1. The Canterbury Tales
Geoffrey Chaucer
Created by Ms. Miller

2. Geoffrey Chaucer Father of English poetry
Spoke the Anglo-Norman composite called Middle English (the ancestor of Modern English).
One of the first to write in English
(French was the spoken language of the time)
Considered to be the greatest English writer before Shakespeare.
Most famous book:
The Canterbury Tales

3. What is so great about The Canterbury Tales?
In part, its greatness lies in Chaucer’s language.
It also comes from the sheer strength of Chaucer’s spirit and personality.
“In a dark, troubled age, as it seems to us, he was a comfortable optimist, serene, full of faith.”
– John Gardner

4. The time period
At least once in their lifetime, people made a pilgrimage (religious journey) to the shrine of St. Thomas á Becket in the city of Canterbury
Becket had been the archbishop of Canterbury
He was murdered in his own cathedral
Chaucer uses this idea of a pilgrimage to help form his frame story.

5. The Canterbury Tales Chaucer’s most famous book
He himself is a character in the book as a short, plump, slightly foolish pilgrim who commands no great respect
This book was still unfinished when he died
Type: Fiction
Format: Collection of stories within a frame story

6. The End of the Old Alliterative Anglo-Saxon World
Chaucer used several metrical forms and some prose in The Canterbury Tales, but the dominant meter is based on ten syllables, with an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.
Iambic pentameter
At a stroke we have abandoned the old, alliterative world of Anglo-Saxons and entered the modern world of Shakespeare, Wordsworth, and Robert Frost!

7. Quick Quiz
What is Iambic Pentameter?
Provide an example.

8. Snapshot of an age
The Canterbury Tales gives us a collection of good stories and a snapshot, a picture of life in the Middle Ages frozen in time.
Chaucer places his characters on a pilgrimage, a religious journey made to a shrine of holy place.

9. Setting up the frame
The tales begin with a general Prologue, the first lines of which establish that this pilgrimage takes place in the spring, the time of a new life and awakening.
Narrator: Poet-pilgrim, whom many consider to be Chaucer himself
Gather at Tabard Inn, there he meets twenty-nine other pilgrims also bound for Canterbury.

10. Setting up the frame
It is the host of the Tabard who suggests to the pilgrims, as they sit around the fire after dinner, that they exchange tales to pass the time along the way to Canterbury.
Frame Story- A story within a story. Chaucer uses the other story of the pilgrimage to unite his travelers; individual tales, but the tales themselves also have thematic unity.

11. Vocabulary Development page 140
Agility
Eminent
Accrue
Arbitrate
Benign
Guile
Obstinate
Frugal
Duress

12. Literary Focus: Characterization
To create the portraits of his pilgrims, Chaucer uses the same methods of Characterization that writers still use today. He reveals his characters by telling us
How the character looks and dresses
How the character speaks and acts
What the character speaks and acts
What the character thinks and feels
How others respond to the character
He also tells us directly what the character’s nature is – virtuous, clever, and so on

13. Reading Skills
With twenty-nine pilgrims to introduce in the Prologue, Chaucer could not develop any one character at great length. Instead, he had to provide a few well-chosen details that would make each character stand out vividly.
As you read the descriptions of each pilgrim in the Prologue, jot down striking details of dress, appearance, and behavior that give you an immediate impression of that character is really like.

14. Our Cast of Characters Narrator At the inn
Introduces all the people taking part in pilgrimage

15. Our Cast of Characters
Knight
Kind, chivalrous, just back from war, good warrior
Squire
Knight’s son, about 20, very artistic, very devoted to his father.

16. Our Cast of Characters Servant, proper Forrester, farmer
Yeoman
Nun
Servant, proper Forrester, farmer
Wears weapons, simply dressed
Yeoman: attendant, servant, or lesser official in royal or noble household.
Flirts, speaks poor French (putting on Airs), not really classy (pretends to be)
Clean eater, fat, tender hearted
3 priests and another Nun are with her
Prioress: A nun in charge of a priory or ranking next below the abbess of an abbey

17. Our Cast of Characters Hubert Drinker, faker, liar, flirt, beggar
Monk
Friar
Hunter, fat, likes to eat
Indulgent, dainty horses
Cares about money
Disregards his job and rules
Hubert
Drinker, faker, liar, flirt, beggar
Oxymoron (Devout Friar)
Coward (lily-livered)
Limiter: Licensed to beg within certain bounds, limited to a certain district

18. Our Cast of Characters Boring, in debt, poorly dressed Merchant
Oxford Cleric
Boring, in debt, poorly dressed
Poor, student, moral, philosopher, thin
Cleric: clergyman or other person in religious orders.

19. Our Cast of Characters Doesn’t think much of him
Sergeant at the Law
Franklin
Doesn’t think much of him
Seems busier than he is
Nosey
Self-indulgent, loves food and wine
Old, hospitable
Sheriff and in Parliament
Franklin: person of non-noble birth holding extensive property

20. Our Cast of Characters The Guildsmen The Cook
Self-indulgent, loves food and wine
Old, hospitable
Sheriff and in Parliament
Franklin: person of non- noble birth holding extensive property
Lower class
Trying to act higher class
Is good at his job
With the sore on his knee, he isn’t very sanitary which makes his food taste bad

21. Our Cast of Characters Sailor Likes to drink
Skipper
Doctor
Sailor
Likes to drink
Ruthless, evil to prisoners
Medicine based on Zodiac signs
Greedy, meds for unneeded things
Apothecary: one that prepares and sells drugs and other medicines (a pharmacist)

22. Our Cast of Characters
The Wife of Bath
Parson
Deaf, well-dressed, gap teeth, voluptuous, busy-body
Holy, poor, good priest, not judgmental, devoted, kind

23. Our Cast of Characters Christian, hard worker, kind
Plowman
The Miller
Christian, hard worker, kind
Will not take money unless he has to
Muscular, strong, wart on nose, bar-fly
Steals grain, tells dirty stories, plays bag pipes

24. Our Cast of Characters Trading and money managing
Manciple
The Reeve
Trading and money managing
Illiterate but intelligent
Easily makes fools out of other manciples
Works for college
Old, bad-tempered, thin
Does job well, steals from employer
Dishonest

25. Our Cast of Characters Summons people to court
The Summoner
The Pardoner
Summons people to court
Face covered in nasty sores, stinks because he eats onions and garlic, drunk
One job is to track down adulterers
Sells pardons for church
Rat-tails, hair shows
Trying to be better than he is
Voice like a goat, bug eyes, feminine

26. Our Cast of Characters The Host Happy, serves as the guide
Proposes that they all tell 4 stories
2 on the way to shrine
2 on the way back
Winner gets feast
Wants to tell stories to offer entertainment on trip