그리셀다의 대응방식

Griselda’s power: language and translation

This study focuses on how Chaucer’s Griselda reacts to and resists her husband, Walter’s oppression and verifies her pure identity and power, especially using the metaphor of clothing. Chaucer translates Petrarch’s spiritual and unworldly Griselda into particular and real Griselda. Chaucer tries to differentiate his text from Petrarchan allegorical one in some aspects. He tells his tale through ‘Clerk,’ the narrator, who constantly questions Walter’s attitude toward Griselda and shows a pity on Griselda. And Chaucer’s Walter is presented as more violent and oppressive than Petrarchan Walter. Griselda’s language in Chaucer is longer, more strategic and more specific than other writers.’ Her interpretation of her selfhood and clothing metaphor accentuates female power and resistance paradoxically, for she is recognized as the archetype of submissive and silent women. Especially, Griselda’s interpretation of her dowry seems a resourceful resistance to Walter’s attempt to shame her in public. By asserting that her maidenhead was part of her dowry, she demands a smock in return for her virginity and causes Walter’s shame in public. While adapting Petrarch’s Griselda story, Chaucer makes her a more real and powerful woman living on the earth. She performs domestic, wifely, and public works anywhere she belongs to, which makes readers feel pity for her and angry to her husband and recognize her power. Walter’s violence and her suffering through it are specified and materialized well in Clerk’s Tale. Griselda’s constant patience is supposed to be another powerful weapon against Walter’s violence, which makes him surrender to her silent power. Chaucer’s Griselda becomes the woman of power and ability.