Running head: CHAUCER’S CANTEBURY TALES

CHAUCER’S CANTERBURY TALES

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Introduction

Geoffery Chaucer was a poet born in 1340 in the city of London, England. Thirteen years

later, he became a public servant under the administration of Countess Elizabeth of Ulster. He

served in that capacity with the British court throughout his entire life. He is best known for his

literature work especially the Canterbury Tales which is the most famous in the world of

literature. Chaucer, later on, died in London on 25th October 1400. He was buried in

Westminster Abbey. His grave became the centre of the Poet’s corner after his burial. This part

was later on known as a graveyard of the famous British writers. The study, therefore, identifies

Chaucer’s background and Canterbury Tales as a portrait of the rising middle class in the

Middle Ages.

Chaucer’s Early Life

Chaucer was born into the middle class of the Great Britain, but he was placed in an

aristocratic home as a page. Therefore he had a chance to know the affairs of the middle-class

and the upper-class and their relationship to the lower-class. As a result, Chaucer developed a

unique ability to write about people in all social ranks with accuracy and a sense humour. At the

same time, he was also reflecting on the dynamic changes that the society was undergoing.

Chaucer is widely known as the greatest English poet of the middle ages. He had his motivation

from other famous writers like Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio. Chaucer was a well-educated poet

making him stand out of a majority of the noblemen of that era and especially from the middle

class (Robertson, 2015).

The Canterbury Tales and the Rising Middle Class

There are different types of stories found in the Canterbury Tales, for example;the

romantic and fabliaux stories. The romance part of the stories comprised of the high-class
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people and the noble ones in the society. Chaucer told the story of courtly love, a passionate

affair between young lovers. In the tales, there is also an aspect of the importance of the gentility

and honour, meant to portray a particular type of moral lesson that is usually serious. Fabliaux

stories mainly comprised of low-class people who behaved in a silly and funny manner. This

story is also characterised by bawdy humour, otherwise known as bathroom jokes. These types

of stories, however, did not have any form of a moral lesson to the audience or readers.

The Canterbury Tales is set up in such a way that each pilgrim has a story to tell. Chaucer

started to write this work around 1387. Dunn & Byrnes (2013) explains that unfortunately, he did

not finish it in time till his sudden death in 1400. His stories depicted real life events that were

happening during his time, for example, there is a tale about how the young generation was

rejecting the old ways of life. In the General Prologue, for instance, Chaucer defines the knight

as a righteous, perfect, and noble person. He then compares the knight’s son in training hard to

follow the footsteps of his father. Even though the son is training for the same profession, his

focus is on other things like singing and poetry rather than heroism and keeping the family

tradition as his father.

The knight’s story enables the historians to identify the changes from the idea of

knighthood to an ordinary society that is similar or closely related to modern times. Furthermore,

this tale also shows how important poetry and literature has become an important aspect of the

culture of England during this period, further focusing on the changes in the views of the

knighthood. Knighting had lost its importance in the previous century before Chaucer’s tales

(Dunn & Byrnes 2013).

Canterbury Tales does reflect not only the ways in which different roles in the society

were changing within the elite class but also the views regarding the religion in the fourteenth
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century. Since Canterbury Tales is about pilgrimage, it addresses the importance of the church to

England's society during that time. According to Gragg (2014) pilgrimage is the journey that

Christians took to the tomb of a saint. A majority of those on the pilgrimage were the clergy.

Therefore this story enables the modern historian to know how the society valued the church and

those religious men and women.

Chaucer’s view on religion was depicted on the parson who was the ideal clergyman of

the medieval era. He was holy and wise in his thoughts, visited by the needy especially the sick

and tried to take back lost souls to God. These attributes, therefore, shows traits that were most

valued within the clergy. Contrary to this story, Chaucer denounces most the clergymen

revealing that during the fourteenth century, there was hypocrisy in the church. For example,

some people in the society believed that monks are reckless. Even though recklessness is not

sinful, Chaucer used this information to display the negative traits. Chaucer’s explanation of his

sleeves as fur lined reveals that the monks were money oriented and materialistic. Therefore the

tale meant that not all men of faith were as pure as the parson (Chaucer, 2012).

Chaucer (2012) writes about a nun after the monk’s description. The nun-figure does not

only reflect how people or the society would have viewed religious persons of that time, but also

the female gender in general. The nun was a sensitive being who could easily cry. This story,

therefore, implies that women of today have close or similar characters just like those in the

fourteenth century, known to be emotional beings. The woman was also in the conflict of earthly

riches. The society expected nuns to behave like clergymen. Thus, it implies that not all those

who claimed to be religious were as virtuous as expected consequently revealing a possibility of

the negative feelings from the society towards the clergy.

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From the picture of Chaucer's work, we can clearly see how the woman begins to

transform during the fourteenth century. The changes meant that England was changing from an

entirely patriarchal society. In the Norton Anthology, there were many anti-feminist writings that

the church fostered. The women were expected to be submissive. However, Chaucer wrote about

a female character with the aim of opposing these writings. The first hint of change is in the

General Prologue about the wife of Bath. She had five husbands and extra-marital affairs at her

young age. Maude (2014) argues that such vices were not allowed in the medieval times.

Therefore, Chaucer's mentioning of such a character meant that England was shifting in all

aspects of life including sexuality. This theme also comes out in a scene when the wife of Bath

was sharing her story and later conveying her feelings on who should rule the house. Her actions

show that the women could finally air out her views openly as opposed to the previous beliefs

that it was wrong.

The Order of the Canterbury Tales

Pilgrims from different class systems went on a pilgrimage to the shrine of the martyr

Saint Thomas Becket in Canterbury. The host could then suggest that they tell four tales, two on

their way there and two on their way back just to pass the time. The host awards the pilgrim that

tells the best story. The award comes in the form of a paid dinner by the rest of the pilgrims

(Gragg, 2014).

According to The Riverside Chaucer (an authoritative edition of Chaucer’s work), there

is a line number that shows the order of these tales. However, the numbering does not run

continuously throughout the entire Canterbury Tales. These stories are put in groups of different

fragments; each of which has independent numbering as a separate whole. Scholars have not yet

found out the exact order which Chaucer intended to present in his tales. Eighty-two ancient
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manuscripts of the Canterbury tales exist up to today, most of them vary in the order in which

they present the stories (Dinshaw, 2013).

However, there are a few sets of tales that seem to belong together in a certain order. For

instance, it is evident that the General prologue is at the beginning. The narrator then states that

the Knight tells the first tale and the Miller interrupts immediately and tells the second story. The

introduction parts, epilogues and prologues sometimes include the pilgrim’s comments on the

story and an indication of the person narrating the next one. The sections found between these

stories are known as links. They bring out significant proof that there are ten groups in different

fragments. The Canterbury tales lack complete sets of links hence raising questions on the order

of the ten pieces. According to Dinshaw (2013), the Riverside Chaucer outlines the ten

fragments basing on the order as presented in the Ellesmere manuscript (the best manuscript of

the tale). However, some academic researchers oppose the order of stories and groupings as

written in The Riverside Chaucer. They instead prefer to base their order on a combination of the

geographical landmarks passed on their way to Canterbury and the links in the story.

Language in the Canterbury Tales

Chaucer wrote these tales in Middle English which has a close resemblance to the

English spoken and written today. In comparison to the old English, Beowulf for example, one

can only be read in modern translation or by scholars of Old English. In most cases, students

read The Canterbury Tales in its original form because of two main reasons. That is; the

resemblance between Chaucer's Middle English and the English of today, and the beauty and

humour of poetry; the sounds it produces and the internal and external rhymes that could be lost

in the translation.
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Literature scholars argue that the best way for new learners of English to approach

Middle English is to read it out loud. When one pronounces these words, it is easier to

understand their meaning in modern English. A short pronunciation guide is always part of the

Middle English poetry. It enables readers to understand the language better. For challenging

phrases and complex words, most of the publications also have additional notes in the margin

providing a modern English version; it also comes along with a full glossary in the back of the

book. There are some Chaucer glossaries found in online sources and among other printed

lexicons of Middle English (Dinshaw, 2013).

The Role of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Work in Today’s Literature Studies

While many learners have a different interpretation of Chaucer's work, he played an

important part in the history of literature which had an impact on the evolution of the discipline.

Therefore, Chaucer's work cannot be ignored in any way. According to Robertson, (2015). he

championed the vernacular in his work, the common language among the citizens of that time.

Earlier times before his work, literature was mostly written in French and Latin. Even if there

were English writings, they did not utilise vernacular. Hence Chaucer's tales have an impact in

bringing the meaningful stories of life a common man.

Furthermore, today’s literature scholars can discover more about the past through his

tales. Different characters that Chaucer depicts and their way of life were not from the wealthy

society of that age. Through these stories, we can, therefore, gain an insight into the lower and

middle classes that existed during Chaucer's time. These tales also enable scholars to have a

glimpse of the experiences of a most citizens and what they were going through in their different

aspects of life. For example, learners can be able to note the political, social and economic

atmosphere of the past through this literature (Robertson, 2015).

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Conclusion

Chaucer’s work shows how he reflected on his ideas and beliefs to enlighten people about

the inevitable transformation that the England society was going through. His writings in the

Canterbury Tales form an important aspect of literature studies today. The Canterbury Tales

reflects the ways in which the fourteenth century was transforming. Furthermore, it was an early

sign of where England was heading to in different aspects of life. Therefore his work is an

important historical document that can give background information to explain a phenomenon.
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References

Chaucer, G. (2012). The Canterbury tales. Broadview Press.

Dinshaw, C. (2013). Chaucer's Queer Touches/A Queer Touches Chaucer. Exemplaria.

Dunn, C. W., & Byrnes, E. T. (Eds.). (2013). Middle English Literature (Vol. 1330). Routledge.

Gragg, R. (2014). Pilgrim chronicles: An eyewitness history of the pilgrims and the founding of

Plymouth colony.

Maude, K. (2014). Citation and marginalisation: the ethics of feminism in Medieval

Studies. Journal Of Gender Studies, 23(3), 247-261. doi:10.1080/09589236.2014.909719

Robertson, D. W. (2015). A Preface to Chaucer: Studies in Medieval Perspective. Princeton

University Press.