1. The Canterbury Tales Chaucer background:
Purpose of tales and necessity
Parts of Canterbury tales
Basis of tales
Historic background
Tales background
Tales summary
Chaucer’s influences: boccaccio decameron
Corruption of church
Middle class/lower class
Two voices of Chaucer
Tales
Frame story
Cross section of medieval times
Middle English
Pilgrims

2. Outline Geoffrey Chaucer background Estates System
Rise of Middle Class
Corruption of Church
Tales
Pilgrims
Use of Two Voices
What We Will Cover

3. Geoffrey Chaucer
Born in London and is buried in Westminster Abbey.
Lived during the Middle Ages, or Medieval Period.
As an adult, he belonged to the upper-middle class.
Information known about his life is gathered from mention of him in 3rd party documents.
Some general information about the author:
He was born in London, probably 1343, but some critics will argue 1342 because records are difficult to come by from that period. For the sake of this class, he was born in Lived during the Middle Ages or Medieval Period and belonged to an upper-middle class during his adult life, when he would have written the Canterbury Tales. All of the information we have gathered about Chaucer is taken from various 3rd party sources that cite his presence, or credit him in bills (records knobles would keep)

4. Chaucer
Chaucer held many jobs including: yeoman, courier, diplomat, comptroller, clerk of king’s work and writer.
King Richard II was one of his patrons
Close with John of Gaunt
Married to Phillippa, had three children

5. Chaucer
First work: Book of the Duchess written as an elegy for John of Gaunt’s wife, Blanche.
Other works include Troilus and Criseyde, Parlement of Foules, The House of Fame, and The Legend of Good Women.
Best known for The Canterbury Tales.
What is important about Chaucer’s background is that he lived amongst the very people he wrote about in his Tales. He was literate, educated, held many jobs and interacted with many different types of people. His point of view in the Canterbury Tales is that of “the common man.” His variety of experiences later allow him to write accurately and apparently without bias.

6. Estates System
Rigid system, based on birth and wealth, that dictated social rank and supposed morality of a person.
The “ranks”: Knobility, Clergy, Lower Class
Knobles: Kings, Queens, Dukes, Knights
Squires and Yeoman sometimes considered here too
Clergy: Members of the church- nuns, priests, monks, friars.
Parson and other poorer church related members would NOT be in this estate.
Lower Class: Everyone else, especially the poor.
Estate system is related to the feudal system.
Social rank was most important to the people of the higher estates.

7. Rise of the Middle Class
Knoble class ruled all others, clergy often corrupt, what about everyone else?
All others were considered “lower class,” but began to shift because there was a distinct “middle class.”
Middle class: Doctors, Lawyers, Franklins, some wealthy merchants and craftsmen.
More people were being educated and were literate.
Society needed a place for this rising class.
Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales during this time when the Estates System was beginning to fail.
Chaucer belonged to this middle class. Canterbury Tales is considered to be part of this rise of the Middle Class.

8. Corruption of the Church
Below the very rich, powerful, controlling Knobles, the next important rank was clergy.
Many abused the power they had:
Took bribes
Kept money
Papal Indulgences
Supposed to take three vows:
Obedience
Chastity
Poverty
Everyone had to pay tithes, or a portion of what they made, to the church. Some members of the church kept parts of this money, or all of it. Even though the clergy had no real need for money, they still kept the money that was supposed to go to the church. They accepted bribes too. Papal Indulgence: When a person died it was believed that they went to purgatory and the best way to get them out of purgatory and into heaven was to have a member of the clergy pray for them. Members of the clergy would sell “papal indulgences.” A family member would pay a friar to pray for their dead uncle/mom/ etc and then the dead relative’s soul would supposedly be sent to heaven sooner.
Obedience: God’s work comes first and so do church obligation. Not to covet or desire other things or people.
Chastity: refraining from any sexual intercourse and any impure actions
Poverty: living a life of simplicity, a poor humble life

9. The Tales First major work to be written in English, not Latin
27 Pilgrims, Narrator (Chaucer) and Host, head on a Pilrimage to Canterbury Cathedral
Thomas a Beckett’s Shrine
Tale telling competition for entertainment
Judged on morality of tale
Not the first time such a framework was used
Boccaccio
This large variety of pilgrims, representing different estates and different levels of morality, all embark on the same religious pilgrimage to canterbury cathedral to visit the shrine of Thomas a Beckett. Chaucer supposedly meets up with this group of pilgrims at the Tabbard inn, owned by Harry Bailey. They all decide to continue on the journey together and to entertain themselves they will have a tale telling competition. Each pilgrim will tell two tales on the way there and two on the journey back. Harry Bailey will be the judge of the tales and will judge them based on morality and overall entertainment value.
Having a tale telling framework was also used by Giovanni Boccaccio in the Decameron. You can “supposedly” get a varied point of view as each person gets a chance to be the narrator. Each character gets a voice. Canterbury tales is the first time this was done in english. Very likely that chaucer knew boccaccio and had read his work.

10. The Pilgrims “Cross-section” of the Medieval Period
Includes members from all classes and of varying rank and morality.
Each pilgrim gets described in the General Prologue by the Narrator, then tells his or her own tale later.
Chaucer the narrator describes their appearance, attire, estate, actions, and what they say.
Wanted to criticize society.
Chaucer presents us with the variety discussed but leaves us to draw our own conclusions. These conclusions won’t be too difficult to draw as Chaucer only stops short of saying his conclusions.

11. Use of Two Voices Chaucer the Narrator/Pilgrim and Chaucer the author.
Chaucer the author recognized failure of the Estates System and the corruption of church
How could he write a critical piece about his society, if those in charge would censor it, or lock him up?

12. Use of Two Voices
Creates “naïve” pilgrim character who narrates the tales
Claims he is merely reporting exactly what he observes and makes no judgment
Readers can make obvious connections to his criticisms, but knobles and clergy cannot punish Chaucer without acknowledging the flaws in the pilgrims as truly present in society.
Able to demonstrate that highest ranking people, specifically the clergy, may not be the most moral.
Poorer pilgrims seem to be most “good,” and most high ranking clergy members break at least one of the three vows.
Pay special attention to this in the text. How does Chaucer lead us directly to conclusions?

13. What We Will Do We will be reading the General Prologue which:
Explains purpose of the Tales
Explains the scope of the Tales
Describes each Pilgrim
We will be reading a few of the tales the pilgrims tell on the way:
Prioress’ Tale
Parson’s Tale
Friar’s Tale
Pardoner’s Tale

14. What We Will Do We will be grouping the Pilgrims according to Estate.
Analyze how they are portrayed morally.
Interpret Chaucer’s opinion of each Pilgrim, each Estate, and society as a whole.
Identify corrupt Pilgrims and notice how Chaucer goes about pointing this out.
Compare and contrast morally good and morally bad Pilgrims
Understand Chaucer’s true purpose for writing these Tales