Chaucer 1343 - 1400

Background:

  • Born in London 1342 (?) or 1343
  • Son of chief wine importer to the king. His father was a commoner, but was wealthy, and apparently had royal connections.
  • -1357 -- Chaucer appointed page to the Countess of Ulster
  • Sent to France as a soldier, where he was captured in 1360. The king paid the ransom money.
  • 1367 -- married to Philippa de Roet, a lady in waiting to Blanche of Lancaster, the wife of John of Gaunt (Duke of Lancaster) who was the son of Edward III and the father of Henry IV.
  • According to 14th century gossip, Philippa had become pregnant by John of Gaunt, so, in order to hide his infidelity from his wife, John asked Chaucer to marry Philippa in exchange for his patronage.
  • 1372 -- Chaucer visited Italy with the king, presumably acting as a translator. He was well-read in many languages.
  • 1385 -- Chaucer knighted, was named Justice of the Peace in 1386.
  • John of Gaunt experienced political disfavour for a few years.
  • 1386 -- Chaucer began The Canterbury Tales
  • His works include:

The Book of the Duchess

The House of Fame

The Parliament of Fowls

Troilus and Criseide

  • Translated The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius, a Roman politician who fell into political disfavour and was imprisoned. The book details the learning of a man to accept his fate after a visit by Philosophy.

Structure of The Canterbury Tales

  • Contains a FRAME STORY
  • Frame story (in the general prologue) tells how Chaucer meets 29 pilgrims at an inn on his way to Canterbury Cathedral and decides to join them.
  • The Host offers to guide them from London to Canterbury at no cost if they are each willing to provide entertainment -- two stories from each on the way there and two on the way back. He begins a contest in which the participant who tells the best story will be rewarded with a free dinner upon the return. They set out the next day.
  • There is interaction among the pilgrims.
  • Only twenty-four stories are told.
  • The frame story sets the tone.

Sources of Stories:

  • Idea for frame story came from Boccaccio, an Italian who had written a collection of prose called The Decameron. The frame story is of a group of young people who have evacuated the city because of the Plague and stay in a castle where they play king and queen and tell stories to pass the time.
  • The Canterbury Tales are more complex because there is more interconnectedness that emphasizes the personalities of the characters and tends to show the interrelationships between the characters. In The Decameron, it doesn't seem to matter who is telling the story.

Other Sources:

  • Petrarch -- an early Renaissance Italian who had translated many of the classics into the vernacular.
  • Ovid, The Metamorphoses
  • Made existing stories into poems.
  • 1 tale appears entirely original -- 'The Canon's Yeoman's Tale'.
  • It was not expected for writers to be entirely original with their plots.
  • originally, writers told accounts of events or legends. Plot originality rarely considered.

Different Types of Stories:

Type of Story / Characteristics / Tales
Courtly Romance / Presents ideals of love and Chivalry / ' The Knight's Tale'
'The Man of Law's Tale'
Lay / Short, idealistic poem / 'The Franklin's Tale'
Fabliaux / Tales of society's low-life element / 'The Miller's Tale'
'The Reeve's Tale'
'The Merchant's Tale'
'The Friar's Tale'
'The Summoner's Tale'
The Saint's Legend / Glorifies the life of a saint / 'The Second Nun's Tale’
'The Tale of the Prioress'
Exemplum / Gives examples in a kind of sermon to prove a point. / 'The Pardoner's Tale'
'The Clerk's Tale'
'Chaucer's Tale of Melibee'
'The Parson's Tale' (best)
The Beast Fable / Talking barn-yard animals
ends in a moral / 'The Nun's Priest's Tale'

The Pilgrims and Their Estates:

LandownersTown and City DwellersChurch9

KnightPhysicianParson

SquireMan of LawPrioress

YeomanManciplePardoner

FranklinMerchantMonk

MillerWife of BathOther nuns and priests

ReeveSummoner

PlowmanClerk

Friar

  • The Canterbury Tales is a somewhat satiric work. There are few really positive characters. Only the Parson, a sincere parish priest, is elevated; others higher on the hierarchical scale are portrayed as corrupt.
  • City dwellers are shown as being self-important eg) The Merchant.
  • Of the Landowners, the Knight is the most honourable and most greatly admired.
  • Chaucer presents a critical view of society.

Techniques of Characterization:

1)Direct Characterization

  • eg) In the description of the Squire, Chaucer the Pilgrim as narrator explicitly states: "Courteous he was, lowly and serviceable."

2) Indirect Characterization

  • Reader forms an opinion based on evidence that is suggested by the text.
  • eg) The Merchant, who "told of his opinions and pursuits in solemn tones and how he never lost."(arrogance)

3)Verisimilitude

  • Characterization technique. Means the inclusion of small details to create a realistic impression. Chaucer gives detail to help the reader remember a character. The details imply a lot about the nature of the character.
  • eg) The stains on the Knight's tunic from his armour tell us he is not concerned about his appearance.
  • eg) Miller's wart and the hairs that grow out of it give a poor impression.
  • eg) When Chaucer starts his story and forgets a name, the unimportance of that character is implied, and the effect is more realistic.

4)Motivation of Characters

  • Characters have reasons which underlie much of their behaviour.
  • eg) Pardoner is motivated by money
  • Knight is motivated to maintain the ideals of Chivalry and Christianity.

Understanding The Characters:

In understanding the characters, certain questions in the mind of the reader are vital:

a) What does the narrator tell us about the character explicitly?

b) What actions or statements by the character give an implicit portrait of his personality?

c) What specific details associated with the character add to the reader's impression of his character?

d) What does the pilgrim love best?

e) What does the pilgrim's tale indicate about his personality?

Observations on the Characters:

  • 1801 -- William Blake, an English poet wrote:

"Every age is a Canterbury pilgrimage; we all pass on, each sustaining one or the other of these characters; nor can a child be born who is not one of these characters of Chaucer."

  • English poet John Dryden said:

"The tone of this never-resting comedy is by turns learnèd, fantastic, lewd, pious, and ludicrous. Here is God's plenty."

The Purposes behind the Tales

  • In addition to Chaucer's general prologue, individual pilgrims have particular purposes that influence the choice of which tale they will tell.
  • eg) Miller's tale offends Reeve, since he had once been a carpenter. Is the Reeve overly sensitive? He tells an offensive story about a miller for revenge.
  • Similarly, following the feminist Wife of Bath's Tale, the clerk tells a tale designed to promote women's obedience to their husbands.
  • The marriage group of tales debate the sovereignty of marriage.
  • Chaucer conducts two fictions simultaneously -- that of the individual tale and that of the pilgrim to whom he has assigned it." (Norton Anthology)

Themes in the Tales

  • to demonstrate justice -- that things work out as they ought to.
  • corruption of the clergy
  • seven deadly sins and how an individual is to avoid them.
  • sovereignty of marriage
  • Boethius's idea that all things are good and that whatever seems evil is really only justice being worked out, or that one must come to accept everything as part of God's test.

K. Clark, River East CollegiatePage 1