GEOFFREY CHAUCER’S LIFE: BORN ABOUT 1343,WAS THE SON AND THE

RELATIVE WEALTH OF THIS FAMILY BRING AN EXCELENT EDUCATION. HE FOUND

EMPLOYMENT IN THE HOUSE OF JOHN OF GAUNT,SON OF KING EDWARD III OF
ENGLAND. AFTER THE DEATH OF JOHN OF GAUNT’S WIFE,HE WROTE ONE OF HIS
MOST IMPORTANT WORKS, “THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESS. IT WAS COMBINED WITH
A CLEVER MIND AND PRATICAL SKILLS. HE WORKED AS A CONTROLLER OF THE
COSTUMS FOR THE PORT OF LONDON. HE DIED IN 1400 AND WAS THE FIRST POET
TO BE BURIED IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY

THE CANTERBURY TALES: IS AN UNFINISHED NARRATIVE POEM AN CHAUCER

USED THE STRUCTURE OF THE THREE ORDERS OF SOCIETY. THIS WORK BELONG TO
A GENRE OF STRUCTURE CALL “ESTATES SATIRE”,IN WHICH THE CHARACTERS OR
STEREOTYPES WERE RAPRESENTED A LASFUL FRIAR AND VIRTUOS KNIGHT AND
ALSO INCLUDED A SIGNIFICANT NUMBER OF RISING MERCHANT CLASS.

-THE PREMISE: THE STORY IS ABOUT THIRTY PEOPLE,INCLUDING CHAUCER AS

NARRATOR,AND THEY ARE ALL IN LONDON TO JOIN A PILGRIMAGE TO CANTERBURY
CATHEDRAL. THE OST DECIDES THE EVERY PILGRIM SHOULD TELL TWO STORY AND
WHO TELLS THE BEST STORY WILL WIN FREE DINNER. THE VARIOUS TALES ARE
BOTH RELIGIUS,HUMOROUS,MORAL AND SATIRICAL.

-THE THREE ESTATES: CHAUCER BEGINS HIS CHARACTER DESCRIPTION WITH A

KNIGHT WHO,WITH HIS SON, THAT REPRESENT A NOBLE CHARACHER,IS THE ONLY
REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NOBLE ESTATE ON THE PARTICULAR PILGRIMAGE. HIS
DESCRIPTION IS ALMOST ENTIRELY ON THE NUMEROUS MILITARY CAMPAIGN HE
HAS FOUGHT;

-RIDICULING THE RELIGIOUS: THE CHARACTER OF THE PRIORESS,A KIND OF NUN, IS

DESCRIBES NEXT,BUT CHAUCER’S NARRATOR DESCRIBES THE PTIORESS’S
SINGING,HER ABILITY TO SPEAK FRENCH,HER ELEGANT TABLE MANNERS AND HER
LOVE OF SMALL ANIMALS. AT CHAUCER’S TIME IT WAS DANGEROUS TO CRITICISE
THE KING, BUT WRITES MADE FUN OF MONKS,NUNKS,FRIARS AND PARDONERS.
ORDINARY PEOPLE OFTEN IGNORED CHURCH LAWS AND SOME ATTACKED CHURCH
PROPERTY. WHEN DISSIDENT MOVEMENT EMERGED IN THE 1380’S, THE
AUTHORITIES BECAME WATCHFUL FOR HERESY, BUT ONLY A FEW OPINIONS WERE
CLASSIFIED AS HERETICAL.
-Overcoming the three estates: One of the most fascinating aspects of Chaucer’s
version of the estates satire is that he includes several pilgrims, the Doctor, the
Shipman, the Cook.The fgure that best displays this is the Wife of Bath, whose status
as a widow and a merchant contradicts traditional medieval ideas. Five times
married, she is perhaps the most entertaining of the pilgrims. She, like so many
others among this group, seems to regard the pilgrimage as a kind of social activity.
the major pilgrimage sites of the medieval world: Jerusalem, Rome, Boulogne,
Santiago de Compostella and Cologne. She has visited some of these sites more than
once. This suggests a remarkable freedom of movement and access to wealth that
was unusual in the MiddleAges, but still common enough to confound and
complicate the ideal of the three orders