The_Canterbury_Tales_and_England’S_Context

The Canterbury Tales and England’s context Most of the tales are useful to determine how the political, social and religious situation was at the end of the 14th century. The study of this context can be divided into four groups: politico-social, religion, sexuality and administration. 1) The politico-social situation The Knight’s tale must be the more useful and interesting story to describe the politico-social situation. It’s one of the longest tales. Palamon and Arcite, two knights, fall in love for Emilie, and fight against each other in a tournament for her. At the end, Palamon kills his friend. It’s interesting to remark that the Knight’s tale is the first tale that is told: the Knight goes first. But the logical suit would have been the following of the Monk’s tale. Instead of that, the Miller breaks this structure in favour of a free exchange of stories among all participants. Maybe this fracture is revealing of the movement that will breed two centuries later: a crumbling of the social structure, and a more important part of the trade in political life. However, the social division of Feudal system is still viewable, there are three estates. The characters are all divided into three distinct classes, the classes “who pray” (the clergy), “those who fight” (the nobility), and “those who work” (the commoners and peasantry). The nobility is represented by the Knight and his Squire. They are directed by a powerful code of chivalry. At this time, knights were paradoxical persons, ruthless and brutal, yet mannerly with women and the King, and also very faithful in Christianity. In the Knight’s Tale, Chaucer wants to show how the two friends brotherly loved each other, and how they fight to the death for a woman they idealised in order to win her. It is strongly possible that Chaucer didn’t like Chivalry, felt that it was tending to disappear, and wanted to show the flaws of such a system. Political situation at the time of The Tales writing was uncertain, and there were lots of political clashes such as the Peasants’ Revolt in 1381, the deposing of King Richard II, rebellions in Scotland… Many friends of Chaucer were executed, and he himself was compelled to fly away from London. 2) The religious situation As well as Chaucer doesn’t seem to like the chivalry being, he doesn’t appreciate the acting of the religion. Nevertheless, his portrait of men and women of Church is more watered down than the nobility one. There are 6 religious characters, which is a large part of the whole characters, and maybe show us the importance of religion at this time. These 6 characters can be divided into three parts: • Characters that are in phase with Church’s precepts There the two nuns have their place, especially the second one. She’s the symbol of what a nun should be, bringing people in church by her chastity example (something particularly rare at this time, see I/. 3) talking about society and sexuality). • Characters that respect Church’s precepts, but sometimes go against them The Monk and the Prioress serve their order, but both are dressed expensively and show signs of luxury and flirtatiousness while they should be chaste and praying all day long. Both also show a lack of spiritual depth. • Characters that do not respect Church’s precepts Here go the Pardoner and the Summoner. They are corrupted, asking for money in the name of god, and greedy, both in food or money. More interesting, Chaucer doesn’t seem to question Church’s legitimacy –he was deeply faithful- but wants to show how a few person threatened Religion through their behaviour. As well as The Tales was written during political clashes, it was also written during religious difficult time, involving contestations and new movements’ birth. It’s the case of Lollardy, a movement led by John Wycliffe, which is mentioned in The Tales. The pardoners “selling” absolutions, pretending to be collecting for St. Mary Roucesval hospital in the bailiff’s tale, was also a crisis that happened in England during Chaucer’s life. 3) Society and sexuality Sexuality is a very surprising aspect of The Canterbury Tales. While some subjects were totally forbidden to be mentioned (the Devil, Crown’s criticizing…), sexuality was a main subject of talking. Even if Church didn’t really allow it, and recommended chastity and discretion, it didn’t act against sexual intercourses. The Wife of Bath explains it very well in the very long prologue to her tale (nearly 700 verses). She’s a forty-fifty-year-old-woman. She already had 5 husbands since her 12 years old. Now that she’s a widow, she pretends being able to talk of marriage more than anyone. Using a large amount of Bible’s quotations, she’s going to argue that virginity is not a necessity, marriage essential to obey to God’s law. She will also dwell on genital organs, introducing “useful and pleasant” concept. By making her talking such crudely in front of knights, monks and nuns, Chaucer shows us how sexuality was a common subject of conversation at this time. Later, the lady from Bath will argue about experience superiority on theory: practising is more important than studying, transforming this personal prologue into a general one, acting for more women rights and liberties. This speech is maybe one of the first feminist speeches. But sexuality isn’t just tackled in this tale. In the millers’ tale, the landlord’s wife is unfaithful to his husband with a student. In the manager’s tale, the miller’s wife and daughters are raped. In the Wife of Bath’s tale, a knight rapes a young woman, and in the Monk’s tale, a bailiff blackmails men that go seeing prostitutes, in exchange of his silence. Finally, one tale on two is slightly or strongly linked to sexuality. This can mostly be explained by the nativity. Nativity in the 15th century began to grow up. The plague was passed, and life conditions were getting cleaner. Nevertheless, child mortality was extremely high, and most of the people died before they reached 50 years old. That’s why women from the middle class and peasantry married between 12 to 16 years old, and had to give birth to lot of children. In fact, many of them died giving birth to a child. The Wife of Bath also speaks about violence in marriages. It is said that her fifth husband beat her regularly. Beating one’s wife was common in the Middle Age. The woman was the property of the husband. This feeling didn’t get better with Church’s precepts: the woman was responsible of the original sin, and only the man could keep her on the straight edge, violently if necessary. When her husband died, a woman had to find another one, most of time because she wasn’t able to work and live on her own, as we can see the Wife of Bath, who had 5 husbands. In a few cases, women had enough money to get by their own, but their status never reached those accorded to men. 4) Society and money When talking about characters, Chaucer takes a long time describing the way they are dressed. The guildsmen have showy clothes and admirable gears, they have money, and they want to show it off. At this time, the better you dressed, the richer you appeared. Someone who dressed like a commoner could pass for one of them. The Plowman acts differently, giving all the money he earns to the Church, never being unselfish of his giving. He never slacks when he works and never asks for more than should be earned. The Plowman doesn’t waste his money on himself with clothes and jewelry, instead he gives it to the Church. Chaucer shows through their attitudes how characters show off their wealth, arguing that each of them is proud of what he does.