서

knight`s tale의 人物分析=(An)analysis of the characters in Chaucer`s knight`s tale

Chaucer

부산: 東亞大學校 大學院 1992

106 장; 26 cm

학위논문(박사)-- 東亞大學校 大學院: 英語英文學科, 1992년 6월

영문초록 : Palamon and Arcite fall in love with Emelye at first sight. They are unable to acquire any Knowledge of her throughout the story. However, they devote their whole life to winning her love. Emelye, to them. is a goal, a final cause, as Halverson puts it. In other words, our heroine Emelye is symbolized as an allegorified desire of the two knights, the vision of God, the ultimate good, a Mary born with an original sin for whose love one of the young knights will be martyred. She is love incarnate, bonum or verum summum for their ultimate goal. This dissertation, with this structural role of Emelye as a premise, aims to analyse the characters of Palamon, Arcite, and Theseus through medieval philosophies, especially those of Thomas Aquinas, William of Ockham, Duns Scotus, and Anicius Boethius as a conclusion. Chaucer's cosmology presented in 'The Knight's Tale' covers Boethius' world-view as illustrated by his division of philosophy. Boethius divides philosophy into two categories:speculative and practical. Speculative philosophy is subdivided into theology, psychology, physignomy or physics. Chaucer's Palamon and Arcite represent the speculative category of Philosophy: they are theoretical characters. Theseus is a character that acts in accordance with the affairs of the world: he represents the practical philosophy of Boethius. The ultimate aim of speculative philosophy might be the harmony between God and man, and between man and nature: that is, a harmony of the whole universe. Practical philosophy is concerned with the problem of bringing into harmony the experiences of the real world and theories. Chaucer's aim through the three heroes of 'The Knight's Tale' is to depict a world where those three fields of science and human experiences coexist in peaceful harmony. The psychological attitudes of Palamon and Arcite toward their common goal are significantly opposed: they are characterized to represent the opposing psychological philosophies; Palamon is a Platonic-Augustinian-Franciscan voluntarist: and Arcite, an Aristotelian-Dominican intellectualist. If we could define the two Orders, Franciscan and Doninican, as two different species born of the same genus, the two knights are two twin individuals born of an egg. Arcite believes in God as reasonable and benevolent. Palamon does the same, not because He is reasonable or benevolent to the affairs of man, but because He is omnipotent, and omniscient. Both of them, however, ultimately cannot but choose to obey Him. As to their outward characteristics; Arcite is mostly inactive and speculative: Palamon is physical, violent, and prompt in action. Similar experiences happening to the two give rise to opposed psychological reactions. Different experiences, however, prove the causes of similar reactions. Both heroes' psychological characteristics, however, arc projected to the other towards the end of Part Ⅱ, where both of them break the positive laws to decide their own destiny. Arcite's diction and behaviour turn powerful and physical, while Palamon's meditative and inactive: the psychology of the protagonist transplanted into that of the antagonist. But their original psychologies remain intact throughout the story. Theseus' role in the story is a synthesis of the two characters, harmonizing the cosmology of the two knights. He starts as a man of free behavior. He is prompt, decisive, courtly-a will-dominant person. He makes occasional errors, and he knows it. He is a man who shows himself similar to Palamon in the first parts of the story, but, as the story proceeds, he becomes, like Arcite, an intellect-dominant character. His First Mover speech is mostly Boethian. He learns to be obedient to the Providence. All the elements of the universe are linked in a fair chain of interchangeable love between different individual beings. And, therefore, there is nothing in this world to mourn for. God's benevolence is always prepared to impart better things to man. His role is to synthesize the will-intellect debate of the day. His intellect, unlike Palamon or Arcite, goes hand in hand harmoniously in him with his will. Neither faculty is dependent on the other. He is a symbol of harmony and prosperity prevailing in the universe through interchangeable love.

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