Theme: Social Significance of The Canterbury Tales contents

2.Dream Vision in Canterbury Tales

Dream visions are stories in which the narrator or protagonist receives guidance in a dream from God or a god, the devil, or natural causes. A dream vision usually follows this timeline:

The dreamer falls asleep during some crisis or problematic time

The dreamer enters a beautiful place

The dreamer encounters a guide

Something causes the dreamer to wake up before all the meaning can be taken from the dream

Chaucer uses the dream vision in several of his tales to provide guidance for his characters. Chaucer usually added a book by a classical author, a mystery, and a moral or social reference.

The Canterbury Tales (written c. 1388-1400 CE) is a medieval literary work by the poet Geoffrey Chaucer (l. c. 1343-1400 CE) comprised of 24 tales related to a number of literary genres and touching on subjects ranging from fate to God's will to love, marriage, pride, and death. After the opening introduction (known as The General Prologue), each tale is told by one of the characters (eventually 32 in all) who are on pilgrimage to the shrine of Thomas Becket in Canterbury.
In The General Prologue, the characters agree to tell two stories going to Canterbury and two coming back to the Tabard Inn at Southwark where they started from, totaling 120 tales⁷. If this was Chaucer's original plan and he never intended to deviate from it, then the piece must be considered unfinished at only 24 tales. Some scholars claim, however, that Chaucer did finish the work, based on the tone and subject matter of the last tale and The Retraction appended to the manuscript.

The Canterbury Tales was popular centuries before it was actually published in c. 1476 CE. There are more copies of this manuscript than any other full-length medieval work except the penitential poem The Prick of Conscience, also from the 14th century CE, which was only so frequently copied due to its use by the Church. The Canterbury Tales is considered Chaucer's masterpiece and is among the most important works of medieval literature for many reasons besides its poetic power and entertainment value, notably its depiction of the different social classes of the 14th century CE as well as clothing worn, pastimes enjoyed, and language/expressions used. The work is so detailed and the characters so vividly rendered that many scholars contend it was based on an actual pilgrimage Chaucer took c. 1387 CE. This seems unlikely, however, as Chaucer held a full-time position from the king at that time and any travels would have been noted in court records.

Chaucer's Life & Career

Geoffrey Chaucer was the son of a wealthy wine merchant of London, given a good education at local schools, and entered into service of the royal court around the age of 13 in 1356 CE. He served under three English kings, King Edward III (r. 1327-1377 CE), Richard II (r. 1377-1399 CE), and Henry IV (also known as Henry Bolingbroke, r. 1399-1413 CE) in positions ranging from page to soldier, courier, valet and esquire, controller of the customs house of the London port, member of parliament, and court clerk and poet, among other duties.⁸

National Portrait Gallery (CC BY-NC-ND)
Chaucer's works were never technically published during his lifetime as that concept had not yet been invented but he was well known and highly regarded as a poet as his works were copied by other scribes who then shared or sold them. The events of his life are well documented in court records, and it is known he was recognized for his poetic achievements by Edward III (who granted him a gallon of wine daily for life for what was most likely a poetic composition) and rewarded financially by John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster (l. 1340-1399 CE) for composing his first major work, The Book of the Duchess (c. 1370 CE) in honor of John of Gaunt's late wife Blanche.
By the time Chaucer began composing The Canterbury Tales, he was at the height of his poetic powers and had traveled and read widely. He was fluent in Latin, French, and Italian, but wrote in the vernacular of Middle English. The characters who appear in The Canterbury Tales are drawn from Chaucer's life experiences and are probably amalgams of people he had known (though some, like Harry Bailey the Innkeeper, are historical individuals) and Chaucer's use of Middle English to tell their stories is particularly effective since he is able to render their various accents and dialects as they would have sounded at the time.
Characters
Chaucer, appearing as one of the characters in the story, describes the others when he meets them at the Tabard Inn at Southwark. The majority of the characters will tell a tale to the others as they ride toward Canterbury. These are, in the order they appear in The General Prologue:
Chaucer-the-pilgrim who narrates the work; tells the 17th and 18th tales
The Knight – a man of honor, truth, and chivalry; tells the 1st tale
The Squire - the knight's son, a gentle youth of poetic sensibilities; tells the 11th tale
The Yeoman – the knight's servant; no tale
The Prioress (Madame Eglentyne) – a nun who supervises a priory; tells the 15th tale
The Second Nun – secretary to the Prioress; tells the 21st tale
The Nun's Priest – one of three priests traveling with the Prioress; tells the 20th tale
The Monk – a worldly lover of hunting, riding, and drinking; tells the 18th tale
The Friar (Huberd) – a corrupt clergyman who keeps donations for himself; tells the 7th tale
The Merchant – a somber man who distrusts women; tells the 10th tale
The Clerk – a scholar from Oxford University; tells the 9th tale

The Sergeant of the Law (Man of Law) – a wealthy lawyer; tells the 5th tale

The Franklin (landowner) – a glutton, companion of Man of Law; tells the 12th tale
Brief Summary & Best-Known Tales
The Canterbury Tales is narrated by a character whom scholars identify as Chaucer-the-pilgrim, a literary character based on the author but presented as far more naïve, clueless, and trusting than the actual Chaucer could have been. This same sort of narrator appears in Chaucer's earlier works, The Book of the Duchess, The House of Fame (c 1378-1380 CE), and The Parliament of Fowls (c. 1380-1382 CE).⁹
Chaucer-as-pilgrim takes the other characters at face value and seems to admire them even when they are obviously very poor specimens of humanity. A reader understands the kinds of people this pilgrim is encountering through the skill of Chaucer-the-poet who reveals the characters through their speech, the type of story they choose to tell, interaction with other characters, and what they say of themselves, all highlighting their habits, interests, vices, and virtues.
The poem opens with a grand description of springtime and nature stirring to life after the winter. This renewal inspires people to go on pilgrimage to the shrine of Thomas Becket, aka St. Thomas Beckett at Canterbury, one of the most popular pilgrimages in medieval Britain. Chaucer-as-pilgrim is at the Tabard Inn at Southwark, about to set out alone on this pilgrimage, when the others arrive to spend the night. He talks to them all at the communal dinner, and they invite him to travel with them. Their host, Harry Bailey, suggests they pass the time on the road with a story-telling contest. Each pilgrim will tell two stories on the way to Canterbury and two on the return; whoever tells the best story will win a free meal.
The next morning, they all set off and the knight is chosen to speak first. The other pilgrims are either chosen by Harry Bailey (referred to as The Host) or insist on speaking next and interrupt whoever was chosen. Chaucer-the-poet gives Chaucer-the-pilgrim two of the worst tales and also makes fun of himself in the Prologue to the Man of Law's Tale in which he has the character complain that every tale he can think of has already been told, however poorly, by Chaucer
Love, Sex, and Fellowship

Throughout the frame story, character prologues, and tales, Chaucer explores human relationships. The tales discuss brotherly love and the betrayal of it, as well as the partnerships among thieves and rogues. The camaraderie and fellowship of the pilgrim company set the tone of the frame story. Most pilgrims complete their tales by directly addressing the listening company; in more than one case, a story creates friction between pilgrims¹⁰.

Male-female relationships feature prominently in The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer lived in a time when men held all political and religious power but women retained some financial power. For example, a woman could inherit her husband's wealth after he died—a custom that evidently benefited the Wife of Bath several times over. Women had the power of sex, as so many of the tales vividly illustrate. Sex within marriage, as well as outside of it, is a topic of several stories, with examples of both faithful and unfaithful wives and an ample dose of sexual trickery and bed hopping. Women also appear to have power in the realm of courtly love, as illustrated by the Knight's tale. The courtly love tradition began in 11th-century France and soon spread throughout Europe. In this tradition a young aristocrat would (through secret signs) declare himself smitten by and pledge himself to a seemingly unattainable woman. This woman would thus have power over her lover—as long as she remained out of reach, of course. Chaucer both invokes and subverts all of these types of male-female relationships in the The Canterbury Tales through the pilgrims themselves and the tales they tell.

Social Class

The diverse social classes of the pilgrims are an important part of the Prologue. As Chaucer describes the pilgrims, he gives their occupations, and many are never known beyond these designations. At the time Chaucer wrote the tales, society was moving from the estate system to a system that included a growing middle class. There are pilgrims from every class in the company—both traditional and emerging. The stereotypes about these classes and the conflicts between them emerge in the frame story and in the individual tales. Morality is still connected with the first estate: the only member of the nobility, the Knight, is treated as an honest and upright person, as is the poorest member of the clergy, the Parson. Yet not all members of the first estate meet this high moral standard, as the Friar and the Pardoner illustrate.