Geoffrey Chaucer(1340-1400) was a Medieval poet and the first English poet to write a poetry in English depicting the English society and culture. He is famous for his unfinished masterpiece known as “The Canterbury Tales“. John Dryden in his work “Preface to the Fables: Ancient and Modern” called him as the “Father of English Poetry” for his contribution on “The Canterbury Tales”. He wrote in east midland dialect to write the poetry in the English phase. He is also considered as “the morning star of the Renaissance”.
“The canterbury Tales” runs in 17,000 lines written in middle English. There are around twenty nine pilgrims along with the Host named Harry Bailey or Hailey Bailey and the narrator. They were supposed to tell two stories while going and two stories each while returning from St. Thomas Becket’s shrine.The General Prologue introduces the characters and their representation reflects the English cultural notions. He got the sources from Giovanni Boccacio’s “Decameron”.
He became the first English poet to use English language and depict the English society of his age. He represented the spirit of medievalism which is seen in the prologue of “The Knight” who had fought fifteen battles and is a representation of chivalry, valour and honour in the society. Furthermore, the corruption of the church, antisemitism as well as the lives of lower class society was depicted in prologue of “The Friar” , “The Prioress Tale”, “The Miller’s Tale and The Reeve’s Tale”.
“The Canterbury Tales” is a social documentation that throws light upon the events that Chaucer had lived through it. The impact of Hundred Year’s War made him to appreciate the bravery and valour of the medieval Knights. As Chaucer himself participated in the war , he beautifully shows the medieval spirit of chivalry of “The Knight” to be of the upper rank society who had fought many battles in the war. In addition to this, the impact of Black Death was that the Jews were blamed for the poisoning of the wells and hence there were some rose of antisemitism. “The Prioress Tale” shows the antisemitic culture of that age where the christian boy praising Mother Mary was considered savage and unholy to the lands of Jewish. The killing of the boy by the Jews shows a large stereotype of Jews to be communal against the Christians.
Moreover, the impact of the Peasant’s Revolt enabled Chaucer to depict the corruption of the Church as there was a strong agitation and inquiry of the practices of the members of the Church. For instance, “The Friar” is presented as a “wanton” and filled with sexual desires. He was ironically compared to a “lily-flower” that shows the idleness of the Friar. “The Prioress” shows the degradation of the Church where the Prioress shows much concern over her material desires and her clothes in contrary to help the poor paupers . The new learning was being developed as some characters like “The Clerk” shows huge love for books than worldly materials.
Chaucer used heroic couplet which is a literary device written in iambic pentameter and a rhyming couplet.“The Knight”, “The Friar” and other religious persons are written in heroic couplet as they belong to the upper class society. The heroic couplet is used to show grandiosity and sometimes to heighten the mock heroism filled with humour, irony and sarcasm. He also treated with fabliau which is a device pertaining to sarcastic tone written about the lower strata of society. “The Miller’s Tale, The Reeve’s Tale, The Cook’s Tale , The Shipman’s Tale are the examples of fabliau.
Therefore in conclusion Chaucer represented the social issues of his contemporary society. These issues had a large impact on the society and hence he documented the medieval society in a realistic approach. Hence, he had set up the writing principles for the upcoming poets and heavily influenced the major poets of the English Literature.
