Geoffrey Chaucer died in 1400, and it was one of the turbulent periods in English History. This turbulence is the setting of Chaucer's life. The black plague devastated Europe five times. One attack killed 50 thousand in London within a few months. The Hundred Years' War between England and France was on again, off again. The present uprising was crushed. Several powerful friends of Chaucer lost favor and were executed or flew away
The beginning of 1960 is called Modern Literature but to become more specific, it is also called early Modern Literature, and there must be a background to it in the social development that cause the rise of early Modern Literature.
The Canterbury Tales is one of the milestones of English Literature. The characters of the Canterbury Tales are so very varied in their characteristics that critics have called these characters God's Splantee which has created so many people and all of them are represented in the book.
The characters were created and introduced by Chaucer and the most important thing that happens in this book is that each character is asked to tell a story. So, Chaucer leaves the range to each individual in a story. So imagine Chaucer himself representing these stories, introducing a character, establishing his individual types, and making all of them tell their own stories. Chaucer took this inspiration from Boccaccio. He was a contemporary of Chaucer and lived in Itlay. He wrote stories in this fashion.
Each character is asked to tell a tale. When you tell a tale, what happens in a way. You allow people to have a peep into your mind. The person who is listening to you understands what you want to say, what your performances are, which things you want to avoid, and which things you want to attack. So in a way, the mental picture of a person becomes clear if we read a story. The interesting thing is that at the end of a tale, there is a discussion between the different characters.
When discussion happens, in the end, the discussion will help the characters in the telling of the next story. Chaucer's characters are not static, but he showed them as learners, who hear one another and take influences from one another and develop into new persons. Chaucer's characters are wrong characters who are always in the process of making themselves and producing themselves. The more we read about the characters become aware not only of contemporary history but of human nature.
Chaucer is not talking about religion, nor talking about God, he is talking about actual human beings. This poem exemplifies secularism.
Chaucer is an old author. With him, modern English Literature begins. He is truly known as the father of English literature. Today the English form is very elegant, very developed, very precise, great vocabulary, but the language in Chaucer's time was not standardized.
Chaucer came from the upper hierarchy of society. Chaucer tells the story in a manner of a person who sings. He is not describing, he is telling. He was a man of court and also performed ambassadorial duties. The prologue is an introduction, so he is writing an introduction to the bigger piece called the poem titled "The Canterbury Tales" and this introduction is more than 100 lines.
The language adopted by Chaucer has devised the owner of the inn is a host and he is so excited that when he meets these people, he offers himself additional company.
He is sociable and mixes people very well. The people are presented as pin portraits. Critics have called Chaucer's prologue a portrait gallery.
Chaucer has tongue in cheek, sometimes pulling their legs. All of them were on their own horses as traveling was only possible on horses. They were from different walks of life and professions and they mingled, integrated here, and become a community. They gathered in a small town. The owner of the inn was a host and he was so excited that he offered himself as an additional company.
The formal beginning is in April as it is the time people go to places as before April it is very difficult to take a journey in England. In April sweet showers begin and he talks as shoures soote.
So, he talks of showers, birds singing, and flowers smiling, there is moisture and this moisture is running through the veins of the birds and flowers. So, they have a new kind of life.
Chaucer was himself a good communicator. He can play with words and he talks in a manner that people with being smiling. So he is a very sweet and memorable character and mixes so well with people the prologue offers as pen portraits. Those who are quiet will become vocal later. All the portraits are dissimilar even the father and son. Son is a product of different circumstances. Chaucer is not telling us but he is just showing us.
The Knight
The knight is called widely traveled and he is a perfect gentleman. This is said not tongue in cheek. He is a brave man. He is loyal to friends, and masters. He denied a lot of pleasures and sacrificed all his personal things but they don't exist now and they have been lost to history now.
The Squire
He is the son of the Knight who is twenty and we associate this age with fun, courage, etc. If one is a lover, then one must be writing poetry.
The Yeoman
The third character is Yeoman. The phrase in the dictionary is yeoman service. He rendered a yeoman service which means a loyal servant. Yeoman was like a bodyguard.
The Nun
Nun is a very simple soul. They believe in self-abnegation, and self-denial, and believe in service only. Nun is the one who is kind, nice, polite, and who is always helpful. she eats less and sleeps less, prays to God, and leads a simple life.
But Chaucer's run is entirely different. She is called for instance "Madame Eglantine". She speaks French. She is fashionable. She was an English woman and tried to inculcate the French so it was English French, not the French that was spoken at the time in French. She uses it to her advantage. So she is a very clever person. She uses it to impress others. She has good table manners. She eats in style. She holds the spoon steadily. She puts it in a cup. The spoon travels from her hand to her mouth without spelling anything along the way. When things have reached the mouth, she wipes her lips clean and this amuses us as this person is known as very simple but this woman enjoys eating. Chaucer talks about the sauce. it means sauce was there in Chaucer's time. she is cheerful and elegant. She has a behavior that she must learn from somewhere. She is not a good bread person. She is not from that kind of family.
Chaucer exposes her hypocrisy. She shows imitated behavior. When she sees a mouse trape, tears arise in her eyes, but on another occasion, she feeds her hounds with roasted meat.
She has a tender heart. She wears ornaments and she likes ornaments very much. Chaucer is satirizing but in a mild manner. he is enjoying their company. The Nun is adding a kind of spice to life.
It can be said that Chaucer is satirizing religion and moral principles. In that sense, Chaucer is not exactly a satirist. He has a sense of good humor. He is a good humor soul. He treats all the characters like children, like a grandfather satirizing his grandson.
The great humanists have learned from Chaucer. He can't hate people. One can talk about certain habits of some, but those habits are examples of certain restrictions that society puts on them. So there is a clash in every human being between what the human being wishes and what one human being is expected to perform or do in life and that clash is fun.
The Monk
Monk is a manly man. He owns valuable horses. He is a state supervisor, supervising the church. He also likes hunting. He is a hard rider. He has a pack of hounds. His boots are of good leather and Chaucer has given him 42 lines in the prologue.
Following are some other characters in the Canterbury Tales who will be elaborated on:-
The Narrator Geoffrey Chaucer
The Host Harry Bailey
The Prioress
The Second Nun
The Nun's Priests
The Friar
The Merchant
The Clerk
The man of Law
The Franklin
The Five Craft Workers
The Cook
The Shipman
The Physician
The Wife of Bath
The Parson
The Plowman
The Miller
The Manciple
The Reeve
The Summoner
The Pardoner
The Canon
The Canon's Yeoman