Mentor for the Squire the Canterbury Tales\"

¶ … Mentor for the Squire

The Canterbury Tales" and "Beowulf" were written centuries apart, yet, each work contains similar elements such as heroism and chivalry. Chaucer's tale, set in the late 1300's England, depicts English society as each character tells a story to pass the time during a delayed journey. The anonymous author of "Beowulf" sets his story during the sixth century and describes the heroic life of its protagonist. Both authors give a vivid insight into the culture and societal attitudes of their times.

Chaucer's England was based on societal structure. People belonged to certain class systems and remained there their entire lives. Chaucer gives the reader a sample of each class within his characters. The Plowman represents the peasant class, for example, and the Knight represents the person of highest rank among the author's characters. The Squire, basically a knight in waiting, is also of high social rank. Chaucer describes him as a fashionable young man, representing the latest style of dress. The embroidery, on the Squire's clothes, "not only makes his clothes look more handsome, but it makes him appear to be well-to-do and more desirable. His clothing shows him as a vain man indulging in minor illegalities to attract the attention of the opposite sex" (Pfister pg). The Squire is seen as a romantic and ladies' man:

lovyere and a lusty bacheler;

With lokkes creulle, as they were leyed in presse.

Of twenty yeer of age he was, I gesse.

Of his stature he was of evene lenghte,

And wonderly delyvere, and of greet strenthe.

And he hadde been somtyme in chyvachie,

In Flaundres, in Artoys, and Pycardie,

And born hum weel, as of so litel space,

In hope to stonden in his lady grace" (Chaucer l: 80-88).

Chaucer gives the impression that the Squire is rather spoiled, far from being the knight he is to become. However, the Squire is very much aware of the heroism that accompanies a knight's reputation. His tale, left unfinished in Chaucer's story, is of a brave knight of Tartary who embarks on an epic journey. In the Squire's Tale:

And what man that is wounded with a strook,

Shal never be hool, til that yow list of grace,

To stroke hym with the plate in thilke place,

Ther he is hurt; this is as muche to seyn,

Ye moote with the plate swerd ageyn,

Strike hym in the wounde, and it wol close"

Chaucer 1: 152-157).

The Squire would be most impressed with Beowulf, for he encompasses all that a knight should be, a true hero. Like the Squire's mythical knight, Beowulf embarks on journeys of epic proportion, slaying monsters and dragons. Moreover, Beowulf lives by a code of honor. When Hygelac dies, Beowulf respects the royal lineage, and lends support to Hygelac's son, heir to the throne. Thus, Beowulf embodies all that is good and eventually becomes a wise ruler. He is the perfect knight, just like the knight in the Squire's tale. As Beowulf readies for battle, he indeed sounds like a true hero:

Beowulf got ready, donned his war-gear, indifferent to death; his mighty, hand-forged, fine-webbed mail would soon meet with the menace underwater. It would keep the bone-cage of his body safe...His helmet was of beaten gold, princely headgear hooped and hasped by a weapon-smith who had worked wonders"

Heaney l:1442-1452).

In an interview Seamus Heaney describes the character Beowulf as someone who has "earned majesty of being a representative and a keeper of his people and of being an example of the values of honor and fidelity at their best" (Williams pg). Moreover, Heaney explains that Beowulf as the older man, embodies "a kind of steadiness and moral beauty" (Williams pg).