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Gargantua And Pantagruel

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Through numerous fruitless consulting of authority, the figure of authority is depicted as unhelpful, ignorant and self-centered in the second half of the third book of Rabelais’ Gargantua and Pantagruel. Montaigne not only indicates similar possible problems of the authority as Rabelais does, but also provides corresponding solutions to such problems in his On Educating Children. I will argue that, basing on Montaigne’s solutions, one can convert unhelpful, ignorant and self-centered authorities in Gargantua and Pantagruel into ones that are so beneficial and significant that can effectively promote learning. Rabelais holds a totally critical and satirical attitude towards the contribution of authority to learning, but Montaigne, on the opposite, …show more content…

When discussing one specific kind of authority—children’s tutor, he states “same teaching and same degree of guidance for them all” (The Essays: A Selection, Montaigne, p.43). A tutor, who is ignorant of his students’ actual needs and provides uniform guidance according to tutors’ mind only, is in some degree making the same mistake as Pantagruel does previously; they both ignores the needs of people they are helping, and tries to force others according to their own mind and preconception. However, unlike Gargantua and Pantagruel, which merely raises the problem of the authority and does nothing about it, Montaigne goes one more step forward, by providing solution to the problem above. In response to the problem of “same guidance for all”, Montaigne suggests “It is good to make him trot in front of his tutor in order to judge his paces and to judge how far down the tutor needs to go to adapt himself to his ability.”(The Essays: A Selection, Montaigne, p.43). If Pantagruel were to accept the advice of Montaigne, instead of forcing Panurge to believe him – just like simply forcing one to trot at certain speed without considering one’s actual ability, he could have listened to Panurge more patiently and answered the question of marriage basing on logic, reasoning and Panurge’s personality, but not on …show more content…

In the first book of Gargantua and Pantagruel, Rabelais takes the whole eleventh chapters to show not only the naughty but also the unmannered and disrespectful behaviors of childhood Gargantua, for instance, “often spat in the collection plate” (Gargantua and Pantagruel, Rabelais, p.31); it is also said “Gargantua grew and was taught all the proper discipline, by his farther” (Gargantua and Pantagruel, Rabelais, p.31), which is certainly an irony. Gargantua’s Father is a form of authority to his Gargantua, but the identity of the parent determines the existence of spoiling, which is detrimental to the development and growth of the children. Montaigne also suggests that parents’ spoiling will slow down the process of learning — especially individual’s physical and mental development. (The Essays: A Selection, Montaigne, p.43). Just as he does in the previous example, Montaigne provides the solution, that “the authority of the tutor, which must be sovereign for the boy, is hampered and interrupted by the presence of his parents.” (The Essays: A Selection, Montaigne, p.47). Montaigne’s solution is to put the authority of tutor over the authority of

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