Geoffrey Chaucer

The
Canterbury
Tales
HISTORY OF THE TALES
○Geoffrey Chaucer began writing the tales
around 1387 AD

○Uncompleted manuscript published 1400AD,

the year he died

○First book of poetry purposely written in the

English language – father of English poetry

○Set a precedent. Poets from Shakespeare to

Dryden and Keats to Eliot owe him a debt of
gratitude
GOING ON A PILGRIMAGE
○Group of pilgrims heading to Canterbury Cathedral to visit the
shrine of Thomas Becket. Most popular locations were Rome or
Jerusalem. Occasion in which all social classes come together
○Reasons for going:
1. Hope of heavenly reward
2. Penance
3. Miracle/healing
○People went in groups for safety
○Frame story: These pilgrims tell stories to pass the time. At the
inn, where the text begins, the pilgrims agree to tell their own
stories. According to the Host, Harry Bailey, the best one wins a
prize (night of food and housing at the inn)
How could Chaucer write this kind of
work?
○Son of a merchant, page ○Raised middle class but
in a royal house, soldier, work with aristocracy
diplomat, and royal clerk through his page job
○As a page, he made beds, ○Rose above middle class
carried candles, and ran when he married a lady in
errands…but got excellent waiting to the queen
education ○Diplomatic missions to
○All this life experience France, Spain, and Italy
made him an expert on all
classes
Canterbury
WHY CANTERBURY TALES
MATTERS?
“In all literature, there is nothing that
touches or resembles Chaucer’s Prologue.
It is the concise portrait of an entire nation,
high and low, old and young, male and
female, lay and clerical, learned and
ignorant, rogue and righteous, land and sea,
town and country” (Coghill)
 Estates Satire
○Uses ○3 Estates: Men only
exaggeration and ●Clergy (church) – those who prayed
sarcasm to show ●Nobility (court/knights) – those who
fought
the abuses ●Peasants (commoners) – those who labor
traditional in each ○Estates for Women: virgin, wife, and
estate (social
widow
class) for the ○Yielding soon to rising middle class
different classes in
of merchants and intellectuals
14th century
England
7 CLERICAL FIGURES: TARGET OF
CHAUCER’S SATIRICAL ATTACK
○Prioress: sentimental depiction, proud in petty way
○Monk: hedonistic, hunter, inept but not malicious
○Friar: seducer, sells forgiveness
○Parson and Plowman: ideal religious men; Parson is
one of 2 heroes in tales
○Summoner: blackmailed, bribed on way to success;
ugly, stupid thug
○Pardoner: perfect fraud: charming, clever, corrupt;
biggest hypocrite; secular church official fighting
w/church official (Friar)
CHAUCERIAN IRONY
○Don’t mistake Canterbury Tales for a
historical document of realistic
portraits; Chaucer is writing satire, and
so “the rascals far outnumber the
admirable figures. Chaucer seems to
admire them all, without regard to their
moral status” (Geoffrey Chaucer page from Harvard)
ARTISTRY OF FORM
○Originally planned for 120 stories (2 stories each way on
pilgrimage from London to Canterbury for 30 pilgrims), but only
22 completed, with 2 fragmentary tales. Chaucer left the
manuscript(s) unfinished, so we don't know the final ordering of
the tales
○Narrative structure allowed Chaucer the freedom to create a
variety of matter in a unified form. POV: switch between first
and third, enables reader to see story, person telling story, point
behind story--all at once. Points of view represent different
outlooks, morals
Many genres incorporated including;
●Fabliaux, romance, melodrama, sermon, parable, slapstick
comedy
ARTISTRY OF LANGUAGE AND
MASTER OF CHARACTER
●Chaucer wrote in English (revolutionary choice at the
time). English was gaining ground, but Latin was still
the choice for the educated; so Canterbury Tales gained
a wider audience.
●Characters are created through:
1. Physical descriptions (some quite graphic)
2. Characters interacting with each other
3. The tales themselves reflecting character (often specifically
their personalities and motivations)
4. Indirect and direct characterization
DISCUSSION ?S FOR THE
PROLOGUE
○Organize the characters depicted in the "Prologue"
based on social position first, then on their morality.
What seems to be Chaucer's opinion of the Clergy?
Of the other classes? Of women? Which characters
does Chaucer seem to esteem or criticize? What
attributes do these characters have that Chaucer
appears to value or not?
 The Pardoner’s Tale: radix malorum est cupiditas: love
of money is the root of all evil!

○A pardoner is a seller of relics ○Pardoner’s Prologue takes the

or religious artifacts and form of an "apologia" or
pardons, which are documents "literary confession," in which
that officially forgive the a character explains his or her
purchaser’s sins way of life. Sounds more like a
○Keep in mind he usually boast!
preaches to “yokels,” or poorly
educated country folk
○He makes more in one short
day than a typical clergyman
makes in several months!
PARDONER’S TALE
DISCUSSION ?S
○How does the Pardoner characterize himself
in the Prologue to his tale? What text does he
always preach on? Do you see irony in this?
What is the relation between teller and tale?
Wife of Bath
○Bawdy tale told by a woman married
five times!
○Her prologue is 3X as long as her tale
○Alison of Bath: everything is large to
the point of exaggeration: her bulk, her
clothes, her mouth, the number of her
marriages, the extent of her travels, her
zest for sex, her love of domination,
her torrential delivery.
DISCUSSION ?S FOR WIFE OF
BATH’S TALE
Prologue  
Why does she open her “Prologue by claiming that experience is
a better guide to truth than authority? Do you think this helps in
her argument on marriage and in her general defense? Are her
arguments problematic? Does the Wife completely reject
antifeminist attitudes toward women, or does she provide proof
that these “old books” are correct in what they assume about
women? Do you believe that she is an object of satire in her
“Prologue” or an instrument of satire---or somehow both at the
same time?  
Tale
What is the relationship between teller and tale? Is it an
appropriate tale for her to tell?