The Canterbury Tales

THE STRUCTURE OF THE TALES The Canterbury Tales is a collection of verse tales written in MIDDLE ENGLISH by Geoffrey Chaucer (the “father of English poetry”) between around 1386 and 1393. The framework of the stories used by Chaucer is a pilgrimage from London to the shrine of Thomas Becket in Canterbury. Chaucer probably borrowed this idea from Boccaccio’s Decameron. At first he wanted each of his 30 PILGRIMS, INCLUDING HIMSELF, to tell TWO TALES ON THE WAY FROM LONDON TO CANTERBURY AND TWO TALES ON THE WAY BACK: this would have given 120 tales in all, plus detailed descriptions of each pilgrim in the “General Prologue”. Actually, only 23 PILGRIMS TOLD A STORY, AND CHAUCER HIMSELF (as a pilgrim), TOLD TWO: so, now, we have 24 STORIES altogether.

CHAUCER’S PILGRIMS Chaucer’s pilgrims are both individuals with their own characteristics and stock types embodying universal faults and virtues. For example, the Wife of Bath seems to be a real character but she also represents the typical middle-class woman with social pretensions. Chaucer himself is a pilgrim and not an invisible narrator.

A PORTRAIT OF MIDDLE-CLASS ENGLAND Chaucer’s pilgrims come from the English middle class (the feudal world; the Church – the clergy; the growing mercantile and professional middle class). Noblemen and farmers aren’t included. Through his characters Chaucer gives us a portrait of middle-class England in the late 14th century. He describes his pilgrims carefully giving information about their appearance, behaviour and psychology.