Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer
and the Canterbury Tales

Chaucer’s life
• Geoffrey Chaucer was born in London in 1343, and he was a
son of a wine merchant.
• In 1357 he became a public servant to the Countess Elizabeth
of Ulster and in 1359 he fought in the Hundred Years' War.
• Then, he was employed on important diplomatic missions and
in 1366 married Philippa Roet.
• In 1372 he was sent to Italy where he probably met Petrarch
and became familiar with the works of Boccaccio and Dante,
in fact Italian literature influenced his works.
• He also represented the county of Kent in Parliament from
1386 and died in London in 1400.
Literary production
• Chaucer's literary production is divided into three periods:
1) the French period, when he did some translations influenced by the
French models, for example The Romaunt of the Rose (from the
French Le roman de la rose) and The Book of the Duchess.
2) the Italian period, when he followed the examples of Boccaccio and
Dante (his "House of Fame" is similar to the "Divine Comedy"). Other
works are “The Parlement of Foules” (a fable with animals as
characters), “Troilus and Criseyde”, and “The Legend of Good
Women”.
3) the English period, when he wrote The Canterbury tales. He
originally planned to write 120 tales (4 per each character) but he
died, so he could only write 24 tales. Anyway, this work is considered
one of the best of English literature.
The Canterbury Tales
The story is about a group of 30 pilgrims (including G. Chaucer
himself) who meet and travel together to Canterbury to visit the
shrine of Thomas Becket.
• In the General Prologue ( v. materiale di approfondimento) the narrator
gives a description of each pilgrim. The characters meet at the
Tabard Inn; the host of the tavern proposes a tale-telling
competition during the journey: each pilgrim has to tell two
stories on the way to Canterbury and two stories on the way
back (total: 120 stories).
• The pilgrims come from different classes: knights, clergy,
middle classes and trades.
• The journey starts at the Tabard Inn in London and goes towards
Canterbury Cathedral  it represents a purification.
The structure
• The structure is inspired to Boccaccio’s Decameron.
• It is called «Chinese box structure» because it is similar to a box
containing other little boxes: there are stories inside a story.
• In fact, there is a general story, called the «frame» (the story of the
pilgrims in journey to Canterbury who decide to do a competition). It
is mainly represented by the General Prologue.
• Then, there are all the stories told by the single characters ( they are
24!)
• Before each story, there is a short introduction in which the narrator
goes back to the main «frame» and each character is shortly
introduced.
Themes and style
• The main themes of the tales are: love, marriage,
corruption, hypocrisy and chivalry (from different points of
view)
• The pilgrims appear both as "types" and both as vital
individuals. In this, they are different from characters in epic
poetry or morality plays who are generally static.
• They are also portrayed physically (clothes, accessories…)
• The narrator provides a commentary on the pilgrims with a
subtle irony, but at the same time, they have their own voices.
It is like the writer disappears, leaving the character speak.
This quality makes Chaucer the first great writer in English.
The General Prologue: extract
• The extract starts with the description of the context: it is April, there
are sweet rains and winds but the sun shines and the birds sing. It’s
the month when people go on pilgrimage and people from all England
goes to Canterbury to visit Thomas Becket’s tomb.
• G. Chaucer introduces himself as a poet and a storyteller: it’s a first
person narrator and one of the pilgrimages. One day, he was in
London at the Tabard Inn when 29 people directed to Canterbury
arrive.
• It was a mix of men and women from all social classes.
Then, Chaucer describes them…
The Knight and the Squire
• The Knight loved chivalry, truth and honour.
He had fought in Egypt, Germany, Russia, Spain, Turkey etc.
He was brave and famous, but he was also modest and polite: he was a perfect
knight.
He had a fine horse, but his horse was tired because they had just been to war.
• The Squire was the Knight’s son. He was about 20 years old, with curly hair
and a handsome face.
He wore beautiful red and white clothes: he looked like a field of flowers.
He had fought for the love of his lady ( courtly love).
He could also write songs and poems, draw and dance. He was always singing
and whistling and was always happy.
The Nun and the Friar
• The Nun was a Prioress. Her name was Madam Eglantine.
She spoke French well but with an English accent, and had very good manners.
When she was eating, she didn’t make a mess.
She was very sensitive and she cried if she saw a mouse in a trap.
She loved dogs and gave them bread, milk and meat. If a dog died, she cried a lot.
She had grey eyes, soft red lips and a broad forehead.
Her clothes were the latest fashion: she wore an elegant cloak, some bracelets,
beads and a golden brooch with an «A» and the writing «Amor vincit omnia»
(«Love conquers all» in Latin).
• The Friar loved the company of pretty girls.
He lived of begging, but he had good social skills and spoke well to people, so he
was never short of money. He was a good musician and knew all the inns in all the
towns.
The Wife of Bath
• She was a big woman, with a red face and a gap between her
front teeth.
She wore a big hat and a large coat on her wide hips.
She was a respectable woman; she had been married 5 times
and she had had some love stories when she was young.
She had been on many pilgrimages: Jerusalem three times,
Santiago de Compostela, Boulogne, Cologne etc.
She liked talking about love and she knew a lot about it.
You needed to speak loud because she was a bit deaf.
The Summoner and the Pardoner
• The Summoner had a red face and black eyebrows and children were
afraid of him.
He stank of garlic and onions, which he loved.
His role was to make sure that people respected the laws of the Church,
but in reality he took bribes and didn’t respect the laws.
• The Pardoner had long, greasy, yellow hair, that was similar to rats’ tails;
his skin looked unnaturally smooth.
He had a bag full of pieces of wood, cloth and bones and he said they
were a Saint’s relics (rests). So he earned more than the honest parson
earned in 2 months.  Corruption of the Church!

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