The Canterbury Tales: A Summary PDF

# Summing up The Canterbury Tales and the Decameron share a number of striking similarities. Besides the frame tale structure, there are also remarkable similarities between the characters and the tales. This is partly explained by the fact that both writers shared in a common heritage of medieval...

# Summing up The Canterbury Tales and the Decameron share a number of striking similarities. Besides the frame tale structure, there are also remarkable similarities between the characters and the tales. This is partly explained by the fact that both writers shared in a common heritage of medieval storytelling, and borrowed their stories from earlier sources, which were often the same. The true innovation is in the way they tell them, in their interest in portraying real people rather than abstract personifications. ## Summing up The opening lines of the General Prologue start with a description of time and setting. It is spring, the season when nature comes back to life, and also the time when people feel like going on pilgrimages. Some pilgrims set off to visit the holy relics of saints in distant countries, but most visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket in Canterbury. The narrator is one of these. He is staying in Southwark at the Tabard Inn, where he meets a company of pilgrims who are also going to Canterbury. The narrator joins the group and they all agree to set off together early the following day. The storytellers will be travelling as a group, and this device allows Chaucer to tie his stories together. ## Storytelling in the Middle Ages Like Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, Boccaccio’s Decameron is a collection of stories set into the framework of a prologue. In the Decameron, the tales are told by seven girls and three young men who retire to the country to escape the plague that was raging in Florence. The stories they tell to pass the time cheerfully are designed to give a total view of society, and the social variety of the Middle Ages emerges in the tales rather than in the storytellers, who belong to the aristocracy. Chaucer has his tales told by a number of pilgrims going to visit the tomb of Saint Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. The pilgrims tell their stories 'to shorten with our way'. However, unlike Boccaccio’s storytellers, Chaucer's group of pilgrims includes representatives from all walks of life, and each storyteller tells a tale according to his or her cultural level, social class and character, as described in the Prologue. ## Main Themes The Canterbury Tales is a complex, multi-layered literary work. As such it tackles many issues and themes. The ones that recur most often across the stories contained in it are: * the journey: an important theme, which is both historical (the journey to Saint Thomas Becket's shrine), and metaphorical (the travelling mix of people in Chaucer's masterpiece is a collective symbol of the whole journey of humanity); * the meaning of life: Chaucer often contrasts traditional 'moral' stories with real life in order to check their effectiveness and to explore the meaning of human life more deeply; * the variety of human life: the characters who act and speak in The Canterbury Tales represent a huge variety of different human types and contribute to showing the complex, varied nature of humankind; * the relationship between men and women and the changing role of women: in many of his stories Chaucer explores man-woman relations and redefines them in the light of the new emerging role of women in society. Feminism did not exist in Chaucer's time, but characters like the Wife of Bath surely anticipated some of its trends; * the importance of storytelling: tales and storytelling play a fundamental role in Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer explicitly uses storytelling as a means to reveal the meaning of human life, as a tool to make social criticism, and as an instrument to amuse and to educate his readers. ## A Journey Towards Cooperation 'Cooperation' and 'equality' stand at the core of Chaucer's masterpiece. The pilgrimage which all the characters portrayed by Chaucer take together is an individual as well as a collective journey towards personal growth, spiritual rebirth and self-awareness. Since all the pilgrims share the experience of being on a journey towards Canterbury, the pilgrimage itself becomes a unifying experience, which allows people with different origins, different lives and very different opinions to share ideas, exchange views, grow together, and reach a common goal. The experience of pilgrimage offers its participants the opportunity to explore the true meaning of the word 'cooperation': by sharing their journey, Chaucer's pilgrims abandon their divisions, face the unknown, converse as equals and learn from one another. The 'cooperation' Chaucer's characters experiment with is an important step forward in the history of humankind: even if in Chaucer's portrait of society the very rich and the very poor are still not participating in the spiritual journey of mankind, Chaucer's tales show the journey of humanity towards forms of collaboration that were totally unknown in the Anglo-Saxon age or the early Middle Ages. ## Social Subversion The Canterbury Tales represent a vivid portrait of English medieval society, with its key characters offering a cross-section of the various social levels of his time, ranging from the nobility, various representatives of the clergy on to a middle class consisting of merchants and professional figures, down to the humblest figures in the social spectrum representing tradesmen and finally a class of peasant workers. In the General Prologue to the poem Chaucer explains the functions of each of these levels, but he also strongly criticises their members, especially those who enjoy greater wealth and prestige but frequently fail to meet their social duties. He makes it clear that his aim is not just to write a poem about medieval society, but also to satirise its members. Even though all of Chaucer's characters and tales are fictitious, they draw inspiration from real-life characters and types of his era. His tales often show how medieval society is no longer rigid, but is being inverted and subverted by new emerging social trends. This is shown by the fact that among the group of pilgrims going to Canterbury he includes many figures who do not fit into one of the levels of the medieval feudal hierarchy, but have a position of power within their community: they are, for instance, the Doctor, the Cook and the Shipman. Chaucer thus questions the very concept of 'estates' by introducing characters whose power relies on wealth rather than on their social status. Another important example of social subversion in The Canterbury Tales is represented by female characters. Chaucer's poem is in fact full of extraordinary, modern and unconventional female figures. The Prioress, for example, is emblematic: she is not described as a faithful nun, but rather as a refined woman, who indulges in music, has elegant manners and can speak French fluently. Another female character that is worth mentioning is the Wife of Bath, a woman of independent means as a professional seamstress, who knows the Scriptures and can speak as an intellectual, but who also takes pilgrimages as social events and admits to having had five husbands. The Wife of Bath is probably the clearest example of a 'liberal' woman, one who defends her freedom and even uses her power to intimidate men. Even though Chaucer exaggerates some of her features to make her appear as the stereotype of the liberal woman, the Wife of Bath demonstrates a freedom of movement and an economic independence that defy the traditional view of medieval women as totally dependent on their male counterparts. ## A Poet and a Traveller Geoffrey Chaucer, the author of the collection of stories named The Canterbury Tales, is considered the 'father' of English literature. Thanks to his work England could inaugurate what would soon become one of the most fruitful literary traditions of the world and English could aspire to be a literary language. Geoffrey Chaucer was born in London in 1340: he belonged to a rich family (his father was a successful wine merchant in London) and had the opportunity to receive a fine education. This enabled him to find a place in the house of John of Gaunt, a wealthy man who was connected with the royal family. The cultural milieu of the court gave him the chance to broaden his knowledge by allowing him to read the classics and many contemporary French authors. In 1373 he travelled to France and Italy, where he discovered the works of Petrarch, Dante and, especially, Boccaccio. In 1374 he became Controller of Customs in the port of London, a role which he did not like and which became the source of inspiration for his satirical poem The House of Fame. Chaucer travelled extensively to the Continent as a diplomat or as a secret negotiator. His diplomatic activities, as well as the many appointments he had in the civil service, enabled him to meet people from all kinds of provenances and gave him the chance to observe humanity from a privileged perspective. Chaucer wrote his masterpiece, The Canterbury Tales, during the last years of his life, approximately between 1387 and 1400. He died in 1400 and was buried in Westminster Abbey, in the so-called 'Poets' Corner'. ## The Canterbury Tales: a Timeless Masterpiece Chaucer's masterpiece is undoubtedly The Canterbury Tales (1387-1400c.), an unfinished poem known for being the first published book of poetry written in English language. This is a very notable fact: before Chaucer authors used to write poems in Latin, Italian or French. English was considered a low-class language and poetry was read and understood only by wealthy people. By writing his poem in English Chaucer performs a very important cultural operation: he shows that English is a vehicle that can be used to express high literary contents and makes poetry available to everyone. All English authors who came after Chaucer owed him a great deal, because he literally opened the doors to English literature. Chaucer's masterpiece is structured as a narrative poem, a form of poetry that tells stories in verse. This is one of the oldest forms of storytelling (also Homer's Iliad and Odyssey are structured in this way) and has many typical traits of the oral tradition, such as the use of a recurring rhyme scheme and of assonances and alliterations. Chaucer's poem is mostly written in rhyming couplets of iambic pentameters (lines made of ten syllables with an unstressed-stressed pattern). This verse form is also called 'heroic couplet' and became particularly popular with poets after Chaucer. His poem is an authentic depository of medieval themes, legends, stories and characters and is one of the best portraits of medieval society ever written. ## Other Works Chaucer's literary production can be divided into three main phases or periods: * the first phase is called the 'French period' because it includes a series of works for which Chaucer drew inspiration from French models. The works belonging to this phase are The Romaunt of the Rose (written before 1373) and The Book of the Duchess (1368-69); * the second phase is called the 'Italian period' because it includes works that were inspired by Dante or Boccaccio. The works belonging to this phase are: The Parliament of Foules (1380 c.) - a fable on birds and other animals, the satirical poem The House of Fame (1383 c.), The Legend of Good Women (1385 c.) a poem written in the form of a dream vision, and Troilus and Criseyde (1380-85 с.) a poem inspired by Boccaccio's Filostrato; * the third and last phase of Chaucer's poetry corresponds to the so-called 'English period' and includes Chaucer's masterpiece, The Canterbury Tales (1387-1400 c.), and A Treatise on the Astrolabe (1391), which is often considered the first scientific treatise in English. ## Chaucer and the Universal Journey of Mankind In Chaucer's masterpiece the pilgrimage of the characters towards Canterbury is not just an act of religious devotion that was typical of medieval society and that characterized the life of Christian believers. The Pilgrimage is also portrayed as a life-changing experience and an occasion for the characters to explore the world, get in touch with new people and ideas, hear new stories and discover the complexity and the fascinating variety of the world. The theme of the journey of mankind certainly represents an element of continuity with the experience of the prototypical literary traveller of all times: Ulysses, the protagonist of Homer's Odyssey, whose 'travels' allow him to expand his horizons and grow as a man. It is also an incredible trait of modernity and universality of Chaucer's poem, which thus becomes an allegory of the journey of discovery, learning and understanding that all human beings perform in their lives. The theme of the universal journey of mankind is one of the main reasons why Chaucer's masterpiece is still relevant today. William Blake, a famous 18th-century English poet, underlines this concept very well when he states that 'Chaucer's characters live age after age. Every age is a Canterbury Pilgrimage'. ## Chaucer's Legacy Chaucer is as important for English literature as Dante for Italian literature: just like Dante's Divine Comedy, Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales contains a vivid portrait of medieval society, with its infinite nuances and human types. It is also an exceptional linguistic experiment, as it is thanks to Chaucer's work that English (just like Dante's Florentine dialect) acquires the status of literary language. This means that, without Chaucer, English literature would not have been possible. ## A Portrait of English Society All the characters in Chaucer's poem are united by the fact that they are taking part in what is probably the most famous pilgrimage in England: the pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket, in the city of Canterbury. The 30 characters involved (including Chaucer himself) meet at the Tabard Inn, a tavern in London, and decide to tell two stories each on their way to Canterbury and two on their way back. They will then choose the best storyteller, who will win a free dinner. The use of narrative frames was very frequent in medieval literature. The most famous author to use it was the Italian Boccaccio, whose Decameron (1351) is based on the idea that a group of young Florentine people flee from the city because of the plague and find shelter in a villa outside Florence, where they start telling stories to forget the plague and its terrible effects. Like Boccaccio, Chaucer uses the device of the 'narrative frame', but he exploits it in a different way: he focuses on the experience of the pilgrimage or spiritual journey. ## The Pilgrimage Pilgrimage was a typical experience in medieval religious life: in Chaucer's day journeys to holy places across Europe were very popular and had a strong impact on the development of building and shipping industries and markets. Cities boomed and the need to accommodate large numbers of travelling people required the construction of many churches, taverns and inns along routes followed by the pilgrims. This shows that in Medieval Europe pilgrimages had a double meaning: they were both a spiritual experience for the faithful Christian, and a collective social event, allowing people to come into contact with different people, realities and ways of life. Some scholars have underlined the fact that pilgrimages somehow anticipated what would be called 'tourism' in recent times. Chaucer is aware of the fact that pilgrimages have a double meaning: the 30 characters of The Canterbury Tales take part in a pilgrimage for spiritual reasons, but the main interest of many of them seems to be socialising. This is particularly evident if we consider the religious characters of The Canterbury Tales. All of them somehow stray from the traditional image of holiness and faithfulness that should be associated with them. Chaucer's satirical portrait of religious characters hides a more general criticism of the Church. In Chaucer's day the Church was very wealthy and powerful: the richness of cathedrals strongly contrasted with the very poor conditions of life of ordinary people. This inevitably led to the spread of legends and narratives about greedy and irreligious churchmen, who lived in corruption and ignored the desperate conditions of the poor.