Geoffrey Chaucer

- he is known as the father of English literature

- greatest English poet in the Middle ages
- author, philosopher, astronomer
- 1343-1400
- one of his greatest works is The Canterbury Tales which
is a collection of 24 stories told by fictional pilgrims ont he
road to Canterbury, to a cathedralthese are tales that
would help shape the English language
- 1700 line, written in Middel English
- the tales were mostly written in verse but some of them
were written in prose
- this is Chaucer’s magnum opus
- he wants to make jokes on the English society at that time
and mostly on the church
- colourful characters

The general prologue

- it is the first part of the Canterbury tales
- the narrator is Chaucer who is in a tavern, near London
where he meets a group of pilgrims
- there pilgrims are the characters of the Canterbury tales
and can be divided into three groupsmilitary (the Knight),
clergy (the Nun’s priest) and laity (physician) groups
- the narrator (Chaucer) gives a descriptive account of the
27 characters excluding the Second Nun and the Nun’s
priestChaucer describes the pilgrims by their condition,
their array and their social degree
- the pilgrims and the narrator are travelling to Canterbury,
to visit the shrine of the martyr Saint Thomas Becket
- the Host, who is one of the pilgrims suggests that the
group should go together and they should entertain each
other with storieseveryone 2 to Canterbury and
everyone 2 back (that would be 112 tales)
- whoever tells the best story is to be given a free
mealcontest
- they determine that the Knight will tell the first tale

The Miller’s tale

- this tale is told by the drunken Miller
- this story’s main character is a good-looking and poor boy,
named Nicholas who fell in love with his landlord’s (John
the carpenter) wife, Alisoun
- Alisoun is a beautiful, young lady
- Nicholas persuades Alisoun to spend the night with him,
even though she tries to be loyal to her wife (Nicholas only
has to tell a few nice words to convince her)
- Nicholas also persuades John that he is sick and when
John visits the ill, he convinces John that he had a vision
about a second flood, that is coming on Monday
- John believes him and he wants to spend the night in a tub
which is hanging ont he ceiling on his barn
- Absolon, who is a young parish clerk is also in love with
Alisounhe appears in the window when Nicholas and
Alisoun lie together
- Absolon begs for a kiss, but Alisoun doesn’t love himshe
stricks her rear end out the window in the dark and
Absolon kisses thathe gets mad
- Absolon goes back to the town to get a red-hot poker and
begs for another kissthis time Nicholas stricks his rear
end out the window but instead of a kiss, Absolon brands
him ont he buttocks
- Nicholas cries for water because it is burning himJohn
(who is sleeping in a tub) hears that and thinks that the
flood is here so he cuts the rope which connected the tub
to the ceiling and breaks his arm
- Nicholas and Alisoun make everybody think that the
carpenter is crazy

The wife of Bath’s tale

- she had 5 husbands alreadymarriage professional
- King Arthur’s timethat time, Britain was full of with fairies
and elves but now that they are gone, instead of them
there are mendicants and friarsrape is common
- In Arthur’s court, a young knight comes across a beautiful
maiden one dayhe rapes her
- the court is scandalized by the crime and want to kill the
knight by decapitation
- Arthur’s wife and her ladies ask the king to give him one
more chancethe queen gives him a challengehe has
to find the answer for the question: what women want most
in the world? (gives him 1 year)
- the knight travel and asks different women but none of
them gives the same answer (honor, remarriage, sex,
jolliness…etc.)
- some of the women want to be discrete and secretive, but
the wife of Bath argues because she think that no woman
can keep a secretproof: she retells Ovid’s story of Midas
(Midas had 2 ass’s ears growing under his hair but only his
wife knew that and he begged her not to tell anyonethe
wife said yes but she couldn’t resist telling it to the water)
- ont he last day, the knight is miserable and scaredhe
goes home but he sees a forest near his home where he
sees a group of young and beautiful ladies dancing
- he goes towards them to ask the question, but they all
vanish and instead of them, there is an ugly, old hag
- the knight promises to reward her is she knows the answer
for his questionshe swears she knows the answer so
they go home together
- in front of the queen and the people. the hag says what
women most desire is to be charge of their husbands and
loversthe answer is correct
- the hag publicly asks the knight to marry herthe knight is
forced to be married to the hag
- they have a small, private wedding and go to bed together
- the knight is sad because of his wifethe hag tells him to
choosedoes he want her to be ugly but good and loyal
OR does he want her to be beautiful, young but unfaithful?
- silence, but then the knight tells that he will trust her
judgement and choose whatever she thinks
- because the knight’s answer gave the woman what she
most desired, the authority to choose for herselfshe
becomes beautiful AND good happy life
- wife of Bath’s story about herself

The pardoner’s tale

- the Host wants to cheer up after the Physician’s tale so he
asks the Pardoner to be the next story teller
- the Pardoner wants to eat and drink first
- the pilgrims want to here a moral story and the Pardoner
agrees (kind of contradiction)
- Radix malorum est Cupiditasgreed is the root of all evil
- bags of relicshe admits that they are fake
- he says he want to get money and not correct sins
- a group of Flemish people spend their time drinking and
indulging all form of excess
- the Pardoner gives a long tirade againt the vices they are
all doing
- gluttonytorkosság (EdenAdam and Eve)
- drunkenness
- gamblingszerencsejáték
- swearingGod forbids it
- 3 people drinking and having fun when they hear a funeral
knellone of the servants tells them that thair old friend
was killed by a misterious figure, named Death
- they get angry and got out to find and take a revenge on
Death (kill him)
- travelling down the road they meet and old man who is
sorrowfulhe says he is too old and wants to find Death to
get him help him
- the youths want to know where Death isthe old man
direnct them into a grove where he says he had left Death
under an oak tree
- when they arrive there, they find 8 bushels of gold
coinsthey are surprised
- the slytest of the three says that they should carry these
bushels overnight because at day time, people would think
they are thievessomeone should run to the town to fetch
some bread and wine
- they draw lots and the youngest has to go
- the other to decides that they should kill the youngest so
they would have more money
- the young one is thinking about the same, so he poisons
two bottle out of three
- when the youngest returns, the other two leap him and kill
himthey want to celebrate so they drink the bottle of
wines but they dies because of the poison
- avaricekapzsiság
- the Pardoner is againt sins but he shows the relics to the
pilgrims and tell the Host to come and kiss the relicsthe
 Host gets angry because the Pardoner just told them a few
minutes ago that they were fake
- the Knight calms everybody down and in the end
everybody laughs and have fun