Theme: Social Significance of The Canterbury Tales contents

1.Language of The Canterbury Tales

One of the most significant aspects of The Canterbury Tales is the language in which Chaucer chose to write. The text is in Middle English, a version of English spoken in what is present-day England from approximately 1100 to 1500. Modern readers may not even recognize Middle English as English, but it is an early stage from which our current English has evolved.
I t may not seem unusual to modern readers that Chaucer wrote in the language that people in his area actually spoke, which is called vernacular, but it actually was a bold decision. Most poets during that time were writing in an earlier version of the language we know as French, or Latin. These were the languages of scholars, religious figures, and upper class people. As an upper-class, well-educated person himself, Chaucer would have been able to write in various languages, but he chose to write The Canterbury Tales in the vernacular of his country that more people would understand and connect to. For this reason, The Canterbury Tales is regarded as one of the first poems written in the English language, and Chaucer himself is one of the ''fathers'' of the written English language.

Background

In today's lesson, we'll be studying one of the most renowned pieces of English literature, The Canterbury Tales. In this collection of stories written by Geoffrey Chaucer, we meet a colorful group of 29 travelers making a religious pilgrimage from London to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. Along their journey, their host engages them in a storytelling contest with a free meal as the prize. However, we soon find the Canterbury Tales are more about the storytellers themselves than they are about the tales they weave.

Chaucer wrote the classic The Canterbury Tales in the 1300s
Before we get to Chaucer's eclectic group of characters, let's look at the times in which he wrote. The Canterbury Tales were written in the late 14th century, a time in which people began to question the medieval ideas of Church power and Church purity as well as the societal roles of old class systems. These ideas were being traded in for the Renaissance, a word that literally means rebirth. The Renaissance was a period of cultural revolution in terms of art, religion, and politics. During this era, people began throwing off the old ideas of power and authority in exchange for the personal freedoms found in the ancient cultures of Greece and Rome. This revolution of sorts began in Italy. However, well-traveled men like England's Geoffrey Chaucer soon carried it over the Alps and into the realms of Northern Europe⁴.
The Canterbury Tales Genre

Instructor: Jacob BelknapShow bio

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''The Canterbury Tales'' by Geoffrey Chaucer creates a unique dialogue when it comes to determining the genre. In this lesson, we will examine the levels of depth created when the author crafts this story and its effect on determining the genre.

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Genre in Literature
It can be difficult to choose a book at random and it is similarly difficult to choose a movie. This is where genre can help viewers choose a movie or book.
Genre is the type or category of a story. It places it within a specific context. This helps the reader or watcher recognize some of the parameters the author may make.
Geoffrey Chaucer makes use of several genres in The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer sets up the tales as a larger story of pilgrims on their way to Canterbury and back. Each character tells one or more tales, each falling into their own genre. Told in Middle English,--the common language at the time in England--Chaucer lays out a sprawling fiction told in prose and poetry within the romance, dream vision, and satire genres.⁵
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Getting Started with the separate stories in Canterbury Tales
Before jumping into the tales, let's first review the layout of Chaucer's classic work. The Canterbury Tales begins with a prologue which introduces the frame of the book. It explains there will be several stories told by characters on the way to Canterbury, as well as brief introductions to the separate characters. Some characters have introductions or prologues whereas others get right into telling their story. With each story, the reader is made to feel like a fellow pilgrim on the journey who overhears the character beginning the story. Each is characteristic of the individual who tells it.

Romance in Canterbury Tales

When we think of romance, we typically think of love. However, as used in Chaucer's time and throughout most of literature, romance in writing applies to both love and war, usually in a refined setting. It typically involves idealized behavior or events. Women are beautiful and remote, men try to impress them with bold acts, and the love never seems to go as planned.

Several of the tales in The Canterbury Tales are in whole or part romances: The Knight's Tale, The Squire's Tale, Sir Thopas, The Wife of Bath's Tale, The Merchant's Tale, The Franklin's Tale, The Book of the Duchess, Anelida and Arcite, The Parliament of Birds, Troilus and Criseyde, and The Prologue to the Legend of Good Women all use characteristics of romances.⁶