The Canterbury Tales

A detailed Summary of The Canterbury Tales


Geoffrey Chaucer, through his writing of The Canterbury Tales, gives us (the audience) the best known contemporary picture of 14th century life. Chaucer chose to write The Canterbury Tales as a frame story. The outer frame is a story of pilgrims who are going on a "holy" pilgrimage to The Shrine of Beckett at Canterbury, and the inner frames consist of tales told by the individual pilgrims. In the inner tales Chaucer depicts the characterization of each pilgrim, and makes known that there is an underlying unresolved social or spiritual tension. "The notion of a "spiritual" [or "holy"] pilgrimage is deeply challenged by the very density of [Chaucer's] characterization" of the pilgrims (Baswell and Schotter 274). Some of the pilgrims display materialism, clerical corruption, cruelty, and carnal desires; and to a degree these have become the convention. The picture Chaucer draws with The Canterbury Tales is a picture that questions this convention. Chaucer's story is asking his readers to revaluate the church and society; and to redefine the convention because society is filled with moral and spiritual upheaval. This idea is apparent in the contrast between what a pilgrimage is really for and the morals and ideas of the peopl


In the last half of the Hag's argument she makes the point that poverty is not all bad, it actually has its perks; even though, most people would not change places with a poor person for the world. Quoting Juvenal the Hag brings up the point that; "The poore man, whan he gooth by the waye, Biforn the theves he may singe and playe" (Chaucer 355:1199-1200). Who is really going to steal from a poor person? Another point the Hag makes is that poverty can lead to wisdom for the patient, which could be a trade off in her case; although she may be a poor wife she will not be a dumb wife. One of the biggest arguments the Hag makes refers back to the Imatatio Christi; "Poverte ful often, whan a man is lowe, Maketh his God and eek himself to knowe," and this idea about poverty does eventually coincide with church teaching (Chaucer 355:1207-1208). Imagine the knight's shock when he finds out that the poorer and lower you are, the closer you are to Christ. How would he now view his impoverished wife? There is a metaphor towards the end of the poem that compares poverty to a pair of glasses that show you your true friends. This seems to hold true; because during this time period being poor did not exactly attract friends, it repelled them. Thro

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Approximate Word count = 841
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels

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