Transcript CanterburyTalesChaucerHistoricalContextPowerPoint

The Canterbury
Tales
by:
Geoffrey Chaucer
1340s (ish) - 1400
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Middle Ages
•Emperors became more like kings
•Feudalism: involuntary peasant labor on lands not their own
•personal bonds and personal law beginning to replace impersonal law
common to large expanses of territory
•Medieval Guilds (exclusive, regimented organizations)
•The Catholic Church would provide spiritual and moral direction, as well as
leadership and material support, during the darkest times of the early Medieval
period.
Feudalism: The
Middle Ages’
social order
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*Christianity provided the basis for a first unified religion common to most of the continent.
Crusades: Popes, kings, and emperors unite and defend Christendom
Feudalism--
A system of loyalties and protections
Emperors granted land to nobles in exchange
for their loyalty.
These nobles would have peasants/serfs
work the land for them on their land because:
Peasants could no longer count on the
Roman army to protect them.
German, Viking and Magyar tribes
overran homes and farms
throughout Europe.
Serfs would often have to work three or four days a
week for the lord as rent.
They would spend the rest of their week growing crops
to feed their families.
Other serfs worked as sharecroppers. A sharecropper
would be required to turn over most of what he
grew in order to be able to live on the land.
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Important Events…
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100 Years War with France
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Peasants’ Rebellion (remember Robin Hood)
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The underprivileged lived a life of unhappiness, turmoil, and
hunger.
Corruption in the Catholic Church
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Many deaths and strife throughout England
Many followers began to lose some faith.
Power struggle between Pope and King
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This aided to the faith lose throughout the land.
And, of course….
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Important Events…
THE BLACK DEATH!
Between 1349 and 1350,
England lost nearly half its
population to the Black Death.
ACK! I got
the Black
Death from
the rat!
It was easy to catch, painful to
have, and deadly almost all
the time.
Technically,
you got it from
the fleas ON
the rat…
that jumped off
and bit you, so
you know.
Don’t blame
the poor rat.
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Chaucer’s Language
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Father of English Poetry
The Canterbury Tales is considered
Chaucer’s masterpiece
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Chaucer was the first writer to use English in a
major literary work
He spoke Middle English
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A mixture of Old English (Anglo-Saxons) and Old French
(Normans)
Middle English differs from Modern English in the
pronunciation of the words
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Chaucer’s Language: The Shift
Middle English
Sounds like Modern
y,i "myne, sight"
"meet"
e, ee "me, meet, mete" (close e)
"mate"
e "begge, rede" (open e)
"bag"
a, aa "mate, maat"
"father"
u, ou "hus, hous"
"boot"
o, oo "bote, boot" (close o)
"oak"
o "lof, ok" (open o)
"bought"
Vowels shifted upwards;
vowel that was pronounced
in one place in the mouth
would be pronounced
higher up in the mouth
People used to spell words
how they sounded, but now
they had a more
standardized
written/spoken language
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Now: to the story…
The Canterbury Tales
Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
When April with its sweet-smelling showers
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
Has pierced the drought of March to the root,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
And bathed every vein (of the plants) in such
liquid
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
By the power of which the flower is created;
Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
When the West Wind also with its sweet breath,
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
In every holt and heath, has breathed life into
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
The tender crops, and the young sun
Hath in the Ram his half cours yronne,
Has run its half course in Aries,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
And small fowls make melody,
That slepen al the nyght with open ye
Those that sleep all the night with open eyes
(So priketh hem Nature in hir corages),
(So Nature incites them in their hearts),
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,
Then folk long to go on pilgrimages,
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,
And professional pilgrims (long) to seek
foreign shores,
To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes; To
(go to) distant shrines, known in various
lands;
And specially from every shires ende
And specially from every shire's end
Of Engelond to Caunterbury they wende,
Of England to Canterbury they travel,
The hooly blisful martir for to seke,
T o seek the holy blessed martyr,
That hem hath holpen whan that they were
seeke.
Who helped them when they were sick.
The Canterbury Tales is written in Middle English.
Click the star to hear a sample.
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Canterbury Tales
Chaucer writes the tales around 1386
Wait! No we’re
not!
Was that a rat?!
Did I just get the
plague?
He depicts a 14th century
England populated by peasants,
tradesmen, knights, and clerics,
most of whom appear to be
healthy and well fed.
We are so
healthy and well
fed and happy!
I think I hear a
rebellion! Let’s
move!
We are off on
our pilgrimage!
Hurray!
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Canterbury Tales
There are two key literary techniques Chaucer incorporates:
1) A Frame Tale – a story that provides a vehicle, or
frame, for telling other stories (More details on next slide.)
*The voice of the poet-pilgrim himself, Chaucer – introduces
us to other pilgrims
*The person of “The Host” of the Tabard Inn
*The conversations that occur between the tales, among the
Host and the pilgrims, and the pilgrims themselves
2) An Estate Satire – a literary technique used to highlight the
foibles of a society and its particular people in the hopes of
exacting some sort of change; it is sarcastic and sometimes
often biting
*Prioress, Monk, Friar, Clerk, Parson, Summoner and Pardoner (with the Clerk
and Parson being exceptions) have lives that seem to be very
removed from what might be expected in people of their calling
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*Chaucer’s commentary on how he views the religious system of the medieval
time period
The Canterbury Tales
Keep in mind with a framed story: a group of smaller works are put
together in a framework.
Each has a relationship to others. The piece is hooked together with
important themes.
To use such a diverse group of narrators, whose
stories are interlinked by characters talking with each
other, revealing much about themselves
Characters tell the stories in forms appropriate to them, using different
*Yes, that means poetry.
verse forms.*
Thus, the theme of the
pilgrimage = life means that the
hardship of pilgrimage = hardship
of life
We experience all the various
“hardships” of life through this work.
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The Canterbury Tales
Chaucer
intended that
each pilgrim
should tell two
tales on the
way to
Canterbury and
two tales on
the way back.
A rich, tapestry of
medieval social life
combines elements
of all classes, from
nobles to workers,
from priests and
nuns to drunkards
and thieves.
A group of thirty people travel as pilgrims to Canterbury (England) to
see the shrine of Sir Thomas Beckett.
He never
finished this
large task…
Only twenty-four
tales were
composed
before Chaucer's
death in 1400.
The pilgrims, who come from all layers of society, tell stories to each
other to kill time while they travel.
P.S. They meet at the Tabard Inn
The Canterbury Tales has been passed
down in several handwritten manuscripts.
Thus, scholars are uncertain about the
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order of the tales.
The Canterbury Tales
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The pilgrim’s
occupations reflect
different aspects of the
14th century society
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Feudal System
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Religious Life
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Knight, Squire, Yeoman,
Franklin, Plowman, Miller,
Reeve
Prioress (Nun), Monk,
Friar, Clerk, Parson,
Summoner, Pardoner
Trades and Professions

Merchant, Sergeant of
Law, Five Tradesmen,
Cook, Skipper, Doctor,
Wife of Bath, Manciple,
Host
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The Canterbury Tales
1) General Prologue consists of character sketches of each member of the group
that is going to Canterbury, as described by the narrator. (1st person speaker)
Some believe that the narrator IS Chaucer…
I’ll leave that up to you.
The fiction suggests that Chaucer is an observer of the scene,
who accurately records the appearance, the stories and the
conversations of the company.
He is not responsible for what is said, nor how it is expressed.
2) This was a familiar and fairly popular journey. People did combine with
strangers into traveling companions for safety.
(Highly unlikely that such a varied group as
Chaucer describes would have existed)
Each character is described as a representative of his or her own social group,
which covers the social spread of 14th-century England
(No representatives of either the aristocracy or the
true peasantry, an unskilled land-worker)
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The Canterbury Tales
Fable – teaches by providing a moral at the end
Parable – a brief story that parallels a more general moral
lesson
Exemplum – a specific example of a general rule: it is
supposed to prove a point by showing the truth of some moral
rule
Verbal Irony – exists when a person says one thing while
meaning another
Situational Irony – exists when the outcome of a situation is
opposite of what someone expected
Dramatic Irony – occurs when the audience or reader is aware
of something that the character does not know
Direct Characterization – writer telling the reader what the
character is like (i.e., stupid, silly, kind)
Indirect Characterization – writer shows the reader what the
character does, says, thinks, or feels and allows the reader to
draw their own conclusions about what the character is like 15
Questions?
You will need to know
this information.
muhahahahahaha!
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