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Discuss how the General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales and one of the tales themselves could function as a criticism of the three estates of medieval culture; that is, the social hierarchy of the 14th century. How do Chaucer’s descriptions of the pilgrims in the prologue contribute to this?
In the Medieval Culture there were three estates of the society. There were those, who prayed, those who fought and those who worked. All the representatives went into the journey, and right from the Prologue each participant starts to tell the stories that show all the dark sides of human soul. Pilgrims apply to all sectors of the medieval English society. Among them there are a knight, a monk, a priest, a doctor, skipper, merchant, weaver, cook, yeoman, etc. We can clearly see the division into three classes. The clergy, the nobility and the commoners or peasants. To emphasize the heterogeneity of pilgrims in Chaucer's story of each character retains its individuality and style. But none of the stories in the book is not original. Pilgrims tell stories, but do not invent them. Each of the stories is a literary genre. For example, the story of the Knight is the traditional romance story of Miller is fabliaux, priest tale is a sermon. Through each of the stories comes the theme of the seven deadly sins which bind them together, creating a frame that combines so many different people. It's not only a pilgrimage that is common to all of them. Passing the history of sin and virtue, the main narrator is hero. Chaucer draws attention not only on the stories themselves, but also to the storytellers, the majority of which are not alien to sin. For example, greedy miller. Portraying his hero as a thief, a writer must have known medieval notions about people of his profession. But Chaucer is not limited to the caste of professional features. Simkin, a representative of the wealthier sectors of the third estate, so it produces a lot of features, due to this circumstance. He is a man with a strong sense of self-esteem, comically passing in boastfulness. But no traditional reasons for pride he does not: he was not of noble origin, the great knight's exploits did not commit. The basis of the miller's independence, its wealth created by him by deception and theft.
That is why each story may serve as a criticism of representatives of different social estates of Medieval times, and itself the pilgrims that belong to the different society groups do not even try to hide their negative character features.
In the prologue to The Canterbury Tales author sets up the reader to the following detailed description of the story, each pilgrim, his appearance, position in society.
The pilgrimage went representatives of various sectors of society. According to the social status of the pilgrims can be divided into certain groups:
Scientists people (doctors, lawyers);
Landowners (Franklin);
The owners (Miller, Majordomo);
Merchant Class (skipper, merchant);
Artisans (Dyer, Carpenter, Weaver, and so on);
Lower class (Plowman).
In the Prologue Geoffrey Chaucer introduces the reader to almost every pilgrim (just mentioning his presence, or presenting the details of his character). Prologue in some way forms the reader waiting, a waiting for the main theme of the story and mood, the subsequent behavior of the pilgrim. It is because of the Prologue the reader gets an idea of what stories will be told, as well as the essence, the inner world of each pilgrim. The behavior of the characters represented Chaucer reveals the essence of their personalities, their habits, personal life, mood, good and bad sides. The nature of a character introduced in the prologue to The Canterbury Tales and revealed later in the story, the prefaces and afterword to the stories. "Based on the attitude to the Chaucer each character, pilgrims participating in the journey, can be organized in certain groups:
Ideal images (Knight, Squire, Student, Plowman, Priest);
Characters, on which the author chuckles (abbess, monk of Bath Weaver);
"Neutral" images, the disclosures of which are not represented in the "Prologue" - Chaucer mentions only their presence (priests of the abbess environment);
Images of some negative traits (Skipper, Economy);
Hardened sinners (Carmel seller of indulgences, the ecclesiastical court bailiff - all church employees) ". Each character Chaucer finds an individual approach, introducing it in the " Prologue".
"The poetic Canterbury Tales has a national compositional framing, a setting of the scene: a tavern near the road leading to Canterbury, the crowd of pilgrims, which is presented, in essence, all English society, from the feudal lords to the cheerful crowd of artisans and peasants. In total, the company recruited 29 people pilgrims. Almost every one of them is alive and fairly complex image of a man of his time; Chaucer’s masterful verse describes the different habits and dress, demeanor, speech features characters.
How different characters, so different and artistic means of Chaucer. About pious and brave knight, he says with a friendly irony, because it looks too anachronistic knight with his courtesy in the rough, noisy crowd of common people. About his son a knight, a boy full of enthusiasm, the author speaks with tenderness; of thieving butler, miser and a cheat - with disgust; with a sneer - a brave merchants and artisans; with respect - a peasant and righteous priest, an Oxford student in love with books. On the peasant uprising Chaucer speaks with conviction, perhaps even horrified.
The fully deployed Chaucer satirical talent when it comes to the religious and the clergy richer. All of them for Chaucer are handful of parasites that exist at the expense of society. A brilliant literary genre of the portrait, that can be a major creation of Chaucer. Here, as an example, a portrait of weavers from Bath.
And with him chattering weaver of Bath,
On pacer famously seated;
But the temple
Before her any of the ladies –
Instantly forgetting, in a fierce pride –
About complacency and goodness.
Face Prigogine and blush.
Wife she was enviable.
And the five men survived,
A crowd of girls' boyfriends apart. (Chaucer)
What has changed in the six and a half centuries? Is that the horse gave way to the limousine? But gentle humor gives way to fierce satire, the author describes his hated seller of indulgences.
His eyes, like hare, shone.
Vegetation was not on the body,
A smooth cheek - yellow, like soap.
It seemed that he was a gelding or a mare,
And, even as though there was nothing to brag about,
This he bleated in sheep (Chaucer)
In the course of works of the pilgrims tell different stories. Knight is an ancient courtly story in the spirit of romance; Carpenter is a funny and profane history in the spirit of modest urban folklore, etc. Each story reveals the interests and sympathies of a pilgrim, thus achieving the individualization of the character, his image problem is solved from the inside.
Chaucer called the "father of realism". The reason his art literary portrait that comes out, appeared in Europe before the portrait of the picturesque. Indeed, reading The Canterbury Tales, we can safely speak of realism as a creative method, implies not only a generalized image of a true man, typifies a certain social phenomenon, but also a reflection of the changes occurring in society and man.
Thus, the English society in the portrait gallery Chaucer is a society in motion, in the development of a society in transition, where the feudal system strong, but out of date, which revealed a new person developing city. From the Canterbury Tales there is clearly not the preachers of the Christian ideal of the future belongs, but business, full of energy and passion for people, although they are less than honorable and virtuous than the same farmer and the village priest.
The Canterbury Tales laid the foundation of the new English poetry, based on the entire experience of the best European national poetry and song traditions. On the basis of this work, we came to the conclusion that the nature of the genre, The Canterbury Tales strongly influenced by the genre of the novel. This is evident in the plot characteristics, building images, voice a character, humor and edification. Author is very ironic about all the social layers, and it is shown not only in the Prologue, but also in the other “tales”. A road of pilgrims is a road of life, so everybody who is met there, can be met in real life. That means that not all of the people that we face daily are clear-minded.
Work Cited
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. New York: Viking, 2009. Print.
Stevens, Martin, and Jerome Mandel. Old English Literature. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1968. Print.
