This word appears several times in our readings from the Confessio Amantis: "wiht," translated as "person", referring to any person, in line 28; and "wyht" (line 1548) and "wiht" (line 1582), both translated as "creature" and used to refer to Florent's hag-bride. When I came across the first instance, I immediately thought of Tolkien's barrow-wights, obviously more monster than just person or creature, and later wondered if that connotation could be applied to the description of the Florent's bride (pre-transformation, of course). The Middle English dictionary lists four meanings for "wight" (and lists the other spellings under this entry rather than seperately), which I've copied here in a sort of abridged form:
(a) A living creature, an animate being; any creature, anybody;
(b) an individual human being, a specific man, woman, or child; also, an unborn child;
(c) an unnatural or monstrous being; a supernatural creature, demon; specif. the devil, Satan;
(d) an animal, a beast; pl. nonhuman creatures; also, vermin [often difficult to distinguish from (c)];
Given the ambiguity of the word, I think it was an interesting choice on Gower's part to use it to describe her - a tongue-in-cheek way of referring to her as unnatural, monstrous, or even vermin? It is glossed in the politest way possible in our text, but the other potential meanings definitely add a layer of interest to the reading.
3 comments:
Usha,
Two things. (1) When I read the title of this entry the author's name was off my screen but the title was all I needed; I knew it was yours. Awesome. (2) This is a significant find. Not even Shippey's Road to Middle Earth, which is most conversant with Old/Middle English texts, notes this similarity. Mad props.
ALong
This is also quite in keeping with the other ways in which Gower "monsterizes" the old women in the tale of Florent; think of the how the loathly lady is described at first not as a 'woman' but as the more ambiguous "wommannysch figure."
In class we were talking about how it could be argued that in Chaucer's Wife of Bath's Tale, the knight's misogynistic action prompts the expedition, which provides a chance for correction. In Gower's version, the knight's superficial considerations of the ugly woman also indicates male chauvinism.
In this regard, although Gower's knight's treatment of women is not the main impetus for his journey, it still seems to pertain some similarities to the motivation of Chaucer's knight.
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