Geoffrey Chaucer and The Canterbury Tales Performer Heritage

G. Chaucer and The Canterbury Tales 1. Chaucer’s life • • Born about 1343. • His skill and inventiveness as a writer, a clever mind and practical skills helped him raise his social status. • Worked as a controller of the customs for the port of London. • • Took part in important diplomatic missions. The son of a wine merchant. Received an excellent education. Found employment in the house of John of Gaunt, son of King Edward III of England. Died in 1400 and was the first poet to be buried in Westminster Abbey, in Poets’ Corner. Performer Heritage

G. Chaucer and The Canterbury Tales 2. Why is Chaucer the father of English literature? • One of the first English poets to be known by name. • His language, the dialect of his native London, gradually became standard English, thus becoming the basis of Modern English. • In his masterpiece The Canterbury Tales, he was able to give a portrait of the English society of his time. Performer Heritage

G. Chaucer and The Canterbury Tales 3. Chaucer’s three periods • The French Period poems modelled on French romance styles and subjects: The Romaunt of the Rose (before 1373) and The Book of the Duchess (ca 1369). • The Italian Period a greater maturity of perception and skill in the manipulation of the metres. Influenced by Boccaccio. • The English Period marked by greater realism, includes his masterpiece The Canterbury Tales. Performer Heritage

G. Chaucer and The Canterbury Tales 4. The Canterbury Tales • • • It is a narrative poem. • • It has links with the moral views of the time. It gives insight into individual characters as regards their lifestyles, their psychology and their experiences. Performer Heritage It is told in verse. It contains a variety of narrative elements: the setting in time and place, the description of characters, the use of a narrator.

G. Chaucer and The Canterbury Tales 5. The structure A general prologue, where the pilgrims are introduced Twenty-four tales usually preceded by a prologue, which introduces theme of the tale sometimes followed by an epilogue Performer Heritage

G. Chaucer and The Canterbury Tales 6. The story • Thirty people, including Chaucer as narrator, meet at the Tabard Inn in London. • They join a pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral and the shrine of Thomas Becket. • The innkeeper suggests that every pilgrim should tell two stories on the way to Canterbury and two on the way back; the pilgrim who tells the best story will win a free dinner. • Performer Heritage The various tales are both religious and humorous, moral and satirical.

G. Chaucer and The Canterbury Tales 7. The setting Point of departure: London Destination: Canterbury Performer Heritage human and linked to worldly pleasures holy, the symbol of the celestial city

G. Chaucer and The Canterbury Tales 8. The pilgrimage • Performer Heritage Why a pilgrimage to Canterbury?

G. Chaucer and The Canterbury Tales 9. The style • It is written in rhyming couplets (AABB) made up of iambic pentameters lines with ten syllables • = five feet following the stress pattern unstressed-stressed Example: And bathed every vein in such liquor Performer Heritage

G. Chaucer and The Canterbury Tales 10. The language • By the time Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales: • Chaucer used a literary language shaped by French and Latin models but built upon the old popular tradition and on a deep knowledge of actual speech. Performer Heritage

G. Chaucer and The Canterbury Tales 11. Characterisation Performer Heritage

G. Chaucer and The Canterbury Tales 12. Themes Set in the calendar of seasons, spring as a time of rebirth Performer Heritage Spiritual journey, supernatural kind of restoration