Griselda’s Afterlife, or the Relationship between Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, Chaucer’s The Clerk’s Tale and the Tale of Magic

Andrzej Wicher

doi:10.18778/2083-2931.11.21

Authors

Andrzej Wicher University of Lodz https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8568-2087

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/2083-2931.11.21

Keywords:

Chaucer, Shakespeare, patient Griselda, tales of magic, women’s social position

Abstract

Some influence of Chaucer’s The Clerk’s Tale, also known as the story of the patient Griselda, on Shakespeare, and particularly on The Winter’s Tale, has long been recognized. It seems, however, that the matter deserves further attention because the echoes of The Clerk’s Tale seem scattered among a number of Shakespeare’s plays, especially the later ones. The experimental nature of this phenomenon consists in the fact that Griselda-like characters do not strike the reader, especially perhaps the Renaissance reader, as good protagonists of a tragedy, or even a problem comedy. The Aristotelian conception of the tragic hero does not seem to fit Griselda because there is no “tragic fault” in her: she is completely innocent. It was thus a bold decision on the part of Shakespeare to use this archetype as a corner stone of at least some of his plays.

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Author Biography

Andrzej Wicher, University of Lodz

Andrzej Wicher is Professor in the Institute of English Studies at the University of Lodz where he lectures on the history of English literature and literary theory. His academic interests include medieval and Renaissance studies, and modern fantasy literature. He published three monographs, including Archaeology of Sublime: Studies in Late Medieval English Writings (1995), Shakespeare’s Parting Wondertales: A Study in the Elements of the Tale of Magic in William Shakespeare’s Late Plays (2003) and Selected Medieval and Religious Themes in the Works of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien (2013). In 1997, he also published a volume of Polish translations of Middle English literary works including Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Pearl. Andrzej Wicher took part in many international conferences and various exchange programmes as a visiting lecturer at some British universities. He is also a member of the International Shakespeare Association, PASE (Polish Association for the Study of English) and the Scholarly Society in Łódź.

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