Middle English Period-PIECE

CANTERBURY TALES ANALYSIS

BY JAY MARIE C. MONTEDERAMOS
AND EUNICE MIMI AIRA TAN
The Dark ages of literature was mainly referred to the Middle English Era due to the explicit war
engulfing France and England. In spite of this phenomenon, Geoffrey Chaucer was able to produce many
literary pieces, mostly poetry which includes his Canterbury Tales.Until today, this poetic tale is still
considered as his magnum opus, for it gives great insight into the fourteenth centurys reflections of
social and economic status, religious controversies and gender expectations, making Chaucer one of the
greatest writers of the century and acknowledged as the Father of the English Literary Canon. Although
unfinished, many of the tales were complete and remain one of the worlds greatest writings of all time.
Chaucers Canterbury Tales dominantly encompasses the ideal point of Realism and Feminism.
Like most work of Nicolas BoileauDespreauxwhos Satires, a literary work holding up human vices and
follies to ridicule mans dignity and mostly make fun of aristocrats, are the notable examples of
Despreauxs work, in which Chaucer reveals social genre/position of the state using the same
framework.
The story formally started by Chaucer at the Tabard inn, a tavern in Southward near London
where the narrator of the story joined a company of twenty-nine (29) pilgrims who are travelling to the
shrine of Saint Thomas Becket in Canterbury. The 29 pilgrims set by Chaucer as the main characters of
the tale did not merely play the role of one doing the action; rather, they represent a diverse cross
section of fourteenth (14
th
) century English Society. The way Chaucer opened the tale was a little bit
surprising. Other writers of well-known literary pieces like Homer used to open their work using muses,
so Chaucer did. He exquisitely described how beautiful and rich the spring season, only to reveal later
that it was also the perfect time where the narrator (and other pilgrims at that) felt the strong desire to
travel at a pilgrimage, a religious journey undertaken for penance and grace. The good atmosphere build
by Chaucer himself at the beginning of the text was immediately replaced by a more serious and sullen
tone of setting to give way to the main point of the story.
The Host in the tavern, on the other hand, saw the pilgrims and pilgrimage as an economic
transaction, and so encouraged them to a friendly tale-telling contest. This is the part where the
narrator gave his objective assessment of each pilgrim, giving detailed description of those characters
involved which inhabit a socially defined role and yet seem to have made a conscious effort to redefine
the part they were playing. He actually presented irony and hypocrisy of the characters personality that
lies underneath various clothing.
Language Used
In Leo Tolstoys work entitled What is Art, he believed thatliterature (as an art) can be good if it is
intelligible and comprehensible, thus, art should be made available for everyone; and so Chaucer.
Serving as soldier and at the same time diplomat since he can speak both English and French (including
Latin) in the hundred years war of England-France, he was actually confused as to which language he
would choose in starting literary works. But as he realized that poetry should be accessible to all
linguistically, he decided to use English as the communication channel since it was their vernacular
language. Similar with Tolstoy, Chaucer had thought that literature is only relevant in a particular class
(the upper class and lower class) because of the language used. So instead of choosing between French
(used in Court) and Latin (used in Churches) languages, he advocated to use English as the literary
medium for language so both royal and commoner people can easily relate with his work.

Symbolism
Symbolism, on the other hand, was also evident in Chaucers work. In the Knights Tale, since the
place was set at the ancient Greece, the extensive description of the temples symbolized various
characteristics the God and Goddesses possessed and its corresponding action or response once they
got involved with human. In the Wife baths Tale, the argument imposed by the Wife of bath using
words she believed taken from the scripture but did not really exist in the bible symbolizes Chaucers
mockery of the Churchmen. In the Pardoners tale, furthermore, Chaucer was trying to tell its readers
that even in the Middle English era, sexuality and gender issue already existed. These were due to the
Pardoners homosexual relationship with the summoner.

Schools of Thought (Realism and Feminism)
Canterbury Tales strongly embraces the ideal view of Realism and Feminism. Criticism, at this
point, is very crucial for it make people see another view of what they usually believe and impart
another ideas in return, Matthew Arnold defined criticism as adisintegrated endeavor to learn and
propagate the best that is known and thought in the world, and thus to establish a current of fresh and
true idea in his work entitled The Function of Criticism at the Present Time.

The concern for facts that reject impractical and visionary things, and represent literature
without idealization or simple reason was presented in the following tale of Canterbury: The characters
of Knights tale which were subject to dramatic reverse of fortune serve as the plots driving force; the
counterpart of courtly love presented in the knights tale by the Millers tale, a love that exist for sexual
purposes; and the Pardoner indulging all forms of excess (gluttony, drunkenness, gambling, swearing)
which opposes Gods will in the Pardoners tale.

Feminism, nevertheless, was manifested broadly at the Wife of Baths Tale. Mary Wollstonecraft
once said that women must reject the patriarchal assumption that women are inferior to men. These
words of Wollstonecraft was highlighted when the notorious persona, King Arthur was mentioned by
the Wife of Bath allowing his queen without any form of hesitation to take charge of punishing the
knight who dishonored a beautiful maiden at the royal court. This phenomena signals one thing:
Matriarchal Society. Virgina Woolf, on the other hand, argued that a great mind possesses both male
and female characteristics. Conversely, in the Wife of Baths narrative, the persona establishes her
authority on marriage due to her extensive personal experience, used of verbal and sexual power to
bring her husband to submission.