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Fashion in the middle ages essay
Canterbury tales and society
Canterbury tales and society
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Canterbury Tales the General Prologue, Chaucer introduces many characters that are quite different and some that somewhat normal. Chaucer uses these characters not only to tell a story but to show weakness in the society/ social classes that were present in the medieval times. Chaucer truly never wrote exactly about anyone in particular he used the characters in his stories to point out the wrongs of what in whole the social classes were doing wrong morally. In the beginning of the prologue we begin to start meeting some of the people who are on the pilgrimage, and we meet some well off people like a knight, squire, Nun, Monks, and a Doctor some people who aren't at the highest and some who are but who aren't hurting. They all were flashy had …show more content…
Right off we notice chaucer didn't say tell specifically about their clothing or appearance much of that he only says the plowman works outside plowing fields for crops so we can infer he's a working man so he's probably tan. They both are generous and good men overall and there in probably the lower class since they have to work. This shows that Chaucer was directly writing about the differences in the social classes of that era, he shows that the upper class has shiny new clothing and wants to show it off but they also have flaws and there not really what they seem like because we find out that most of the fancy upper class are corrupt and aren't moral about what they do. Example would be the doctor ripping people off just to split profits so he can become rich and live a good life that’s morally wrong and chaucer wanted people to know that it happened almost everyday without them realizing. The lower class not much said or nothing said about what they wore because they didn't care they cared about being the best people they could to others and helping out others being morally correct and
In The Canterbury Tales Chaucer demonstrates many themes such as lust, greed, and poverty. During the Canterbury tales the travelers the author himself is in the tale and he describes every character in detail. Most importantly in The Wife of Bath there is numerous examples of poverty. Thought out the tale Chaucer introduces to us a man who couldn’t control himself because of lust. As a result, he gets punished by the queen.
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.
In Chaucer’s time there was a class system that divided the group into a sort of category they were grouped in 3 groups Clergy, nobility and peasants. In Chaucer’s story “The Canterbury Tales” this is no exception he uses this class difference to design his characters. There are many characters that fit into their stereotype of their class system for example the Knight. The Knight in Chaucer’s time was considered as part of the nobility. The Knight’s tale is a sophisticated fable of romance, betrayal and bloodshed. It is a high class story that pit’s two cousins Palamon and Arcite against one another after the affection of the same women Emelye. They fight with one another in the hopes one will win to which one cousin says “For god’s love take things patiently have sense, Think! We are prisoners and shall always be”. For the circumstance of Arcite having a mutual friend to the man who has imprisoned them Theseus the friend pleads for the release of his friend and Theseus agrees on the term that Arcite is to never return to Athens. Arcite who agrees moves to Thebes, Palamon is now worse off than ever because he is worried his cousin will come back and take Emelye by force and he will be stuck here...
In The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, the stereotypes and roles in society are reexamined and made new through the characters in the book. Chaucer discusses different stereotypes and separates his characters from the social norm by giving them highly ironic and/or unusual characteristics. Specifically, in the stories of The Wife of Bath and The Miller’s Tale, Chaucer examines stereotypes of women and men and attempts to define their basic wants and needs.
The Miller tries to tell his tale after the Knight is finished, but the host sees his status and intoxication and tells him “We’ll get some better man to tell another.” (Pg 103) The host wants the Monk to tell his story next because he is the next highest rank after the knight. The Miller takes over and tells his tale, by this we see him challenging the system of social classes. The narrator also warns us that the story that is about to be told is going to be unpleasant. “So if this tale had better not be heard, Just run the page and choose another sort;” (Pg 104) The shift from hearing the story told by the knight’s tale, to reading the millers tale is an example of antithesis. The miller is drunk, rude and vulgar, unlike the knight who is chivalrous. Chaucer is trying to express the struggles of the lower class during his lifetime. Constantly the lower classes are forced to submit to the upper class, but the Miller finally takes a stand against the
The Canterbury Tales, is a group of 24 stories by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the 14th century. The tales are part of a story-telling contest by a group of people as they travel together on a journey to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. The reward for this competition is a free meal at the Tabard Inn upon their return. Within The Generals Prologue, Chaucer begins to describe each and every person that companies him on his pilgrimage. Some of the Characters in his tale are good, like that knight and yeoman for example, but some of the bad ones were the ones who were supposed to be holy people such as the Pardoner and Summoner.
The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, is a collection of short stories told amongst pilgrims on their way to Canterbury. The pilgrims are competing against one another to see who can tell the best story on their trip. Along the way Chaucer makes quick comments and critics about the travelers. Some pilgrims he likes, for example the Parson. Others like the Pardoner, are disliked strongly by Chaucer. He also finds some pilgrims entertaining, like the Nun. She is described as a women who, instead of centering her life round Christ, tries to impress everyone. Although in his prologue Chaucer pokes fun at the Nun’s appearance and behavior, ultimately the readers can see that Chaucer
The Canterbury Tales is a literary masterpiece in which the brilliant author Geoffrey Chaucer sought out to accomplish various goals. Chaucer wrote his tales during the late 1300’s. This puts him right at the beginning of the decline of the Middle Ages. Historically, we know that a middle class was just starting to take shape at this time, due to the emerging commerce industry. Chaucer was able to see the importance and future success of the middle class, and wrote his work with them in mind. Knowing that the middle class was not interested in lofty philosophical literature, Chaucer wrote his work as an extremely comical and entertaining piece that would be more interesting to his audience. Also, Chaucer tried to reach the middle class by writing The Canterbury Tales in English, the language of the middle class rather than French, the language of the educated upper class. The most impressive aspect of Chaucer’s writing is how he incorporated into his piece some of his own controversial views of society, but yet kept it very entertaining and light on the surface level. One of the most prevalent of these ideas was his view that certain aspects of the church had become corrupt. This idea sharply contrasted previous Middle Age thought, which excepted the church’s absolute power and goodness unquestionably. He used corrupt church officials in his tales to illustrate to his audience that certain aspects of the church needed to be reformed. The most intriguing of these characters was the Pardoner. Chaucer’s satirical account of the Pardoner is written in a very matter-of-fact manner that made it even more unsettling with his audience. Chaucer uses his straightforwardness regarding the hypocrisy of the Pardoner, suggestive physiognomy of the character, and an interesting scene at the conclusion of the Pardoner’s Tale to inculcate his views of the church to his audience. The way that Chaucer used these literary devices to subtly make his views known to an audience while hooking them with entertainment, shows that Chaucer was truly a literary genius.
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, (written c. 1387), is a richly varied compilation of fictional stories as told by a group of twenty-nine persons involved in a religious pilgrimage to Canterbury, England during the fourteenth century. This journey is to take those travelers who desire religious catharsis to the shrine of the holy martyr St. Thomas a Becket of Canterbury. The device of a springtime pilgrimage provided Chaucer with a diverse range of characters and experiences, with him being both a narrator and an observer. Written in Middle English, each tale depicts parables from each traveler.
Social class was the foundation of everyday life during the Middle Ages. Social class played a significant role in the lives of medieval people. The aristocracy class and the immoral lower class were often viewed by society as practically different races. In The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer shows the wide variance among the classes in every aspect of their daily lives. The zeitgeist of the Middle Ages can be seen through his illustration of differences between classes in moral behavior, economic power, the autonomy and education of women during the Middle Ages.
In General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales the character of Chaucer as the narrator serves as our guide to the action. Chaucer narrates as if he is in the moment himself, just meeting these pilgrims for the first time, and he makes the audience as though they are right there with him. At other times, though, Chaucer is a narrator who seems to know more than he ought to. For example, he tells us that, when the Shipman wins a fight, he murders the loser by throwing him overboard, or that the Reeve is stealing from his master. Are these really stories people would tell Chaucer when first meeting him? Chaucer also seems to know a suspiciously large amount about each pilgrim everyday lives. At these moments, Chaucer acts much more like an omniscient, or all-knowing, narrator, rather than one who's truly in the heat of the action. The reason for this choice could be that verisimilitude, or making things seem like real life, was not as important to a medieval author as it is to authors today. Instead, the narrator might choose to tell whatever he wants in order to better serve the purposes of characterization. The narrator makes it quite clear that he is also a character in his book. Chaucer creates an ‘alter ego’, a pilgrim called ‘Geoffrey’, who is the naïve narrator of the pilgrimage story, commenting on his fellow-pilgrims, and providing the links which join many of the Tales. This further extends Chaucer’s narrative possibilities, enabling him to open up another layer of opinion other than his own. In the General Prologue, the narrator presents himself as a gregarious and naïve character. Later on, the Host accuses him of being silent and sullen. Because the narrator writes down...
An interesting aspect of the famous literary work, "The Canterbury Tales," is the contrast of realistic and exaggerated qualities that Chaucer entitles to each of his characters. When viewed more closely, one can determine whether each of the characters is convincing or questionable based on their personalities. This essay will analyze the characteristics and personalities of the Knight, Squire, Monk, Plowman, Miller, and Parson of Chaucer's tale.
In the prologue, the narrator describes each of the different pilgrims in his own point of view. The first character mentioned is a brave and chivalrous knight. Chaucer begins to describe this knight as gentlemanly, brave, and highly honorable. The narrator describes the knight’s possessions such as his fine horses. The narrator claims that the knight was not gaily dressed which means the knight was not wearing anything extravagant. The knight wore a “fustian tunic stained and dark, with smudges where his armor had left mark”. By describing what the knight wore, the reader can understand that the knight was wearing stained and beaten
Chaucer's Irony - The Canterbury Tales Chaucer's Irony Irony is a vitally important part of The Canterbury Tales, and Chaucer's ingenious use of this literary device does a lot to provide this book with the classic status it enjoys even today. Chaucer has mastered the techniques required to skilfully put his points across and subtle irony and satire is particularly effective in making a point. The Canterbury Tales are well-known as an attack on the Church and its rôle in fourteenth century society. With the ambiguity introduced by the naïve and ignorant "Chaucer the pilgrim", the writer is able to make ironic attacks on characters and what they represent from a whole new angle. The differences in opinion of Chaucer the pilgrim and Chaucer the writer are much more than nuances - the two personas are very often diametrically opposed so as to cause effectual irony.
Chaucer's society represents every social class. In doing so, it shows what it takes to actually make a society function. The different people carry different stories to share. These stories carry lessons learned in hopes of sharing them with others so that they may not end up in the same predicaments. After all, that is the main point of sharing stories, isn't it?