Month: September 2017

Writers and readers alike have spent much time analyzing the content of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, but one of the most significant aspects of Chaucer’s writing is its implications for literacy as a whole in Medieval England. “The Miller’s Tale” is an excellent example of this shift. In the early Middle Ages, writing and reading were skills reserved only for the elite, and most notably the church. Most texts and manuscripts were religious in one way or another, often scribed by monks. This is in sharp contrast to a couple hundred years later, when Chaucer lived. “The Miller’s Tale” is humorous, but also crude. It represents humor that many people of the time would have loved, but likely not religious officials. It represents a brand of writing that had likely existed for hundreds of years in voice or song, but had never been recorded until then.

So why is this significant? The popularity of The Canterbury Tales is indicative that the majority of England, the commoners, if you will, had now taken up an interest in literacy and reading. It’s no coincidence that this trend is also paralleled by the development of a merchant middle class, and a greater number of books because of the printing press. Works such as The Canterbury Tales gave people who may have previously dismissed literacy as a skill of the elite with no use to them a reason to learn to read and write. This trend likely helped give rise to the new middle class, and the innumerable applications of literacy strengthened England.

Over the course of a few hundred years, England evolved from a feudal nation, largely disconnected from the world, and often being invaded to the greatest superpower history has ever seen. It’s no stretch to attribute this rise partially to drastic increases in literacy, and stories such as “The Miller’s Tale” marked this historic transition. What on the surface seems like a crude, funny anecdote is truly one of the more significant pieces of literature to arise from this time period.

In our anthology’s introduction to Geoffrey Chaucer, the first thing mentioned is the topic of the three estates in medieval social theory.  Both the authors and Chaucer realize how important these estates and distinctions are to society. The aristocracy, clergy, and common each fill their own roles in society. By the time Chaucer was born, moving from class to class had become an attainable goal due to the Black Plague killing a large portion of the population.  Skill and education became less of a demand, while labor and bodies to work powered the commoners into the upper class.

Chaucer’s father was a merchant in the common class at the beginning of his life. By the time the poet was an adult, his father earned enough money to propel Chaucer into the noble aristocracy.  Chaucer provides the reader interesting insight into both classes, something that was uncommon in his time.  The characters that he presents show his experiences and opinions, which are often humorous and ironic.  Vivid description, irony, and poeticism are Chaucer’s main tools in at least the first part of these tales.

The first ironic character group is the Knight and his entourage.  The noble servant himself, his son, and his yeoman are three completely different character types but in the same class.  First, there is the Knight, an honorable, humble man who wears simple, rust-stained clothes without shame.  His actions and war record speak for themselves.  On the other hand, however, is his son.  A young, well-dressed Squire, he is not necessarily a bad person, but provides a contrast to his father.  While his father has survived the horrors of war, the squire cannot sleep because he is in love.  Finally, the Yeoman, who may be even closer to the lay class than the nobles, hunts like a rich man.  Chaucer chooses each of these characters to live three different types of the noble life.

The second class is the clergy class. Monks, nuns, and friars, who are supposed to represent the holy and honorable church, are not shown by Chaucer.  Instead, he shows the Prioress, who is described as almost too beautiful for the church.  The narrator has to restrain himself from talking about her looks too much. The two holy men are the most ironic characters described in the first part of the tales.  The monk, who hunts and does not believe in the old rules of the saints, is a direct criticism of the Church in Chaucer’s times. Finally, there is the friar, a described ladies’ man who could take money from the poorest woman in town.  These characters do not fit the description as clergy.

            Finally, Chaucer describes the lay class.  The merchant, clerk, and lawyer all have some tone of deception about them.  The merchant hides his debt behind large cloaks. The clerk thinks intelligence will overcome his hunger. The lawyer thinks if he appears to be more busy, he will earn more money.  Chaucer’s depiction of the three characters represent how the laity desire to be rich like the upper classes, but it tends to be more of a façade. 

 

The Canterbury Tales were written sometime between 1386 and 1400 by Geoffrey Chaucer. Chaucer came from a family that ascended from the merchant class to aristocracy within three generations. Although he wrote poetry he was never known for it. Instead, he was known for his official job in the courts. It is possible the poem is unfinished because the tales are supposed to recall the accounts of pilgrims coming to and leaving Canterbury, which would add up to ten, but there’s only twenty-four stories. During this time-frame, literature is expanding from just religious works to including more popular works. The Canterbury Tales entails one broad frame tale, with smaller tales that branch out from it. It is written in the English vernacular in iambic pentameter with many rhymed couplets. The story begins as any story typically does: by describing the setting. The April showers have signaled the beginning or spring in England as many make their pilgrimage to the city of Canterbury. Then the poem continues into the first story, the story of the knight. The knight is exactly what a knight should be: he is humble, noble, and honorable. The narrator describes him as very experienced at war and that he has remained loyal to his lord’s over the years. Next, Chaucer transitions into describing the squire. He is the son of the knight yet these two characters contrast each other in many ways. While the knight seems stern and traditional, his son is youthful and spends his time singing and dancing. Then there’s the Yemen, who carries around many weapons since he is an independent commoner who works as a knight’s servant. After the Yemen Chaucer introduces the Prioresse. Through vivid descriptions there is a sense that she is more concerned with what society thinks of her and how she appears rather than her religious duties as a nun. She is very idealistic and wears a broach that reads ‘love conquers all.’ Unlike the Prioresse, the monk does not care what society thinks of him as he spends most of his time hunting. The theme of corruption in the church continues as the Friar uses the church to his benefit, using people’s money to spoil himself. Then there is the merchant who sits a little too high on his horse than he should, especially considering he’s in debt. Also, low on money is the clerk, who is a philosophy student at Oxford. While the clerk is very arrogant, the Sergeant of the Law is very humble and quiet. All these characters are described very well in a way that allows readers very easily to understand the true nature of each character.

I want to start this blog entry by restating the plot of the overall story in The Canterbury Tales. There is this group, full of some pretty interesting yet heavily morally flawed people, on a religious pilgrimage that is supposed to, in theory, bring them closer to God so that they may become better people in his name. In the party, there is a corrupt, money-loving Friar, a Widow has had five husbands, and a Somnour, who is cartoonishly scary and evil, to name a few. In many respects, the General Prologue is like the lead up to the joke. Before Chaucer can say, “two guys walk into a bar,” he has to specify that this bar is actually a brothel and at least one of these guys is the most corrupt religious figure that can be put into words. We are looking at you, Frere.

All jokes aside, the portrayals of the church, just in the prologue, cast a harsh light onto the Catholic Church at the time. In this time period, it was common for the Church to preach this idea of penance for sins to lessen the time spent in purgatory. This penance was usually in the form of an amount of money given to the Church, possibly right into the pocket of the clergy. Chaucer’s descriptions of the Church officials, and especially the very dry language used in these descriptions, really help to show us today how corrupt the church was in medieval times, and how the Church’s corruption was so widespread and such common knowledge that Chaucer can even joke about it and expect his readers to fully understand the joke as well.

Overall, The General Prologue sets the stage for a revealing satirical novel discussing the lives and society in the medieval time period.