Nothing gives us a better idea of medieval life than Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. Written in the late fourteenth century in the vernacular, it gives us an idea of the vast spectrum of people that made up the different classes within society. The poem describes the knightly class, the clergy, and those who worked for a living, thus describing the different classes as well. Chaucer gives us a cross-section of fourteenth century society by giving us the small details of people’s clothing, demeanor and professions; therefore giving us information on the lower and middle classes, not discussed in literature before.
Geoffrey Chaucer survived The Black Death’s peak at around age six, where twenty percent of England’s (about fifty percent of Europe’s) population quickly died within a span of five years. He was born into a prosperous wine merchant family, who was wealthy enough to send Chaucer to be a page to another wealthy family as a child and to receive an education. During his lifetime he held many different types of titles and professions allowing him to meet many different kinds of people within the social classes, probably giving him the background information for making the wide array of characters found in The Canterbury Tales. This story, in which many people from every aspect of fourteenth century society happen to meet at this inn in Southwark and travel the last sixty miles together on a pilgrimage to shrine of Christian martyr, Thomas Becket, in the Canterbury Cathedral. “Medieval Christians believed that a pilgrimage to a holy shrine was of particular spiritual benefit” (Spielvogel 272). They believed that by making the long journey and visit a shire it would bring them closer to God and their entrance into Hea...
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...s part in society. From the knightly, more higher class, to the lower and middle classes of the clergy and the kinds of people who worked. Without these poems, these people would have never been written about and the small unique jobs found in the medieval ages would never be learned about.
Works Cited
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. Lawall 1701-1769.
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Lawall, Sarah, ed. The Norton Anthology of Western Literature. 8th ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2006.
Spielvogel, Jackson J. Western Civilization. 6th ed. Belmont: Thomson Higher Education, 2006.
Baym, Nina, and Robert S. Levine. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 7th ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2007. 348-350. Print.
In his Canterbury Tales, Chaucer fully explicates the cultural standard known as curteisye through satire. In the fourteenth century curteisye embodied sophistication and an education in French international culture. The legends of chilvalric knights, conversing in the language of courtly love, matured during this later medieval period. Chaucer himself matured in the King's Court, and he reveled in his cultural status, but he also retained an anecdotal humor about curteisye. One must only peruse his Tales to discern these sentiments. In the General Prologue, he meticulously describes the Prioress, satirically examining her impeccable table manners. In the Miller's Tale Chaucer juxtaposes courtly love with animalistic lust, and in various other instances he mentions curteisye, or at least alludes to it, with characteristic Chaucerian irony. These numerous references provide the reader with a remarkably rich image of the culture and class structure of late fourteenth century England.
The development of social classes in medieval England affected life for the people in many positive ways. It served as a means of organization to base their daily lives off of, and also gave the peasants and trade classes protection from the rulers and the clergy class in return for their labor and allegiance (“Quizlet”). Life in the Middle Ages was based on the framework of social classes so they could flourish socially and economically.
Ireland’s purpose is to show how Chaucer had a good example to show his final order to his audience. He establishes a reflecting tone for explaining the Wife of Bath’s sovereignty. This work is significant because of the comparison between The Wife of Bath’s Tale and Prologue. (Ireland 10)
Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym. 8th ed. Vol A. New York: W.
Levine, Robert S. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 7th Edition. Volume B. New York: Norton, 2007. 1696. Print.
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales: Riverside Chaucer Third Edition. Ed. Larry D. Benson. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company,1987. 3-328 Secondary
Baym, Nina. “The Norton Anthology of American Literature.” Rev. 6 ed W.W. Norton & Company: New York, 2003.
Living in the medieval time period was not as glamorous as it is often portrayed; peasants and serfs led hard lives, however, kings, lords, and knights lived lavishly and at the expense of those under them. In this paper you will read about all of these lifestyles, as well as the castles in which these lords and kings lived in. Mainly castle designs, fortifications, and siege tactics will be revealed to you; yet there are several sections, dealing with the lifestyles of the above mentioned, leading up to that.
In medieval England, society’s roles were dominated by men and women were either kept at home or doing labor work. Among the most famous medieval English literature, “The Canterbury Tales” by Geoffrey Chaucer, lies ‘The Wife of Bath's Prologue’ and ‘The Wife of Bath's Tale.’ Within, Chaucer shares his perspective of the Wife of Bath, the Queen, and the Crone. Through the use of symbolism and diction, Chaucer aims to change society’s expectations of women.
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales: Riverside Chaucer Third Edition. Ed. Larry D. Benson. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company,1987. 3-328 Secondary
Baym, Nina et al. Ed. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Shorter 8th ed. New York:
Belasco, Susan, and Linck Johnson, eds. The Bedford Anthology of American Literature. Vol. 1, 2nd Ed., Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2014. 1190-1203. Print.
The Medieval period of The Canterbury Tales is held on April 11, 1387. The writing style of tales are literary skilled. “There is clear evidence in them that Chaucer was familiar with a considerable number of the great book of his time, and it is fairly well established that his writings show a steady increase in his literary skill” (Chaucer xxxvii). Chaucer is a writer of surprise. His stories not only come from plots of other writers but also from his lifetime. “There is of course no explaining where or how Chaucer acquired his ability as a great storyteller. However, the fact that he was a man of affairs as well as a man of books, a civil servant who dealt frequently with people from all walks of life, seem to have had great influence on the writing he did at night when he returned home from the office” (Chaucer xxxv). The Prioress tells an anti-Semitic tale, which reflects her position among the clergy.