Historical Background Of The Canterbury Tales example essay topic

Historical and Literary Background of the Canterbury Tales During the Medieval age (or Middle Ages as it is known as today), there were two main factors in the community. These groups were small but powerful forces that were backed by the labor of a vast numbers of peasants. After the arrival of the "plague" or "the death" as it was commonly called, in the medieval times, was the downfall of both of the powerful groups. The Church and the Aristocracy began to demolish after the coming of the Black Death, however at the time of Chaucer's birth both groups had not completely disappeared from the social structure.

Also during this era, there was a lot of social mobility taking place. Individuals where no longer confined to the social class that they born in, but they were able to progress on the Social Ladder. For instance, Chaucer's family went from tavern keepers to esquires at court in less than a hundred years. Because of all this social mobility, the people who always had power began to worry about their positions and therefore implemented a Poll tax.

This demanded that a shilling from every man and woman, regardless of income. This unfair measure to keep power resulted in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. Eventually the acts of violence were controlled but the English society did not remain the same. The instability in the great powers of the middle Ages caused conflicts in both the church and the monarchy. The Historical Background of the Canterbury Tales was one that involved great change that altered the livelihood of the people during this time. It resulted in the Birth of a new class that consisted of merchants, physicians, cooks, businesspersons.

Of all the changes that occurred, the options for women remained the same, to get married or enter the church. In addition, about ninety-two percent went with the first option. Women were considered property, so much so, that when a woman was raped it was dealt with as a property crime. All of these factors help with the understanding of how out of place the Wife of Baths was, and to say the least it makes the prologue and tale all more interesting. What we have to understand is that in the medieval times an original story is not necessarily welcomed in the society.

Instead, old stories were retold. This meant that the writers had to try their best to bring across the story in a unique way, without actually changing the plot of the story. Therefore, the play writes actually had a harder task because the audience was familiar with the story, so they knew how the story was supposed to sound. In modern times, we would call this plagiarism but in the middle ages, this was the norm. It was so out of the ordinary for one to make up and original story, that if one decided to be unique, they had to make the population believe that the story in fact existed and was not original at all.

In Medieval times, women were considered to be the source of which all evil and trouble emerged. This argument was based on when very first woman, Eve, ate the forbidden fruit. The men in the middle ages felt that because of women's "wickedness and stupidity" all of humanity expelled from paradise. And because of women, they now have to go through the ordeal of suffering and getting sick and dieing.

In Chaucer's time it was not considered as being an anti-feminist, I do not even think that this practice had a name. It was just something that was practiced; I do not even think that the people thought that there was anything wrong with it. Medieval scholars presented all women as weak, unintelligent, and likely to sin. They also taught that women would make men miserable when they married them.

Men of the middle ages also felt that women's bodies were a terrible temptation for men, put there by the devil. The works of St. Jerome influenced Chaucer's literary endeavors. He was one of the best-known anti-feminist writers and the author of Epistle Against Jovi nian. St. Jerome believed that all desires of the body were sinful; this included the desire to sleep, eat, drink and have sex. The first three were necessary for living so he took part in these, but he kept them to a minimum.

He felt that persons should not take part in sex at all, but because of the presence of women, it was sometimes a difficult task. Theophrastus was introduced because St. Jerome quotes him in his letter. He was also anti-feminist and was the author of The Golden Book of Marriage. Both of these misogynists influenced Chaucer, but from reading the "Wife of Baths", evidence has proven, in my opinion, that he did not completely agree with their views of women. As a man, he could not voice his views that women should be given equal rights, so he created a character that can freely voice his opinions with out him being looked at as a feminist. In the "Wife of Baths" Chaucer uses an article from Theophrastus' works (not verbatim) the entire piece came off with a different air to it.

A man and a woman could say the same thing, but it will sound different depending on which one it comes from. Another major factor of the Canterbury Tales was St. Thomas Beckett. This Saint live about three centuries before Chaucer's time. One might wonder what the connection was, seeing that this man live about three hundred years before Chaucer began his literary accomplishments.

It so happens that the thirty pilgrims which Chaucer based the Canterbury Tales on were journeying to this Saints shrine. Gentility is often defined as being well mannered, but Peter Brown defined true gentility as being nobility. He stated that "True nobility cannot be inherited. It is available to all". These two concepts may seem contradictory because nobility means being born in to the aristocracy.

But Brown felt that nobility was a quality which manifests itself through behavior, in order for one to be considered as noble it was imperative for their actions to be publicly recognized. He also went on to say that "nobility resides wherever virtue is, but virtue not wherever there's nobility" All of these literary and historical background information is very important. It not only gives one insight into the social issues around the time of the birth of the Canterbury tales, but it also helps one to analyze what may have influenced Chaucer into writing this tale. Personally, I think that Chaucer created these characters to make social commentary on issues that he could not as himself address.

Bibliography

Brown, Peter. Chaucer at work. The making of the Canterbury tales: London Longman, 1994.
Tasioulas, J.A. The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale: York Notes. London: York Press, 1998.