THE CANTERBURY TALES

Thanks to his contacts at Court, his diplomatic

missions abroad, his frequent journey throughout
England and his experience in the Parliament,
Chaucer had the opportunity to meet many kinds
of people:
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Nobles
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Churchmen
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Merchants
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Students
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Commoners
each belonged to a precise social class or
profession
 THE CANTERBURY TALES
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England had finally developped into a united
self-confident and highly patriotic nation
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For these reasons he decided to write a work in
English (Middle English) that could be
understood by anybody, learned or unlettered
people. who read or heard it.
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His initial idea was to write a collection of tales
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French and Italian models that looked back in
turn to ancient Greece and Rome
 Canterbury tales: sources
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The real purpose of Chaucer was to give his
countrymen a book that would be a true mirror
of England and in which they could really
recognize themselves.
●
He probably began his masterpiece in 1387 and
he turned for inspiration to the many people he
had met during his life.
●
He had stored those images in his memory for
years
 Canterbury tales: sources
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However, Chaucer needed a framework in
which to insert all these people and all these
stories...
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He remembered Boccaccio's Decameron and
so found the idea of a social event as a pretext
for bringing various people together
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But this event had to be typically English
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He chose the annual pilgrimage to Canterbury
as the best setting for his characters
 Canterbury tales: plot
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He imagined that one April day in the Tabard
Inn at Southwark in London, twenty- nine
pilgrims met before setting out on a pilgrimage
to the shrine (santuario, reliquiario) of St.
Thomas Becket in Canterbury.
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The host of the Inn offered his services as guide
and suggested that each pilgrim should tell two
stories on the way to Canterbury and two on the
way back.
 Canterbury tales: plot
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Chaucer himself was invited to join the
company as we learn from the opening lines of
the poem, that is the “Prologue”
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This would have given a total of 120 stories,
plus detailed portraits of the pilgrims in the
General Prologue
●
In fact, only 23 pilgrims tell a story and Chaucer
himself tells two. So there are only 24 (three of
them incomplete) instead of the 120 we
expected.
 The Canterbury tales: the pilgrims
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The pilgrims belong to almost all the social
classes
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They can be divided into three groups:
- declining feudal world: a Knight, a Squire
(signorotto di campagna), a Yeoman (guardia
reale), a Pardoner (person who grants a
pardon, chi vendeva indulgenze)
- religious life (a Prioress, a Monk, a Nun, a
Friar...)
 The Canterbury tales: the pilgrims
-Townspeople : a Wife from Bath, a Merchant, a
Lawyer, a Physician, a student from Oxford...)
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The range is quite wide but there are two
classes missing : the labourers and the upper
aristocracy---> peasants and nobles are both
excluded
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Between the Knight and the Plowman there is
the middle class , the rising bourgeoisie
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This is to emphasize that the old feudal values
are disappearing
 The Canterbury tales: the pilgrims
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Chaucer describes each pilgrim both as an
individual and a type, a model of the social
class to which he or she belongs
 The Canterbury tales: the tales
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The Canterbury tales are written in couplets of
iambic pentameters (also known as heroic
couplets or closed couplets)
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An iambic pentameter is a ten syllable line with
an alternation of unstressed and stressed
syllables
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The syllables are divided into five pairs called iambs
or iambic feet.
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An iamb is a metrical unit made up of one
unstressed syllable followed by one stressed
syllable. (ex deLIGHT, reLEASE)
 The Canterbury tales: the tales
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The importance of the tales lies in the fact that,
even if they can be enjoyed alone, they
combine to form a single unified poem and not
simply a collection of stories
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The search for unity was typical of all medieval
writers--> they tried to order the complex
structure of their works into a unity
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Each tale stands in relation to the others
 Chaucer: The father of the English
poetry
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Chaucer established the East Midlands and
London dialect as the dominant form of literary
language that would later develop into Modern
Standard English
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Since he wrote very well this dialect increased
its prestige
●
By turning to Italian literature for inspiration,
Chaucer brought the influence of the
Renaissance into England two centuries earlier
than other writers
Chaucer: the father of the English
poetry

These elements, combined with his deep

understanding of the human nature make
Chaucer the true father of the English poetry