Geoffrey Chaucer and The Canterbury Tales -- Historical Background Summary

Summarized from the historical background in the Norton Anthology, 4ed

Personal History

Even though medieval scholars did not recognize the existence of any classes other than aristocracy and commoners, a middle class came into being and it was to this Chaucer belonged. He grew up amongst commoners but was sent as a teenager to serve as a page in the court of Lionel of Antwerp, son of Edward III, reigning monarch and brother to John of Gaunt. Chaucer thus spent the rest of his life amongst nobles. He married a woman of high birth and his children and grandchildren went on to be eminent people and married amongst nobility; Chaucer managed to jump the gap between the common and aristocratic classes.

Aside from poetry, Chaucer was involved in many other trades- he served as soldier, tradesman for the nobility, diplomat, forester and more. He was favored by the nobility, receiving rent-free housing, and grants. During the entirety of his life he came into constant contact with people of all classes, and this accounts for the huge variety of themes and storylines in his Tales. His work is characterized simultaneous by profound understanding of both classes and by lack of judgment on Chaucer's part.

Influences

One of Chaucer's earliest works was a translation from French of a poem that would greatly influence his work, Roman de la Rose. This poem is an allegory for a love affair and incorporates lengthy discussions on key medieval topics. Both of these elements can be seen in Chaucer's own work. He was also influenced by Latin literature. His first big work was Book of the Duchess, an elegy for the wife of John.

Chaucer traveled to Italy, where he encountered works of Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio which greatly influenced him. Dante influenced Chaucer to write comically; Chaucer's Troilus and Criseide, adapted from a work by Bocaccio, is one of the greatest love poems in literature. Chaucer strayed from the formulative poetry of his time (his attempts at writing traditionally were rather burlesque) and his poetry greatly surpassed in style, content and mood that of his English predecessor poets.

The Canterbury Tales

The Canterbury Tales is a compendium of 22 stories (originally intended to be 120) framed by the premise of a fictitious pilgrimage to Canterbury. This frame was a common device in the middle ages. The General Prologue introduces the pilgrims, and the rest of the book has a different character telling a story. The stories are not detached from one another as they are in other works of the time, but richly interconnected and co-influential. There are themes that thread through the entire Tales, such as the question of marriage which is tackled by several characters with differing points of view.

Due to Chaucer's never having finished the tales, there are several inconsistencies throughout the story. In addition to this, the 80+ surviving manuscripts order the tales differently.

The General Prologue

The Tales are told by different characters who span the different classes: from the Knight and his noble son the squire, to the fraudulent doctor to the Pardoner (a church man from whom one buys forgiveness for sins). The characters are described only outwardly, but the descriptions utilize symbols in such a way that give hints about the characteristics of the described. There is a complexity to the characters that provides both enjoyment and enrichment for the reader.

Geoffrey Chaucer