The Canterbury TalesGeoffrey Chaucer

by:

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1340s (ish) - 1400

Middle Ages

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•Emperors became more like kings

•Feudalism: involuntary peasant labor on lands not their own•personal bonds and personal law beginning to replace impersonal law common to large expanses of territory

•Medieval Guilds (exclusive, regimented organizations)

•The Catholic Church would provide spiritual and moral direction, as well as leadership and material support, during the darkest times of the early Medieval period.

Feudalism: The Middle Ages’ social order

*Christianity provided the basis for a first unified religion common to most of the continent.Crusades: Popes, kings, and emperors unite and defend Christendom

Feudalism--A system of loyalties and

protections

Emperors granted land to nobles in exchange for their loyalty.

Serfs would often have to work three or four days a week for the lord as rent. They would spend the rest of their week growing crops

to feed their families. Other serfs worked as sharecroppers. A sharecropper

would be required to turn over most of what he grew in order to be able to live on the land.

Peasants could no longer count on the Roman army to protect them.

German, Viking and Magyar tribes overran homes and farms

throughout Europe.

These nobles would have peasants/serfs work the land for them on their land because:

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Important Events… 100 Years War with France

Many deaths and strife throughout England

Peasants’ Rebellion (remember Robin Hood) The underprivileged lived a life of unhappiness, turmoil, and

hunger.

Corruption in the Catholic Church Many followers began to lose some faith.

Power struggle between Pope and King This aided to the faith lose throughout the land.

And, of course….4

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THE BLACK DEATH!Between 1349 and 1350,

England lost nearly half its population to the Black Death.

ACK! I got the Black

Death from the rat!

Technically, you got it from the fleas ON

the rat… that jumped off and bit you, so

you know. Don’t blame the poor rat.

Important Events…

It was easy to catch, painful to have, and deadly almost all

the time.

Father of English Poetry The Canterbury Tales is considered

Chaucer’s masterpiece Chaucer was the first writer to use English in a

major literary work He spoke Middle English

A mixture of Old English (Anglo-Saxons) and Old French (Normans)

Middle English differs from Modern English in the pronunciation of the words

Chaucer’s Language

6Let’s look at some examples:

Chaucer’s Language: The ShiftMiddle EnglishMiddle English Sounds like ModernSounds like Modern

y,iy,i "myne, sight" "myne, sight" "m"meeeet"t"

e, eee, ee "me, meet, mete" (close "me, meet, mete" (close e)e)

"m"maate"te"

ee "begge, rede" (open e) "begge, rede" (open e) "b"baag"g"

a, aaa, aa "mate, maat" "mate, maat" "f"faather" ther"

u, ouu, ou "hus, hous" "hus, hous" "b"boooot"t"

o, ooo, oo "bote, boot" (close o) "bote, boot" (close o) ""oaoak" k"

oo "lof, ok" (open o) "lof, ok" (open o) "b"boughought"t"

Vowels shifted upwards; vowel that was pronounced in one place in the mouth

would be pronounced higher up in the mouth

People used to spell words how they sounded, but now

they had a more standardized

written/spoken language

Now: to the story…7

The Canterbury Tales

Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote      When April with its sweet-smelling showers

The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,       Has pierced the drought of March to the root,

And bathed every veyne in swich licour      And bathed every vein (of the plants) in such

liquidOf which vertu engendred is the flour;

   By the power of which the flower is created;   Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth

  When the West Wind also with its sweet breath, Inspired hath in every holt and heeth

  In every holt and heath, has breathed life intoThe tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne

      The tender crops, and the young sunHath in the Ram his half cours yronne,

     Has run its half course in Aries,And smale foweles maken melodye,

      And small fowls make melody,

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That slepen al the nyght with open ye         Those that sleep all the night with open eyes

    (So priketh hem Nature in hir corages),          (So Nature incites them in their hearts),Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,           Then folk long to go on pilgrimages,And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,          And professional pilgrims (long) to seek

foreign shores, To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes; To

(go to) distant shrines, known in various lands;

And specially from every shires ende      And specially from every shire's endOf Engelond to Caunterbury they wende,        Of England to Canterbury they travel,The hooly blisful martir for to seke,        T o seek the holy blessed martyr,That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.               Who helped them when they were sick.

The Canterbury Tales is written in Middle English.Click the star to hear a sample.

Canterbury Tales

He depicts a 14th century England populated by peasants, tradesmen, knights, and clerics,

most of whom appear to be healthy and well fed.

But the 14th century in which

Chaucer lived was one of

plague, rebellion, and

corruption.

Chaucer writes the tales around 1386

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We are off on our pilgrimage!

Hurray!

We are so healthy and well fed and happy!

Wait! No we’re not!

Was that a rat?! Did I just get the

plague?I think I hear a rebellion! Let’s

move!

Canterbury TalesThere are two key literary techniques Chaucer incorporates:

1) A Frame Tale – a story that provides a vehicle, or frame, for telling other stories (More details on next slide.)

*The voice of the poet-pilgrim himself, Chaucer – introduces us to other pilgrims*The person of “The Host” of the Tabard Inn*The conversations that occur between the tales, among the Host and the pilgrims, and the pilgrims themselves

2) An Estate Satire – a literary technique used to highlight the foibles of a society and its particular people in the hopes of exacting some sort of change; it is sarcastic and sometimes often biting

*Prioress, Monk, Friar, Clerk, Parson, Summoner and Pardoner (with the Clerk and Parson being exceptions) have lives that seem to be

very removed from what might be expected in people of their calling*Chaucer’s commentary on how he views the religious system of the medieval

time period

The style…

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Keep in mind with a framed story: a group of smaller works are put together in a framework.

Each has a relationship to others. The piece is hooked together with important themes.

Characters tell the stories in forms appropriate to them, using different verse forms.*

The Canterbury Tales

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The style…

*Yes, that means poetry.

Thus, the theme of the pilgrimage = life means that the

hardship of pilgrimage = hardship of life

We experience all the various “hardships” of life through this work.

To use such a diverse group of narrators, whose stories are interlinked by characters talking with each

other, revealing much about themselves

A group of thirty people travel as pilgrims to Canterbury (England) to see the shrine of Sir Thomas Beckett.

The pilgrims, who come from all layers of society, tell stories to each other to kill time while they travel.

The Canterbury Tales

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The set-up…Chaucer

intended that each pilgrim

should tell two tales on the

way to Canterbury and

two tales on the way back.

The Canterbury Tales has been passed down in several handwritten manuscripts.

Thus, scholars are uncertain about the order of the tales.

He never finished this large task…

Only twenty-four tales were composed

before Chaucer's death in 1400.A rich, tapestry of

medieval social life combines elements of all classes, from nobles to workers, from priests and

nuns to drunkards and thieves.

P.S. They meet at the Tabard Inn

The Canterbury Tales

The set-up… The pilgrim’s occupations

reflect different aspects of the 14th century society Feudal System

Knight, Squire, Yeoman, Franklin, Plowman, Miller, Reeve

Religious Life Prioress (Nun), Monk,

Friar, Clerk, Parson, Summoner, Pardoner

Trades and Professions Merchant, Sergeant of

Law, Five Tradesmen, Cook, Skipper, Doctor, Wife of Bath, Manciple, Host 13

The Canterbury Tales

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The story…

1) General Prologue consists of character sketches of each member of the group that is going to Canterbury, as described by the narrator. (1st person speaker)

Some believe that the narrator IS Chaucer… I’ll leave that up to you.

The fiction suggests that Chaucer is an observer of the scene, who accurately records the appearance, the stories and the

conversations of the company. He is not responsible for what is said, nor how it is expressed.

2) This was a familiar and fairly popular journey. People did combine with strangers into traveling companions for safety.

Each character is described as a representative of his or her own social group, which covers the social spread of 14th-century England

(Highly unlikely that such a varied group as Chaucer describes would have existed)

(No representatives of either the aristocracy or the true peasantry, an unskilled land-worker)

Fable – teaches by providing a moral at the end Parable – a brief story that parallels a more general moral lesson Exemplum – a specific example of a general rule: it is supposed to

prove a point by showing the truth of some moral rule Verbal Irony – exists when a person says one thing while meaning

another Situational Irony – exists when the outcome of a situation is opposite of

what someone expected Dramatic Irony – occurs when the audience or reader is aware of

something that the character does not know Direct Characterization – writer telling the reader what the character is

like (i.e., stupid, silly, kind) Indirect Characterization – writer shows the reader what the character

does, says, thinks, or feels and allows the reader to draw their own conclusions about what the character is like

The Canterbury Tales

The Lit. Terms…

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Questions?You will need to know

this information.muhahahahahaha!

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