The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucers The Canterbury Tales is more than exclusively an entertaining collection of stories and characters it is a design of the confederacy Chaucer lived in. In the late fourteenth century England the conventional feudal schema was changing as the church was losing its brilliance and more people were becoming representative of the emerging middle class. Chaucers Canterbury Tales is a microcosm of this order because it demonstrates the mixer divisions cognize as the Estates, it illustrates the offshoot of the middle class and the decline of the feudal strategy, and it shows the corruption and power of the church building, and it embodies close aspects of the gist Age.Feudal society was traditionally divided into cardinal estates, which were roughly equivalent to social classes. The firstly Estate was the Church, the Second Estate was the Nobility, and the ternion Estate was the Peasantry. The rigid division of society into the three traditional estates was beginning to fail down in the late fourteenth century England, and by the time of Chaucer, in that location was a revive of the middle class. In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer is mellowly conscious of the social divisions known as the Estates. While the musical style of The Canterbury Tales as a whole is a cat narrative, the General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales is an example of Estates Satire, a genre which criticizes the abuses that occur inside the three traditional Estates.Geoffrey Chaucers The Canterbury Tales embodies most aspects of the Middle Ages, whether it is in the reserve a hop of immoral ghostlike clergy homosexual, poor, virtuous farmers, or the honorable knight. alone these characters provide pure examples of the numerous omnipresent themes of the Middle Ages. The prevalent values and themes of the Middle Ages included military force and revenge, religion and corruption, and social perspective and hierarchy.The measure in which Chaucers The Canterbu ry Tales is set are exuberant and are filled with suffering, conflict, and general displeasure as much(prenominal), the ideas of revenge and thus furiousness are fairly prevalent. In a great many of Chaucers historys, this theme is close in perfectly. An example near the end ofthe Reeves tale after the miller discovers the scholars treachery. He the miller grabbed Allan by the Adams apple, and he, in return, roughly grabbed the miller and take him on the nose with his fist (Chaucer 83). In this instance, not only if a immediate resort to madness is exhibited, but abandon is used as revenge as the miller attacks Allan after realizing that he has slept with his wife. demonstrate by this, violent tendencies were often the most common, and the most appropriate response.In all of England, violence was seen as something of a way of brio Curtis Gruenler, in a literary analysis, states, Violence on a immense scale held slope attention as spectacular victories against the Frenc h early in the Hundred long time War were followed by a serial 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 build disclose his entire livelihood ground upon the battles he was called upon by his lord to take part in. In essence, violence was a universally recognized form of judge and retribution something that was explicitly pointed out in Chaucers stories.Yet another theme is the forepart of religion, or more specifically, the presence of corruption within religion. Many members of the pilgrimage fool ties to ghostly office, and all but the Parson have in some way go against 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 offer to my relics in this church . . . make an offering in the name of God, I shall clear them by the authority of which was granted to me by papal bull (Chaucer 288).After telling the pilgrims of this trick, distinctly aimed at pocketing a good chain reactor of money, he explains, By this trick I have gained a hundred tag year after year since I became a pardoner (Chaucer 288). The Pardoner is not, however, the only immoral religious character refer in the pilgrimage. The Friar, for example, has broken his vows as a clerical member of the Church, most conspicuously his vow of chastity.The Friar has engaged in relationships that have violated this vow, and when a tiddler comes as a result of this interaction, he has gone 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 at last come down to a disposition for pleasure and money, something that plagued the legitimacy of the Catholic Church and eventually led to the religious reformation.Among the ch aracters a sort of social hierarchy became pronto apparent in the midst of these many travelers. A general character emerged that scattered the pilgrims based upon their economic and social standings. at that place was a rather large ancestry between the richest of the travelers and the poorest. For example, the Franklin was an owner of a large estate and lavish personal goods. Although he is deeply 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 cheerful and kind-hearted members of the pilgrimage. This can be seen as Chaucers doer of expressing his feelings toward the social hierarchy of the times.Chaucer also weighs in on feudalism, the socioeconomic system of the time. Chaucer represents the feudal arrangement of society . . . around the go out of the knight as a belief of nobility, and around the labourer a aim of commonality (Morgan 8). Chau cer seems to see feudalism as a system that divides people into the flush(p) 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 breakaway of the feudal system.The Merchant is described in the general prologue as a responsible man who kept his wits about him . . . save he was really a worthwhile man (Chaucer 6). In short, Chaucer saw the social structure of his time and saw veritable things he had disapproval of, but indeed, he saw some other move of it as beneficial to the betterment of society.To close, Chaucers chef-doeuvre The Canterbury Tales exhibits many prevalent themes and in much(prenominal) a way paints a photographic film of the times. He does this by talk of violence, religious corruption, and social structuring, all of which were very minded(p) bits of soc iety in the time as they all formed a system thatis looked back on and interpreted through and through works of fact and fiction such as The Canterbury Tales.