The Canterbury Tales—Geoffrye Chaucer

Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales

A. Introduction to Medieval Period1. the medieval mind—”post apocalyptic”

2. bad times / hard times

A. Introduction to Medieval Literature

3. The allegorical mind--seeing the great code

--spiritual reality behind the physical world4. A Few Medieval Concepts:

a. The Four Humors1. sanguine (cheerful, optimistic)2. phlegmatic (lazy)3. choleric (angry)4. melancholic (sad, depressed)

A. Introduction—The Four Humors

A. Introduction—The Black Death

b. The Black Death – The Plague1.One-third of Europe’s population is wiped out

2.Death is personified as “The Grim Reaper” image

B. Chaucer: the Father of English Literature

B. Chaucer

1. Biographical backgrounda. b.c.

2. Father of English Literature— Why?

a.b.c.

B. Geoffrey Chaucer

3. The Canterbury Talesa. The use of the “frame story” device

1. what it is

2. Chaucer’s Frame Storya. The frame is as

important as…

b. pilgrims are a cross section of med- ieval life

The Canterbury Pilgrims—Representing All of Us on the Great Journey, Telling Stories

(engraving by William Blake)

3. The Canterbury Tales

b. The Art of the Canterbury Tales1. Beautiful verse

2. Curious detachment

3. Double vision (sees the paradox of life—no illusions, but no simple judgements

The travelers at the Tabard Inn

4. The Prologue

a. Characters as types

b. Rich detail

c. Allegorical level ofthe pilgrims and theirjourney

5. The Pardoner’s Tale

a. What was a pardoner?1.

2.

b. Chaucer’s Pardoner –a complete fraud1. pardons2. relics

6. The Miller’s Tale

a. What is a miller?

b. The genre—fablieau

c. Two stock plots

7. The Reeve’s Tale

a. Response to the Miller

b. What is a reeve?

c. The unity of the tale’s theme with the frame’s theme

8. The Wife of Bath’s Tale

8. The Wife of Bath’s Tale

a. The Character of the Wife of Bath (what’s Bath?)1. archetypal (Venus and

Mars)2. married five times

(nos. 1, 2, and 3—elderly and dominated)no. 4—cheated, but she

brought him back by pretending her own affair

8. Wife of Bath’s Tale (continued)

no. 5—the only one she truly loved (he was young), and he made her the most miserable

3. worldly, honest, plain-spoken, sexual (uses it for pleasure and for power)

4. Fifth marriage (to Jankin) mirrors the marriage in the tale

8. Wife of Bath

b. The Tale1. the tale mirrors the pilgrim

2. medieval romance

3. character of the knight (all men)--ugly

8. Wife of Bath’s Tale

3. character of the knight (all men)--ugly no honor

no respectno gratitudeno couragesnobbishthinks only of self

8. Wife of Bath’s Tale

4. character of the old woman*reflection of the Wife*rebukes knight’s

*Knight’s three way snobbery:

5. Main theme of the Tale

6. The Fairy Tale Aspect

C. Conclusion

What makes Chaucer and the Canterbury Tales great?1. the scope of his vision and achievement2. the allegory of the travelers3. Chaucer’s

humanity