CHAUCER
Which social class did Geoffrey Chaucer belong to?
The middle class because his father was a rich wine merchant.
What are the linguistic features of Chaucer’s work?
The Canterbury Tales is a long narrative poem. Chaucer used rhyming couplets made up of iambic pentameters.
Realism is a crucial element of his work, though also using the conventions of exaggeration, caricature and grotesque.
What is the difference between Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales and Boccaccio’s Decameron in terms of narrators?
Chaucer includes 30 pilgrims belonging to different social classes, whereas Boccaccio 10 young noblemen.
Who is the narrator?
Chaucer himself, who is also one of the pilgrims.
Why is she “somewhat deaf”?
She was hit by one of her husbands.
Which places did he visit and why?
He went to Spain, France, and Italy due to his diplomatic missions.
Which social classes are excluded from the pilgrimage?
Noblemen and peasants are both excluded since noblemen wouldn’t mingle with poorer people and peasants didn’t have the opportunity to go on a pilgrimage.
What is the difference between Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales and Boccaccio’s Decameron in terms of storytelling?
In The Canterbury Tales, each pilgrim tells two tales on the way to Canterbury and two on the way back. However, only 24 stories are told because the work is unfinished.
In Decameron, each narrator tells one story for 10 days for a total of 100 tales.
What is the Ram?
It refers to Aries, the zodiac sign of April.
What is she wearing?
She is wearing a huge hat, a mantle, heels.
What are the three periods of Chaucer’s literary production? Provide examples of his works.
The French period (The Book of the Duchess);
The Italian period (The House of Fowls);
The English period (The Canterbury Tales).
How can the pilgrimage be interpreted?
It may be an allegory of the course of human life towards illumination, God and heaven.
What is Dante’s influence on The Canterbury Tales?
The influence of Dante unveils in the earthly journey which unfolds as an allegorical spiritual journey towards redemption and salvation up to heaven, represented by the Canterbury Cathedral.
Where do the pilgrims meet?
They meet at The Tabard inn, in Southwark.
Where can the colour red be found in her description and what is its meaning?
Her face is red in hue and her clothes are red. This colour refers to both her fierce temperament (she got very angry if someone went to the altar before her) and her carnality.
What was Chaucer’s first job?
He was a page in the house of the countess of Ulster.
Which social classes do the pilgrims belong to? Provide an example for each class.
The feudal world (the Knight, the Squire and the Yeoman);
The ecclesiastical world (the Prioress, the Nun, the Monk, the Friar, the Parson);
The growing mercantile and professional middle class (the Lawyer, the Merchant, the Wife of Bath, the Cook).
What is the difference between Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales and Boccaccio’s Decameron in terms of place and time?
Chaucer’s work is set along the road from London to Canterbury in the mid-14th century (dynamic nature), whereas Boccaccio’s work in a villa where the 10 young noblemen seek shelter during the plague in Florence in 1348 (static nature).
How does the initial invocation of nature connect to the pilgrims and their pilgrimage?
Nature reawakening in April signals the spiritual reawakening of the pilgrims along their spiritual journey.
Describe the Wife of Bath in both her appearance and qualities.
She is a very beautiful woman, a bit deaf, gap-toothed, with large hips.
She has lots of qualities, such as cloth-making and knowledge mostly in love and marriage thanks to her experience.
What is Chaucer’s main idea in his works?
He believed that the natural and the human worlds could be seen as interrelated in the divine scheme of things and, like the kingdom of heaven, ordered in hierarchies.
Describe the unfinished structure of Chaucer’s masterpiece.
Only 24 stories of the original 120 are told.
In the General Prologue, the 30 pilgrims (including Chaucer himself) meet at the Tabard Inn. Some tales are also preceded by a prologue and followed by an epilogue.
What is the difference between Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales and Boccaccio’s Decameron in terms of structure?
Chaucer: The General Prologue and prologues and epilogues between the tales.
Boccaccio: A Proemio being the framework of the 100 tales.
Explain the ironic reference to Thomas Becket.
The passage refers to pilgrims starting from all over England in search for the holy Martyr Becket, who helped them when they were sick. This last element is obviously an ironic passage towards both the mystifying gestures of the Church and the credulity and naiveness of people, believing that God and saints cured them from the plague.
What is unconventional in the Wife of Bath respect to the gender stereotypes of the time?
She has had several lovers and five husbands;
She has a job that allows her to live on her own;
She demonstrates sexual appeal in her appearance and clothes;
She doesn’t put herself second to anyone, not even men;
She has travelled a lot.