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Kaitlyn Watson

October 6, 2011

Research Project: The Canterbury Tales

Geoffrey Chaucer was an English poet who was raised in the 1300s.Although his exact date of birth is unknown, he Is believed to have been born inthe year 1342. Little is known about his education other than some form ofteaching in Greek and Latin. Shortly after his schooling, Chaucer began work inthe house of the Countess of Ulster, a home of royalty. Later becoming theKnight of the Shire of Kent, he became a member of the well-to-do Kingshousehold and was frequently sent on diplomatic errands around Europe. Withmuch thanks to his position of work, Geoffrey Chaucer gained the inateknowledge he needed to write The Canterbury TalesChaucer died in earlyOctober of 1400, beginning the Poets Corner in the cemetery of WestminsterAbbey when he passed.

Chaucer shines light to the quality of chivalry in the descriptions andassertations of many of his charactors in The Canterbury Tales. The Knight andthe Squire are the two most prime examples as their names alone depict class.In fact, the Squire is the son of the Knight. The Knight is chivalrous and devotedto his work, showing consistant honesty. The Squire possesses qualities of farless admirability and has an attitude contradictory to that of his father.

The Wife of Bath is another character of Chaucers who not as much displayschivalry, but more so exhibits the use of weaponry. This is done in the form ofsexuality and youthfulness and resulting in the suffering of her husbands.

'How pitously a-night I made hem swinke!'

She found this method highly effective with her domination of the first three of herhusbands, as she withheld sex in order to get her way. Once her sexuality andyouth begin to wither, The Wife of Bath no longer has a weapon of which tomanipulate men with

The Black Death (Black Plague) spread rapidly across Europe duringChaucers childhood. Altering of the populations view on mortality was prevalentafter an estimated thirty to fifty percent of the population was wiped out by thewidespread plague. The plague originated in the northern India during the 1330sand spread quickly to most of Asia by the 1340s. Trying to discourage Italiantrade caravans from crossing their territory on their way back and forth to China,

http://www.enotes.com/topics/chinahttp://www.enotes.com/topics/china

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Mongol-Tartar armies spread the plague to Europe intentionally. Carried by fleasand rats, the Black Death killed 25 million people throughout Europe.

In India, in 1994, when the Plague broke out and people were dying, the peoplewouldn't kill the rats because rats were considered sacred. Citizens thought thatthe epidemic was "the end of the world" because there had been droughts,earthquakes, etc. also occurring around the time.

John Wycliffe led an early English religious movement called Lollardy.Chaucer makes mention to Lollardy in The Canterbury Tales. Pardonersgathered money in exchange for exemption from sins. Chaucer exhibits anopinionated view of the Church in The Canterbury Talesbecause it was veryrelevant at the time of its origin. After the Black Death spread across Europe,many citizens began to question the church as well as authority. At this point inhistory, Lollardy gained popularity as it was both a political AND religious

movement. John Wycliffe himself was a critic of the church and that was what ledhim to dismissal from Oxford University in 1382 as he demanded reform ofWestern Christianity.

Oxford has multiple connections to The Canterbury Tales. First andforemost, The Clerks Tale is led by The Clerk of Oxenford who studied what wewould now consider philosophy. Within his tale, the Clerk tells the tale ofGriselda, a young woman who is tormented with acts in Biblical book of Job byher husband. Chaucer also establishes Oxford clerk as a character. He is a thinand impoverished, devoted and hard working student who also studies

philosophy. Oxford is also the place of study of John Wycliffe, who played asignificant role in religion and politics during Chaucers life.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griselda_(folklore)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Jobhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Jobhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griselda_(folklore)