CHAUCER FOR 3º ESO

Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales

Dates:

·       The French Period: The Book of the Duchess (up to 1370)

·       The Italian Period (up to 1387) Major works: The Parliament of Fowles,        The House of Fame,      Troylus and Cresside,   The Legend of Good Women.

The English Period (Fom 1387 till death in 1400)

·       The Canterbury Tales

Plot summary of The Canterbury Tales: some pilgrims meet at the Tabard's Inn in London to have a storytelling competition in which the winner will have a free dinner on the way back from Canterbury.

Why is it a masterpiece? Range of characters, breakthrough in English language, poetic value. And a reflection of a changing society.

The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories told by a variety of speakers. The stories are varied in tone, style and subject matter reflecting the diversity of speakers represented from all types of English life; a chivalrous Knight, a plowman, a prioress.

Although from a wide social background Chaucer places all of these characters together on a pilgrimage.

The general prologue to the actual storytelling allows Chaucer the opportunity to set the scene and describe his pilgrims in some detail. This prologue allows a first glimpse at the pilgrims, displaying their virtues, vices, thoughts and appearances. Each pilgrim is of a different occupation or background and has a distinct character. Through his description Chaucer allows us to learn a little about the attitudes and thoughts of people in the fourteenth century; he shows a microcosm of English society, hinting at its good and bad points, allowing the reader to make up their own minds about each of the pilgrims’ way of life.

The Canterbury Tales are written in middle English, an ancestor of the English we speak now which was spoken between 1150-1500. After the Norman invasion in 1066 the English language was heavily influenced by French and many French words became standard in English.