chaucer canterbury tales

Chaucer (1340-1400)

 - Chaucer is really the first great poet of English literature. He devoted his considerable literary talents solely to the creation of verse that was lively and pleasing.

He was at home in all levels of society.   -  

 - His range and sympathies seem almost limitless and in this he resembles all the greatest poets whose works may be considered the abstract and brief chronicles of the time.

 - He is noted in surviving records not only as a poet but also as a distinguished statesman and a prominent public figure.

  The Canterbury Tales

 -  It is Chaucer's masterpiece. It represents Chaucer's fullest development as an artist.

 - In this work, Chaucer gave an incomparable faithful picture of his time. (Medieval life).   

 - He concentrated on native English models and traditions

 - He created a living panoramic world which is still fresh and vivid  including the bold modest Knight, the rich discreet Merchant, the slimy Pardoner, the robust lusty Wife of Bath, the humble faithful Parson and many others.

The Framework of The Canterbury Tales :

 It is a pilgrimage to the shrine of a Christian martyr named Thomas Becket in Canterbury. Twenty nine pilgrims meet at Tabard inn south of London  and head to the shrine. Their host at the inn Harry Bailey, the innkeeper suggests that the pilgrims tell tales on the way to and back from the pilgrimage to pass the time.

The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales

·        Chaucer wrote a detailed introduction to the tales which he called The General Prologue  

·        In The Prologue, the pilgrims are being introduced by Harry Bailey, the innkeeper

·        The Prologue gives a sharply individualized account of all pilgrims.

·        These pilgrims are widely representative of class and occupation. Each is graphically portrayed in the General Prologue and made dynamically alive. It is a wide panoramic display of English life.

·        Some of the characters portrayed in The Prologue  are :

ý The Knight : an ideal symbol for the Christian concept of chivalry and knighthood. A bold warrior fighting for religion and honor yet modest in manner and speech.

ý   The clergymen: Chaucer presents a group of clergymen. Most of these are corrupted figures interested in money and worldly pleasures. These are presented in characters like the Monk, the Prioress, the Friar and the Pardoner. The only exception is the Parson.

ý The Clerk of Oxford : An earnest and conscientious seeker of knowledge who spends all his money on books.

ý   Slices of various classes: the peasants (the Plowman), landowners (The Franklin), businessmen (mercantile class represented by the Merchant, tradesmen e.g. The Cook, the Miller, and a unique example in the character of the Wife of Bath and many others.

The Canterbury Tales :

   Chaucer gave us a collection of stories told by the various pilgrims mentioned and described in The Prologue. These range from noble stories

 (The Knight's Tale) to vulgar ones (the Miller's) .The tales demonstrate the following aspects

·          Wealth and variety of characters.

·             Faithful depiction of Medieval life: the court life and the common life.

·     A sympathetic humorist who painted life as he saw it and allowed his readers to draw the moral.

Chaucer as a satirist in The Canterbury Tales.

 - Chaucer in this masterpiece was a very intelligent satirist. His satire depended on the following techniques;

 - He never used direct severe or harsh criticism.

 - He used a lot of irony and implied criticism.

 - He presented characters as they are but never gave judgments.

 - He used specific physical and character details as means of criticism. The church was implicitly severely criticized in the characters of the Prioress, the Pardoner, the Monk etc.

 - He presented utopian symbolic pictures for the Knight, the Parson, the Clerk and the Plowman to give clues of how the chivalric system , the clergymen , the educational system and the real Christian citizen should be.  - These characters represented Chaucer's nostalgic feelings and wishes to restore the ideal original pictures for these characters which have been unfortunately replaced by the corrupted existing figures.

 - These characters were not physically described but presented rather as ideal(even utopian) symbols in an indirect attempt  to reform the corruption in the major norms of the society and as the Parson said in his motto" If gold rusts what shall iron do."

 - He placed most of his criticism on the corruption of the clergymen.