Geoffrey Chaucer The Canterbury Tales

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Geoffrey Chaucer The Canterbury Tales
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St. Thomas a Becket

• Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest
• Killed on Dec. 29th 1170
• The Archbishop of Canterbury
• Becket disagreed with King
• Henry II and was murdered
• in Canterbury Cathedral
• There have been several miracles in this
  cathedral

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Geoffrey Chaucer

• 1387 Chaucer wrote a free-verse poem about a
  pilgrimage to St. Thomas a Beckets shrine.
• The
• Canterbury Tales

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The Canterbury Tales

• Chaucers characterization was unlike anything
  ever written before.
• He creates a human encyclopedia by describing
  physical and social mannerisms he also explores
  the beliefs and morals of each character.
• A pageant of 14th century life
• Every class variation is represented except the
  highest (nobility) and the lowest (serfs)
• Upper Class, Learned Professions, Landed Gentry,
  Medieval Manor People, Mercantile Class,
  Guildsmen, Laborer
• After Chaucer introduces all of the characters,
  each one will tell a two tales on their way to
  the Shrine of Thomas a Becket

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The General Prologue

• April, Tabard Inn
• The 29 pilgrims spending the night at the
  Tabard Inn.
• The Narrator says he will describe and repeat
  everything he hears no matter how offensive.
• The Host proposes that each pilgrim tell 2 tales
  on the way there and back.
• The best tale will win dinner at the Inn

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Chaucers Attitude

• Some ideals that Chaucer treats seriously
• Knight, Clerk, Parson, Plowman
• Some he pokes fun of
• Prioress, Monk, Wife of Bath
• Some he says very little about and gives no
  personal view of
• The Prioress entourage
• Some are not very good a little negative
• Shipman, Manciple
• Some are hardened sinners
• Friar, Pardoner, Summoner

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The Characters

• Character is revealed in the portraits of the
  pilgrims, their tales, and their behavior or
  remarks along the way.
• Five specific methods of characterization
• Radix Trait
• Touchstone Line
• Glimpse of the spiritual interior person through
  physical description outward blemished suggest
  inner blemishes
• Conscious use of hyperbole, usually used to
  create bias
• Disparate (incongruous) detail, particularly used
  on the bad guys

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Chaucer

• He must have been a man of a most wonderful and
  comprehensive nature, because, as it has been
  truly observed of him, he has taken into the
  compass of his Canterbury Tales the various
  manners and humour (as we now call them) of the
  whole English nation in his age.
• John Dryden, 1700