The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucers The Canterbury Tales is more than well(p) an entertaining collection of stories and characters it is a representation of the society Chaucer lived in. In the easy 14th century England the traditional feudal system was changing as the church was losing its importance and more people were becoming part of the emerge middle class. Chaucers Canterbury Tales is a microcosm of this society because it demonstrates the kind divisions known as the realms, it illustrates the reaping of the middle class and the decline of the feudal system, and it shows the corruption and power of the Church, and it embodies around aspects of the Middle Age.Feudal society was tradition in ally divided into three estates, which were roughly similar to social classes. The First Estate was the Church, the Second Estate was the Nobility, and the Third Estate was the Peasantry. The rigid division of society into the three traditional estates was beginning to discover down in the late 14th century England, and by the age of Chaucer, there was a rise of the middle class. In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer is highly assured of the social divisions known as the Estates. While the literary genre of The Canterbury Tales as a whole is a frame narrative, the General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales is an lawsuit of Estates Satire, a genre which criticizes the abuses that occur within the three traditional Estates.Geoffrey Chaucers The Canterbury Tales embodies to the highest degree aspects of the Middle Ages, whether it is in the form of immoral religious clergy military man, poor, virtuous farmers, or the honorable knight. t step up ensemble these characters provide excellent examples of the many a(prenominal) omnipresent themes of the Middle Ages. The prevailing set and themes of the Middle Ages included force-taboo and revenge, religion and corruption, and social status and power structure.The multiplication in which Chaucers The Canterbury Tales is set are tumultu ous and are filled with suffering, conflict, and preponderant animosity as such, the ideas of revenge and thus violence are evenhandedly prevalent. In a great many of Chaucers tales, this theme is framed perfectly. An example near the end ofthe Reeves tale after the moth miller discovers the scholars treachery. He the miller grabbed Allan by the Adams apple, and he, in return, roughly grabbed the miller and hit him on the nose with his fist (Chaucer 83). In this instance, not only a quick re furcate to violence is exhibited, but violence is used as revenge as the miller attacks Allan after realizing that he has slept with his wife. Evidenced by this, violent tendencies were often the to the highest degree common, and the most appropriate response.In all of England, violence was seen as something of a guidance of life Curtis Gruenler, in a literary analysis, states, Violence on a tumescent scale held English attention as spectacular victories against the French premature in the Hundred Years War were followed by a series of costly, disastrous campaigns (Gruenler). War was a profession of many people in England including a character of Chaucers, the Knight had fought in at least 15 battles and had essentially built out his entire livelihood based upon the battles he was called upon by his lord to take part in. In essence, violence was a universally recognized form of justice and retribution something that was explicitly pointed out in Chaucers stories.Yet an early(a) theme is the front man of religion, or more specifically, the presence of corruption within religion. Many members of the pilgrimage have ties to religious office, and all but the Parson have in some way break their vows or otherwise acted somewhat out of their bounds as a high ranking member of the Church. Chaucer illustrates this elegantly in the form of the Pardoners prologue where he states make an offering to my relics in this church . . . make an offering in the name of God, I sha ll absolve them by the authority of which was granted to me by papal bull (Chaucer 288).After telling the pilgrims of this trick, clearly aimed at pocketing a practised deal of money, he explains, By this trick I have gained a hundred marks year after year since I became a pardoner (Chaucer 288). The Pardoner is not, however, the only immoral religious character twisty in the pilgrimage. The Friar, for example, has broken his vows as a clerical member of the Church, most prominently his vow of chastity.The Friar has engaged in relationships that have violated this vow, and when a child comes as a result of this interaction, he has done for(p) so far as to marry the woman to herlover so as to cover his own tracks. All of these aspects of church corruption in The Canterbury Tales eventually come down to a desire for pleasure and money, something that plagued the genuineness of the Catholic Church and eventually led to the religious reformation.Among the characters a sort of social hierarchy became quickly apparent in the midst of these many travelers. A general character emerged that separated the pilgrims based upon their economic and social standings. There was a rather large contrast between the richest of the travelers and the poorest. For example, the Franklin was an proprietor of a large estate and lavish personal goods. Although he is deep in debt, his social status is still far higher than that of say, the plowman. The Plowman is one of the poorer members of the pilgrimage, but despite this he is one of the more satisfied and charitable members of the pilgrimage. This can be seen as Chaucers means of expressing his feelings toward the social hierarchy of the times.Chaucer similarly weighs in on feudalism, the socioeconomic system of the time. Chaucer represents the feudal constitution of society . . . around the figure of the knight as a excogitation of nobility, and around the labourer a conception of commonality (Morgan 8). Chaucer seems to s ee feudalism as a system that divides people into the wealthy nobles and the poor laborers. Chaucer also seems to recognize the presence of a middle class that seems to rise out of feudalism. For example, the figure of a merchant who gains his wealth by his own accord, specifically money trading, and is almost entirely independent of the feudal system.The Merchant is expound in the general prologue as a responsible man who kept his marbles about him . . . Nevertheless he was really a worthy man (Chaucer 6). In short, Chaucer saw the social structure of his time and saw authentic things he had disapproval of, but indeed, he saw some other parts of it as beneficial to the betterment of society.To close, Chaucers masterpiece The Canterbury Tales exhibits many prevalent themes and in such a way paints a picture of the times. He does this by talk of violence, religious corruption, and social structuring, all of which were very liable(p) bits of society in the time as they all formed a system thatis looked back on and interpreted through works of event and fiction such as The Canterbury Tales.