ipl-logo

Social Class In Canterbury Tales Essay

1420 Words6 Pages

Social structure and Classes within Canterbury Tales
Geoffrey Chaucer was a great author and poet of his time, Canterbury Tales is notably one of his more well-known pieces of work. This may be due to the fact that Canterbury Tales revealed the beginning of social structure and the emergence of classes in during the Renaissance era of England. The adventures and characters of this Tale reveal the depth of the three estates in the Middle Ages. Within Canterbury Tale Geoffrey Chaucer shows how class and these estates have order within this community of characters but also reveals the good and bad of each estate. Giving an eye opening look into the lives of people within these estates.
Geoffrey Chaucer’s own life experiences may have influenced Canterbury Tales. Chaucer was born into a family with connections which helped him progress into society. Chaucer served as a noblewoman’s page, a courtier, a diplomat, a civil servant, a collector of scrap metal and King Edward III eventually made Chaucer one of his esquires. All of these job subsequently added to his knowledge and insight into different social classes within his society. Chaucer used his knowledge, humor and French literature influences of his time to reveal information through each of the characters in Canterbury Tales.
I’m going to analyze how the Canterbury Tales reveals …show more content…

He literally fought in a battle and then rode right into Canterbury tales blood stains and all. The Knight is the perfect person, he’s the hero that everyone loves, the guy who wins all the battles and is great at being a Knight. He’s traveled all over and fought in many battles but his character and morals are above all, as we can see he raised his son right to be the perfect gentlemen. As for the knight’s tale of two Knights fighting for a princess’ heart, the tale is all about chivalry, loyalty and love. Showing what happens when chivalry code and love cross

Show More
Related
849 Words | 4 Pages

[attention getter]. Geoffrey Chaucer, in his novel The Canterbury Tales, deals with many tales of medieval life and morals. The writing follows a large group of pilgrims who have all been challenged to tell their best tale, one that teaches a valuable lesson, on the journey to Canterbury. Two of the stories told, “The Pardoner’s Tale” and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”, make their points in very notable ways. The Pardoner tells a story of three men who come to pay for indulging in the sin of greed, while the Wife of Bath recounts a story of questionable morality involving a knight struggling for redemption after breaking his code of honor.

Read More
1053 Words | 5 Pages

Geoffrey Chaucer, considered one of the greatest English poets in the Middle Ages, composed The Canterbury Tales in the late fourteenth century. In the novel twenty-nine men and women representing all aspects of Medieval society embark on a religious pilgrimage to the cathedral at Canterbury in southeast England. On their journey their host engages them in a storytelling contest with a free meal as the prize upon their return. Chaucer wrote the tales in Middle English, the vernacular of the Medieval period, making his work accessible to all classes of people.

Read More
510 Words | 3 Pages

In this essay, I am giving three reasons as to why The Canterbury Tales' stories are so engaging. I will be talking about the vitality and humanity of the characters in three parts: how realistic the characters are, the emotion they show and the flaws in all of the characters. This will be in three separate paragraphs. Vitality (realism) The Canterbury Tales shows us lots of small details about everyday life in medieval times and gives us a big insight into what the life of ordinary people was like back then.

Read More
663 Words | 3 Pages

Geoffrey Chaucer used the Canterbury Tales to highlight some of the problems in his culture. Chaucer points out specifically the corrupt religious leaders and the role and view of women.

Read More
527 Words | 3 Pages

The Canterbury tales is written by Geoffrey Chaucer takes place in the late 14 hundreds . Chaucer and 30 pilgrims are traveling to Canterbury, and to pass time each pilgrim tells a tale about their life. These tales are told through Chaucer's point of view, where he uses his humor to attract the reader in many different ways. Chaucer’s humor consist of three main attributes , sarcasm, sexism, and appearance. SEXISM - Chaucer uses Sexism to draw humor into The Canterburry Tales.

Read More
696 Words | 3 Pages

Social status in the medieval times was a way to represent someone's dignity. It introduced certain people into society where either you were part of the high class or low class. In Chaucer's lifetime, many people were seen "different" because it was all based upon social status. High ranked people were never seen with lower ranked people because there was a huge wall that separated both social statuses. There were two places, the cheap side and the royal side, that determined the lives of a low ranked person and a high ranked person.

Read More
938 Words | 4 Pages

A writer’s work is somewhat a reflection of his life, his surrounding or his true emotion. Chaucer’s life is a clear example of perseverance, adaptation, and wit. “Chaucer’s own family history is an example of the increasing social fluidity of late

Read More
884 Words | 4 Pages

Geoffrey Chaucer has greatly influenced English literature with many of his works. He comprised more than twenty tales in his most famous collections The Canterbury Tales. There are several of his many tales that expresses love, marriage, and romanticism to display an important message. The Merchants Tale in particular refers marriage and love between the characters. First, the story introduces the narrator Chaucer, whom tells the story of a knight.

Read More
783 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer illustrates to the reader the true characteristics of the Miller and the Reeve by using the aspect of morality to show their related views on love and women. Love, to both the Miller and the Reeve, is frequently associated with beauty, lust, and sexual intercourse. Their vision of love is consistent in both stories; indicating that they care mostly about the women’s physical appearances. This can be easily seen in the stories by the way that the women are described and portrayed. Neither of Chaucer’s story tellers offer much insight into the women’s intelligence or mental characteristics.

Read More
786 Words | 4 Pages

The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories that are verbally created as the Host requests that each pilgrim tell a story on the journey to Canterbury. Although this ultimately leads to conflict amongst the pilgrims, the entire spectrum of human personalities is presented by showing each character's qualities, flaws, and hypocrisy. In order to show multiple layers of perspectives, including that of the pilgrims, Chaucer as the narrator, and Chaucer as the writer, The Canterbury Tales is written as a frame narrative. The use of a frame narrative allows Chaucer to convey his own values in humanity by observing and reflecting on the strengths and weaknesses of human nature.

Read More
555 Words | 3 Pages

During the Middle Ages, the prevailing system of government was feudalism. Under feudalism, there was the use of a definite social structure. People were born into a social class and usually stayed in that class for the rest of their life. The three social classes were the nobility, clergy, and peasantry and each of these classes had different roles to perform in the society.

Read More
1278 Words | 6 Pages

Geoffrey Chaucer was an author, known as the father of English poetry for his recognition in all his literary works. He wrote the Canterbury Tales, which are multiple stories composed into one to create a form of poetry. "The Pardoners Tale" is the most recognized work of art he put together out of these multiple stories. The story is told in first person, which makes use of the story to lecture against the individuals who are ignorant, and profane. In this short tale about eagerness, but also death, Chaucer uses three forms of figurative language such as irony, personification, and symbolism to tell a story of three rioters.

Read More
1038 Words | 5 Pages

Social class played a key role in the Elizabethan Age; without social hierarchy society would have fallen apart, the people did not know of anything else other than the role of classes. Each class had different situations of life, some were wealthy and had nice homes while others were poor and living off of the streets. The class rankings were given to each individual by situations such as birth, fame, wealth, and known skills(“Elizabethan Era.”). One could only move up a class by the Queen's approval, obtaining sudden wealth, going into debt, losing your job, and many other specific conditions(“Elizabethan Era - The Lost Colony.”). For instance, marriage between two people from separate classes could alter social class and was often frowned upon.

Read More
1025 Words | 5 Pages

Reality in the Sarcasm (A Discussion on Chaucer 's usage of Satire to Meet His Agenda.) Geoffrey Chaucer was known as the father of the English Language. During Chaucer 's time in the late 1300’s, he had many issues with the state of how people lived. He used his writing to criticize the societal issues he noticed during his time.

Read More
588 Words | 3 Pages

He uses the characters in his stories to help him achieve his goal while writing. Geoffrey Chaucer uses satire to reveal corruption, critique patriarchy, and appraise class and nobility. Chaucer 's use of satire aided him on revealing the corruption of the church. In his story, “The Canterbury Tales,” he shows that many members of the church use their positions for their own personal gain.

Read More

More about Social Class In Canterbury Tales Essay

Related Topics

Open Document