The Rising Middle Class In The Canterbury Tales

The Canterbury Tales, a collection of tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, was written in Middle English at the end of the 14th century (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2011). It is considered to be the best work of literature in English in the Middle Ages (Johnston, 1998). Chaucer uses literary devices as no one had ever done. In addition, he chose to use English instead of Latin. This masterpiece is structured in a similar way as Bocaccio's Decameron. The tales are organized within a frame narrative (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2011) explained in the General Prologue by the narrator: a group of pilgrims that are going to visit St. Thomas Becket in Canterbury's Cathedral. These pilgrims are from different estates of the medieval society: nobility, the

Although Chaucer's society was in the midst of dramatic transformation regarding traditional medieval hierarchy, the social paradigm in the late 1300s

The Canterbury Tales is absorbed in the minutiae of the three estates, or the distinctions between class and social status. In many ways, too, it seems to act as a parody on the various classes.

Written by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the fourteenth century, The Canterbury Tales and more specifically it’s prologue, shed a great deal of light on the rising middle class in (fourteenth century) England. Despite the fact that some readers may not know a lot about the time period today, Chaucer’s writing in the prologue elaborates on topics such as occupations, wealth, education, and political power. Scholar Barbara Nolan writes of the prologue, “it is more complex than most…It raises expectations in just the areas the handbooks propose, promising to take up important matters of natural and social order, moral character, and religion and outlining the organization the work will follow” (Nolan 154). In other words, while noting the

The Canterbury Tales is a story that incorporates a multitude of stories told by a multitude of characters. Written by Geoffrey Chaucer, he devises a novel in which each character has to narrate a total of four stories as part of a competition; on their way to visit Saint Thomas Becket, the characters would tell two stories going and two stories returning from the journey. The perspective changes through each story, and each story is introduced by a general, opening, third person prologue. Though many of the characters got to share some ideas, Chaucer unfortunately passed away before his story’s entirety. As a result, a winner was never officially clarified. Needless to say, it is evident that the clear winner would be the Miller’s Tale.

What importance does social class have over population as a whole, has it’s importance changed and if it hasn’t will it ever change? While reading The Canterbury Tales, many of these questions were answered before anyones could even create them through the stories of the Prioress, Parsons and the Knight. For instance, in modern day we place; the rich, famous, and politics in the upper class. But has that changed over time and do you think that it ever will? Many do believe that social class deficiency has changed and that it will not cease to change. Now, whether it’s changes for the better or worse, that’s for individuals to decide.

In Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, social class is the backbone of the book. This is shown countless times through stories told by the pilgrims as well as how the story is structured. It is noticeable off the bat that the upper class is shown respect and given priority over the middle and lower class pilgrims, the prime example being the knight telling the first tale, and the host attempting to have stories told based in order of class. It should also be noted that it is very hard to move up the social ladder, so many of these pilgrims are not only used to being put in their place, but tend not to argue about their social ranking with exception to the drunk Miller. This idea of respecting the upper class is still strongly shown in today’s world as the upper class is viewed as higher than everyone else. In E*TRADE’s commercial, this is strongly shown as the upper class is depicted as luxurious, peaceful, and most importantly exclusive.

In the Canterbury Tales, the majority of the characters are in the middle class. The middle class is talked about on multiple occasions and is discussed throughout the story. There are multiple examples in which the character of the middle class is shown. Though the middle class has a variety of different people from different backgrounds with different skills the usually all have around the same ways of acting towards certain situations. These are some of the reasons that they are all grouped together with the same characteristics.They are strong, hard-working, and yet easily manipulated.

Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales was written during a time of societal change, away from the stability of feudalism and towards an individualistic, mercantile economy. Feudalism consisted of a static, rural economy where every member had a duty to serve those above them. They valued the greater good and were not focused on gaining economically for their own personal benefit. An era of change, however, began as events such as the Crusades opened up trading opportunities which would eventually cause a shift in England, as the economy went from being land-based to money-based. A mercantile class was on the rise as well as capitalism. People were no longer driven to work by a sense of personal duty for the common good, but rather for their own social and economic gain. Corruption of the Church during this time as well increased, as church members were affected negatively by this changing economy. Many were driven by greed as well and took on immoral approaches towards their church positions. Vows and church teachings were disregarded as indulgences and materialism became the main focus of many in the clergy. Through his satirical portrayal of his characters in Canterbury Tales, Chaucer explores issues such as the changing economy and corruption of the church in order to expose and criticize the wrongdoings and values of his shifting society caused by the end of feudalism during this time.

Learning About Medieval Life and Society from Chaucer's General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales I have been studying Geoffrey Chaucer's General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, of which I looked specifically at six portraits, these being: the Knight, his son, a young squire, the prioress, the wife of Bath, the Miller and the Pardoner. From these portraits I was able to observe the ways of life and society in medieval times. I found out about social status, fashion, wealth, romantic love, the importance of manners and the church during this era - and these are just the topics I took particular interest in; there were many other areas of medieval life and society that Chaucer's General Prologue to

However, one work, The Canterbury Tales, shows significant literary influence from many of his contemporaries. Despite the many influences, Chaucer showed his true expertise in how he was able to blend old literary techniques with his own new ideas. Many scholars have praised Chaucer for creating characters that the average middle-class English individual could relate to. Many of his "tales" are about middle-class individuals such as a merchant or a miller. It is for this reason why this work was so significant among the English in the Middle Ages. Chaucer gave middle-class England a scholarly literary work that the average individual could understand. As a result, the work became well-known among the English citizens, which led to the popularizing of Chaucer's language.

The medieval period is the period in history beginning with the Renaissance, literally meaning the “middle period” in history. Clothing, tradition, religion and lifestyle were viewed much differently than they are in today’s modern society. The best example of all the different types of people and their lifestyles is Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, in which he opens with a description of twenty-nine people going on a pilgrimage. The way people behave today allows readers to recognize each character's distinct personality. In the “General Prologue”, Chaucer describes the Wife of Bath in a way that is much different than how he describes the other twenty-eight characters. His use of imagery, word choice, tone and rhythm to describe the Wife lure

The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer is over 600 years old, yet it is still being read and discussed today. What makes it still relevant? History, it gives us a record of Middle English and how it was used at the time. The primary challenge that most reader’s of Chaucer’s General Prologue experience is understanding the language. Although, Chaucer’s English is centuries old it is still recognizable. After studying the language, I noticed the main difference between Middle and Modern English is the

Nobles, Priests, Peasants, and scholars few of many descriptions given to people living in the Middle Ages. The Middle Ages, was a time in European history when people were separated by jobs, religious beliefs, and money. During the Middle Ages a class system began to develop and out of that rose the middle class. Middle class is the social group between the upper and working classes, including professional and business workers and their families. In literature many writers have been able to depict economic and social changes through poems, novels, and short stories. Geoffrey Chaucer’s poem, The Canterbury Tales, depicts the rising middle class in the midst of the Middle Ages through the use of characters, their actions, and language.

The Canterbury Tales, the most famous and revolutionary work of Geoffrey Chaucer, is a collection of twenty-four tales presented in the form of a story-telling contest by pilgrims who are traveling from London to Canterbury. In my viewpoint, The Canterbury Tales can be understood as a representation of the English society at Chaucer's time as it documents several of the social tensions of life in the late Middle Age. The choice of setting the tales as part of a pilgrimage allowed the author to cover a wide range of social roles with varying hierarchical positions and occupations. Therefore, the tales depict a number of the evolving themes by that time in many segments of the society, such as the ones presented in The Wife of Bath tale: the