Pilgrimage and Storytelling in The Canterbury Tales by Charles A. Owen (review)

PILGRIMAGE AND STORYTELLING IN THE CANTERBURY TALES BY CHARLES A. OWEN (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1976. ? + 253 pages, $12.95.) Charles Owen's analysis of The Canterbury Tales raises questions not recently sounded in Chaucer criticism. In an attempt to explain the dialectic between "earnest" and "game," Owen explores Chaucer's intention, the chronology of composition, and the sequence of the tales themselves. Some of the results are provocative, some quite satisfactory, and some questionable . Owen's answer to questions about Chaucer's purpose is simple and direct: The Canterbury Tales, he believes, underwent a series of three revisions, which he identifies chronologically: I. 1387-1390? He suggests this is the period of "first conception." Tales included in this period are the Man of Law sequence (Melibeus), the Wife of Bath's Prologue (to line 168), the Parson's Prologue, and perhaps the Constance. From 1391 to 1393, Chaucer abandoned The Canterbury Tales to give his attention to other writing. II. 1394.M398? Owen sees this as the period of resumption, which included expansion of the Wife of Bath's Prologue, conception of the marriage group, formation of Fragments D, C, E-F, B", G, and probably H. Among other revisions, he believes that one of the most vital is the suggestion that the reunion of the Host with his wife would follow the Parson's Tale. III. 13991400 . This period sees the expansion of the plan to four tales per pilgrim and an increased emphasis on the storytelling contest. There is also a new start with Fragment A in which the Knight replaces the Man of Law in the first position. Each of the revisions involved some kind of change in Chaucer's plan for the Tales. Having explained this series of revisions, Owen shows how the gradual movement from an emphasis on overt morality to the game of storytelling led Chaucer to develop more realistic characters, explore the relationships among them, and bring tales more closely into conformation with the portrayals of the tellers in the General Prologue. He also shows through helpful charts how Chaucer's placement of the tales in the sequence of the pilgrimage might have evolved. Many of the important aspects of Owen's theory are explained in chapter two. The remainder of the book is devoted to the examination of the tales 64BOOKS in light of his ideas about their evolution. He gives a detailed analysis of the General Prologue, explaining how Chaucer putatively establishes the "autonomy " (p. 50) of his characters and showing how details of character and social role are combined to create the rich panoply of the pilgrimage. He discusses the importance of Chaucer's stance as an objective narrator of the events and tales and shows how it is at odds with Harrie Baillie's assertion that he alone will be the sole judge and reporter. Discernible in the art of the Prologue, Owen contends, is the "element of play" (p. 65) that provides cogency to the patterns and details. His exploration of the tales themselves is an elaboration of his thesis. By investigating the portrayal of particularly well-drawn characters, such as the Pardoner, the Wife of Bath, the Friar, the Summoner, the Knight, the Reeve and the Franklin, he shows how Chaucer has "confirmed in their freedom" (p. 213) several of the pilgrims, thereby bringing their individualism and their interplay into prominence over the moral structure which may have dominated Plan I. Owen's book has several strengths. It is pleasant to read. While there are occasionally some problems of style (such as "His [the Monk's] tragedies reflect the bias of his sources rather than his own" fp. 132]), overall the style is lucid. His documentation is current and substantial. Once again, there may be quibbles. In note three of chapter four, for instance, it might be useful to know that Paul Thurston's Artistic Ambivalence in Chaucer's Knight's Tale is available not only as a doctoral dissertation but also as a publication of the University of Florida Press. Such oversights, however, are few, and the 21 pages of Owen's notes reflect his wide knowledge of and long-standing commitment to Chaucer...