Canterbury Tales Was Written in the Late 1380`S and Early 1390’s by Geoffrey Chaucer
The Canterbury tales was written in the late 1380`s and early 1390’s by Geoffrey Chaucer, an author who wrote in English at the time when Latin was the standard literary language all over the western Europe.
In the fourteenth century England was completely catholic; formal religion was an important factor for everybody, and pilgrimages were strongly advocated by the church. The journey from London to the shrine of St Thomas Becket at Canterbury was the best pilgrimage possible in England that represented a social event. As a chief example of this when the author says on the general prologue: “They were people of various ranks who had come together by chance, and they were all pilgrims who plan to ride to Canterbury.”[1]
Chaucer tries to show us how the society was organized at that time. He gives us an idea of their customs, religion and culture. There is a clear classification of social class status; we can notice it when the author began describing every pilgrim in a social class level, the author describes their occupations, physical aspects as we can see: “There was among us a brave knight who had loved Chivalry, truth, and honor, generosity and courtesy” […] [2] “[…] his horses were good but he was not gaily dressed He wore a thick cotton coat […]”[3]
In the tales, the author also includes fables for example the Nun’s Priest story of the rooster, the hen and the fox, where the reader sometimes forgets that they are not people.
Apart from fables and battle stories, the author adds other aspects as the position of women, how was their role in society; as it is shown in “The Wife of Bath’s” prologue which is practically an anthology of borrowings from the antifeminist ecclesiastical writers, to those attitudes the wife is vigorously opposed.
Moreover, one of the remarkable things about the Canterbury tales is that within the rigid requirements of Middle English verse Chaucer managed to reproduce the rhythms of
In the fourteenth century England was completely catholic; formal religion was an important factor for everybody, and pilgrimages were strongly advocated by the church. The journey from London to the shrine of St Thomas Becket at Canterbury was the best pilgrimage possible in England that represented a social event. As a chief example of this when the author says on the general prologue: “They were people of various ranks who had come together by chance, and they were all pilgrims who plan to ride to Canterbury.”[1]
Chaucer tries to show us how the society was organized at that time. He gives us an idea of their customs, religion and culture. There is a clear classification of social class status; we can notice it when the author began describing every pilgrim in a social class level, the author describes their occupations, physical aspects as we can see: “There was among us a brave knight who had loved Chivalry, truth, and honor, generosity and courtesy” […] [2] “[…] his horses were good but he was not gaily dressed He wore a thick cotton coat […]”[3]
In the tales, the author also includes fables for example the Nun’s Priest story of the rooster, the hen and the fox, where the reader sometimes forgets that they are not people.
Apart from fables and battle stories, the author adds other aspects as the position of women, how was their role in society; as it is shown in “The Wife of Bath’s” prologue which is practically an anthology of borrowings from the antifeminist ecclesiastical writers, to those attitudes the wife is vigorously opposed.
Moreover, one of the remarkable things about the Canterbury tales is that within the rigid requirements of Middle English verse Chaucer managed to reproduce the rhythms of