A Schematic Study of Chaucer’s Religious Characters in the Prologue to The Canterbury Tales

Abstract

Religious characters in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales are some of the most intriguing fictional characters. The conflict between religious constraints and individual freedom in Medieval England marks one of the core issues in this paper. The paper analyses three religious characters, the Prioress, the Monk, and the Friar in the Prologue, applying Schema Theory of Cognitive Stylistics. The study highlights these characters subverting the schema of their given roles, identified in the Prologue, through the application of the theory. The discussion relies on the account of double-edged irony and satire employed by the narrator in the description of these characters. Relativity of cognitive psychology with the characterization of Chaucer’s Prologue is established through the textual evidences; a critical insight into the description of ecclesiastical characters results into a clear picture of sociohistorical knowledge of the Medieval times. The study posits how the contextual knowledge (schema) plays an important role in forming an impression of these characters and how this knowledge based on the schema and readers’ perception unravel the dichotomy in the description of the ecclesiastical characters in the Prologue and the tales.