History

Gregory Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales presents a series of stories which serve to give a philosophical perspective as well as a historical account of medieval England. Chaucer’s story takes the anecdotes related by a group of pilgrims travelling to the grave of Saint Thomas Beckett. The story is presented as a stories in a story frame featuring the pilgrims engaging in a storytelling contest and applying the anecdotes to give perspective on the way of life of the period. Chaucer chooses to focus on a wide variety of issues including love, marriage, sexuality, the roles of gender, the place of religion in the lives of the characters and even more complex themes like agency, autonomy and self-direction. The stories feature the use of vivid descriptions to paint an accurate picture of the main characters in the story. The tales are meant to be an accurate depiction of Middle Age England, and a guide to their way of life.

Chaucer’s story follows the trip of a group of pilgrims, thirty-one to be exact with Chaucer included, from the Tabard Inn in Southwark to St Thomas à Becket’s shrine at Canterbury Cathedral. The host at the inn suggests that each pilgrim tell two tales on the way to and two on the way from the cathedral to help while away their time on the road. The best storyteller was to be rewarded with a free supper on their return, and the host was to be the judge. Chaucer originally intended to write about one hundred and twenty stories by making with each of the thirty pilgrims tell two stories on the way to Canterbury and two more on the way back. Only twenty-four were completed, making most scholars come to the conclusion that the work was not concluded, and that possibly those that were finished were not finalized. Through the stories, Chaucer manages the opportunity to paint a sequence of vivid word portraits of a wide array of the society in his time, from a knight and nun, to a carpenter and cook, a wife of Bath, to a vulgar miller. He manages to capture even the social graces of the different people along with their stereotypes and biases. Chaucer is able to answer some philosophical questions relevant in his time, including those on marriage, love, sexuality and religion. Also, he covers gender roles and the issue of autonomy and self-direction. In all, the tales offer a compelling narrative that capture the very essence of what it was to live in medieval England.

The story portrays a historically accurate depiction of life as it was in medieval England featuring the first recognizable use of the English language in literature. One of the primary motivations that Chaucer had for writing the stories was to describe his native country, its people, and their way of life. In this regard, The Canterbury Tales offer the most realistic description of the time, even more realistic than most historical accounts surviving to date.Chaucer also wished to express the experiences of his people in his native tongue especially since there was the deadening influence of French language on English literature at the time. Chaucer actions lifted the ‘vulgar’ common vernacular, as English was perceived to be, raising its profile into a literary language that rivalled the more established prestige languages of Latin, Greek, French and even Italian. Chaucer’s use of the English language and the expressive power and dignity of his application of the same formed the basis of the standard of modern English poetry and literature. The Canterbury Tales is significant today not only as the first great piece of English literature, but also as a realistic piece of illustrative literature on life as it was in 14th century England. For his part in this glorious endeavor, Gregory Chaucer is regarded as the father of English poetry and literature. The global reach and prestige that English enjoys presently as the most popular language can be attributed to his efforts.

The story applied the use of characterization to give a complete picture of 14^th Century English society. Chaucer’s story is unique in the way it manages to capture the entire range of people from all classes and walks of life, including their ranks, profession, and gender roles. Chaucer even manages to capture both the good and bad facets of these people, and in such a realistic manner making Chaucer one of the greatest realists in the history of English literature. The general prologue together demonstrate the people’s way of life, their food choices, manner of dress, attitudes, interests, habits, superstitions, and religious life. Through capturing all these elements of life, the rituals, social etiquette, and hypocrisies Chaucer manages to detail a very vivid picture of the society. Chaucer managed to give a balanced view of the people, choosing to focus on both their strengths and weaknesses, failings and greatness, their passions and absurdities. The pilgrims are typed to represent their respective gender, professions, religious traditions and social statues. Each character’s details can, therefore, be generalized as being representative of their profession, class, social statutes and gender. Chaucer also manages to include personal features like facial details, manner of dress, emotional tendencies and moral inclinations in the description of each character, succeeding in making the prologue even more realistic in the process. For his efforts, modern scholars are able to construct and understand the socio-economic as well as the religious and moral aspects of the society in Chaucer’s time.

The tales offer an accurate account of the gender roles that were prescribed to the different sexes at the time. Of the twenty-nine pilgrims who relate accounts, only three are women. This in itself demonstrates the discrepancies between the sexes. Chaucer’s female narrators paint realistic portrayals of women since they do not lack the dimension of humanity. Unlike the male characters, they are not predictable and have their own distinctive voices with which they express their hopes which are removed from and inconsistent with the system. Chaucer, however, falls short of modern feminism as the women portrayed in his tales lack the aggressive self-assertion present in modern women. Two of Chaucer’s women, the Wife and the Prioress, are presented as not fitting into the general mold of role they represent. Unlike the nun, these two seem ill-suited for their roles and are unsatisfied with their occupations. However, the three are alike in that they share a voiced silence over what transpires in the community. The female pilgrims can in turn be differentiated from the female characters in the tales recounted by the male pilgrims. Of these females, there are three distinctions. The first are those who have a courtly ideal. These are generally portrayed as ladies, with refined manners and genteel upbringing. An example is the Queen in the Knights tale who sends of the Knight on a quest to find out what women want, and Dorigen in the Franklin’s tale. The second categorization is those with a Christian or church ideal. These demonstrate religious piety like Constance in the Man of Law’s tale and Griselda in the Clerks Tale. Most women in the tales do not, however, demonstrate any ideals, a testament to the perception men of this time and period had of their women.

The tales recount the persevering attitudes on love in the Middle Ages. The most prominent love ideal present in the tales is “courtly love”. This here refers to a set of ideas about love that were persistent and enormously influential in the literature and culture of the time. The inspiration of such ideas was majorly derived from French influence in English literature, largely in place as a result of the Norman conquest of England circa 1066. The prevailing idea on love at the time was that true love could only exists outside of marriage. Poetry and literature at the time idealized love, maintaining that it could exist without consummation and that a man is the servant of the lady he loves. Also associated with this highly idealized version of love as the motif that courtly love is a disease or a torment, and a man in love is unable to sleep or eat. Love as seen as having the ability to render a man incapable of normal functions. Chaucer clearly adopts this view of love, and courtly love is prominently featured in the story. The fist appearance of this in The Canterbury Tales is with the role of the squire in the general prologue. Save for his lower status, the squire’s role is exactly the same to that of his father. Where his father is plain and humble, the squire is vain and fanciful, and he incorporates the principles of courtly love into his understanding of his own role. In this sense, the squire is found to be a parody of the traditional courtly lover. Another character we can infer has a similar view is the Prioress, who despite being a nun can be seen wearing a gilded “Love Conquers All” brooch.

The anecdotes offer a unique perspective into the religious beliefs and practices of the time. The narrator or host, who it can be argued models Chaucer, relates the prevailing religious practices of his time. The focus of his analysis is primarily on the theme of religious corruption pervasive in the church at the time. By late fourteenth century, the Catholic Church, which exercised religious authority in England and Ireland, had become extremely wealthy. Cathedrals were built up around shrines to saints’ relics and these were extremely expensive and cost large amounts of gold to build and maintain. The irony with this was that quite a number of the people were poor, and most of them could not even afford a proper meal. As evidence of this corruption in the church, Chaucer paints the characters that have associations with the church without hiding their excesses. The Prioress is described as wearing a wimple draped to show off her facial beauty. She also adorns a very elegant cloak and a coral rosary on which is gilded “Love conquers all.” The Monk, a good horseman who hunts with a pack of swift greyhounds, wears clothes with sleeves trimmed with expensive squirrel fur. His hood is fastened with a gold pin into an elaborate knot. The friar is in turn an excellent singer known to every innkeeper and barmaid in town. He is described as having a disdain for beggars and lepers while pleasuring himself with the company of the rich. The summoner in turn is described as being corrupt, and for a quart of wine would allow a man to keep a mistress for a year. Also, the summoner has fashioned himself as the sole advisor of young women in his diocese. The vanity and moral corruption self-evident in these religious officials points to the aforementioned corruption in the religious orders.

The story contributes to the debate on the value of agency, autonomy and self-direction in life. While Chaucer did not write poetry or literature that was meant to support a philosophical doctrine, some of his works seek to deal explicitly with philosophical themes. These include fairly abstract and traditionally philosophical concepts like the very nature of autonomy and its correlations to action, reason and personal identity. The most telling evidence of agency and autonomy is derived from the gender roles ascribed to women in the stories. Most of the take hold that women were unable to direct themselves, and this lack of self-direction is summed up by the power of the narrative. In the Knights Tale for example, Emily has little autonomy with her very identity subsumed by the power of narrative. Her femininity is reduced by the quest context of the tale, and she is dehumanized for a majority of the tale, existing only as a cause of Arcite and Palamon’s rivalry. The goal of the two knights can be surmised as being the ownership of Emily rather than considerations of companionship. Palamon claims possession of Emily, saying “I loved hir first, and tolde thee my wo.” Another telling sign is the absence of Emily throughout the tale, notwithstanding the fact that she is the central female character of the piece. Emily is also not developed meaningfully, and she exercises very little influence over actions in the tale.

The tales accurately point to the role, nature and expectations of sexual relations in the Middle Ages. While medieval romances have dealt with the character’s desire for sex. Chaucer though, in “The Miller’s Tale” does so in explicit, and oftentimes even vulgar language. Chaucer is remarkable in his ability to describe sexual relations as they are, in a way that other stories and genres do not. The Wife of Bath’s Tale captures the most common expression of sexuality in the story. In justifying the reasons for sex, the Wife of Bath quotes the passage in the bible that calls on us to “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth fill the earth and multiply.” The passage in its entirety reads “But wel I woot expres, withoute lye, God bad us for to wexe and multiplye: That gentil text can I wel understonde” (27-29). The Wife of Bath reasons that based on the impossibility of obeying the commandment without having sex, this is an explicit endorsement for sex. Further, we acquire a sense of her characteristic lack of reverence for authority evident when she dares speculate on Solomon’s sex life. The Reeve’s Tale incorporates the story of a woman who, contrary to expectation, pays her rapist for violating her. The Wife of Bath relates a tale in which a knight willfully grants all his masculine power to a woman. The “Miller’s Tale” mediates amid these two extremes, but is still an example of how masculine and feminine realize equality of control in a sexual relationship.

The tales feature a comprehensive description of the institution of marriage as it was in medieval England. Through the various tales, it soon becomes apparent that the values of the different people on marriage were highly devolved. The first was the courtly ideal of marriage presented in the Knights and Franklin’s tales. Love in this case was not seized, but won through the actions of the knights leading to marriage. Women are seen as loveable objects who are to be courted and served. The second ideal was the Church ideal seen in the Man of Law and Clerks Tales. As part of this, marriage was entered into with God as a witness, and the primary reason for sexual intercourse within the framework was conception. It was believed dedication to sexual pleasure would distract one from the church, and marriage was forever. The third ideal was the feminine ideal advanced by the wife of Bath in her prologue and subsequent tale. The Wife of Bath serves Chaucer as a summary of women and all their bad qualities. She has been married five times, and freely talks about sex even in the presence of men, and is not ashamed to admit that she carried on with other men while married. Her summation on marriage says it all, “You may advise a woman not to wed, but by no means is advice a command.” Her view was marriage was ultimately the woman’s decision. The last ideal was the common view of marriage held by the Reever and the Miller. To them, marriage life was not as serious as it was in the other tales. Men were cuckolded, and women were largely to blame.

To conclude, Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales are meant as a depiction of the life of the society in which he lived. Chaucer uses great characterization to paint a vivid portrait of life in medieval England. Through a focus on gender roles specifically the role of women in society, religion and the moral corruption of the church, the concepts of love, sex and marriage and the attitudes of society towards these concepts, Chaucer manages to give great insight into life in 14^th century England. Since the story is presented in a frame of stories within stories, it raised the questions on what makes for a good story, why we tell stories and even why we should tell stories. Also, by adopting the common language English as his literary medium, Chaucer managed to bring the language into popular usage, eventually propelling it to surpass French, Latin and Greek as the medium of communication. In all, Chaucer is important because he gives us historical perspective as well as his contributions to the use of English language in literary discourse.