Canterbury%20Tales

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Canterbury Tales
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Geoffrey Chaucer 1340-1400 (?)

• Father of English language
• Middle class, well-educated (father was wine
  merchant)
• Served at court
• Diplomatic missions to France, Spain, Italy
• Catholic who perceived abuses within Church and
  exposed them

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Church in England

• Pope collecting heavier heavier taxes from
  England
• Political maneuvering among bishops against Roman
  control
• As English kings gained power, they began to
  resist power of church
• English church full of ignorant priests corrupt
  officials
• simony, indulgences, abuse of church courts
  positions
• Common person unschooled illiterate couldnt
  dispute religious leaders
• John Wycliffe (1328-84) English theologian and
  religious reformer who rejected biblical basis of
  papal power and disputed doctrine of the
  transubstantiation translated first English
  Bible from Latin Vulgate

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Languages of Engand

• Old English form of German spoken by Saxons
  before Norman Conquest
• Middle English influx of French Latinization
• Native tongue, Latin and French spoken

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Map
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Pilgrims Route
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Canterbury
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The Place Canterbury

• connected 3 trading ports to London Julius
  Caesar invaded in 43 A.D.
• Roman civilization with theatres, baths, temples,
  etc. until invasion of Angles, Saxons, Jutes in
  5th/6th century
• Canterbury converted to Christianity in 597 by
  Saint Augustine
• Monastery, todays Cathedral, founded in 602 by
  St. Augustine Canterbury as mother of British
  Christianity
• Surrendered at Battle of Hastings (1066) to
  William the Conqueror Cathedral destroyed by
  fire in 1067
• fortified with new walls, gates, stone keep

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St. Augustine
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Thomas a Beckett

• Thomas Becket struggled for the churchs
  independence from King Henry II exiled to France
  for 6 years returned angered King Who will
  deliver me from this troublesome priest?
• 4 knights murdered him December 29, 1170, in
  Cathedral canonized 3 years later and shrine
  completed in 1220

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Canterbury Cathedral
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Canterbury Cathedral
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The Tales

• work existed in fragments at Chaucers death
• planned for each of 30 to tell 2 tales/going 2
  tales/returning (120 stories in original
  framework)
• we have only one story each from 24 pilgrims
• written between 1357-1400
• each tale deals with a specific theme
• complex portrayal of religious men women in an
  earthly scene (vs. Dante portrayal of life after
  death)
• detached narration (framed stories within
  stories)
• regularly rhyming couplets
• Chaucer customarily writes a five-stress,
  ten-syllable line, alternating unstressed and
  stressed syllables (what would later be called
  iambic pentameter)
• told in social order (except for Miller)

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A pageant of 14th Century life

• Pilgrims span the whole range of the unofficial
  middle class. Groups represented are
• Upper class (Knight, Squire, church people)
• Learned professions (Physician, Man of Law)
• Landed gentry (Franklin)
• Medieval manor people (Miller, Reeve)
• Mercantile class (Shipman, Merchant)
• Guildsmen (Haberdasher, Dyer, etc.)
• Laborer (Plowman)

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Structure Style

• Tales have different tones, attitudes, poetic
  style
• Marian miracle tale for Prioress
• Sermonic structure for Pardoners tale
• Supernatural, folkloric tale for Wife of Bath
• Point of View
• Chaucer enables reader to see story, person
  telling story, point behind story--all at once
• points of view represent different outlooks,
  morals
• Sources virtually every type of medieval writing
• Fabliaux, mini-epics, romances, fables, exempla,
  lays, anecdotes, a sermon, religious allegories

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Chaucers Attitude

• Five ideals that Chaucer treats seriously
  (Knight, Squire, Clerk, Parson, Plowman)
• Some he pokes fun at (Prioress, Monk, Wife of
  Bath)
• Some he is quiet about short portraits with a
  bit of personal view coming through (Prioress's
  entourage)
• Some not very good Chaucer evokes subtle
  negativity through direct and indirect
  characterization
• Most are hardened sinners, especially religious
  officials (Friar, Pardoner, Summoner)

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General Prologue

• Introduction of pilgrims
• Catholics (150 years before Henry VIII broke from
  Rome)
• Reasons for pilgrimage?
• Common to travel together protection
• April in Southwark at Tabbard Inn, owner Harry
  Bailey
• Bailey suggests they pass time by taking turns
  telling stories best will win prize
• Brief portraits of pilgrims
• Attitude of Chaucer the Pilgrim
• Three estates and rising middle class represented

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7 Church Officials

• 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 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)

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Discussion points

• "The General Prologue" presents a vivid
  cross-section of the people who composed the
  various social classes of 14th Century England.
  What seems to be Chaucer's opinion of the Clergy?
  Of the other classes? Which characters does
  Chaucer seem to esteem or criticize? What
  attributes do these characters have that Chaucer
  appears to value or not?

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The Pardoners Tale

• Pardoner a layman who sells pardons or
  indulgences, certificates from the pope by which
  people hoped to gain a share in the merits of the
  saints and escape more lightly from the pains of
  Purgatory after they die
• Eunuch--The Pardoner is spiritually sterile, a
  more significant fact than being physically
  sterile.

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Discussion

• 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?

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Wife of Bath

• Experience vs Authority
• The nature of Woman
• Role of man and women in marriage who is in top?
• What do women want?
• Is this tale anti-feminist?

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Discussion

• 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?  
• What is the relationship between teller and tale?
  Is it an appropriate tale for her to tell?