Middle Ages Literature and Composition The Middle Ages

Middle Ages Literature and Composition

• The Middle Ages are also known as medieval times and/or the “Dark Ages” “Middle Ages” • The Middle Ages began with the fall of the Roman Empire, the Battle of Hastings, and the Norman Conquest.

• William the Conqueror became king of England after the Battle of Hastings in 1066. William the Conqueror

Life in the Middle Ages • The quality of life for citizens of Great Britain in the Middle Ages varied widely.

• Peasants lived very dull lives indeed. Feudalism meant that the lord of the manor was responsible for protecting the Peasants people that lived on his land.

More Peasants • Many peasants were actually serfs. They would work four days a week to grow food for the lord of the manor and have two days a week to work on their own crops. “Life for a serf was not much better than the life of a slave. The only difference was that a serf could not be sold to another manor” (Dowling par. 2).

Social Structure • “Medieval social theory held that society was made up of three ‘estates’; ; the nobility, composed of a small hereditary aristocracy, whose mission on earth was to rule over and defend the body politic; the church, whose duty was to look after the spiritual welfare of that body; and everyone else, the large mass of commoners who were supposed to do the work that provided for its physical needs” (“Middle English Literature” 76).

• However, over time these estates “were layered into complex, interrelated, and unstable social strata among which birth, wealth, profession, and personal ability all played a part in determining one’s status in a world that was rapidly changing economically, politically, and socially” (“Middle English Literature” 76). Social Structure

Middle Class • A large and prosperous middle class was beginning to play increasingly important roles in church and state, blurring the traditional class boundaries, and it was into this middle class that Chaucer was born” (“Middle English Literature” 76).

• “Born into the urban middle class, Chaucer, through his association with the court and service of the Crown, had attained the rank of ‘esquire’ roughly equivalent to what would later be termed a ‘gentleman. ’ His career brought him into contact with overlapping bourgeois and aristocratic social worlds, without being securely anchored in either” (“Middle English Literature” 78). Chaucer

• Chaucer’s childhood allowed him to become fluent in French and Italian, schooled in Latin, and acquire “the manners and skills required for a career in the service of the ruling class” (“Middle English Literature” 76). • Chaucer, as a member of the court, would have come in regular contact with the royals. Chaucer

in French, the language of art (“Middle English Literature” 77). Chaucer’s Language • “Poetry would certainly have been among the diversions cultivated… in Chaucer’s youth; ” however, the poetry would have been written

Cultural Significance Chaucer’s decision to write The Canterbury Tales in Middle English, which was at the time considered to be a vulgar language, is one of the most important reasons that the poem is still important today. It is the first English poem.

Chaucer’s Purpose “The audience for Canterbury Tales was…not intended to be the members of the courts and upper classes that his past poems were for, but instead he had a new audience in mind, a national one that would understand the social framework of his pilgrims …

"the new men, " those who came from emerging sectors of society, who had literary skills and interests and whose tales drew upon the new European literary cultures. It was for this new and quickly growing population of gentry, freemen, merchants, and people from the new "middle" classes that Canterbury Tales were written for, and are about” (“Pilgrims Passing To and Fro” par. 1). Chaucer’s Purpose • The pilgrims that best reflect Chaucer's actual audience were those that have been called

• The Canterbury Tales tells the story of a group of pilgrims on their way to the Canterbury cathedral and gives readers a view of a cross-section of Middle Ages society. • The use of a journey as a frame story is one of the oldest narrative devices. The Canterbury Tales

Just in Case “Pilgrimage: a journey, especially a long one, made to some sacred place as an act of religious devotion” (“Pilgrimage” par. 1).

Canterbury Cathedral • “Pope Alexander canonized Thomas Becket and the murdered priest was elevated to sainthood. Becket's shrine at Canterbury became the most important place in the country for pilgrims to visit. • When Becket was killed, local people apparently managed to obtain pieces of cloth soaked in his blood. Rumors soon spread that, when touched by this cloth, people were cured of blindness, epilepsy and leprosy” (“Pilgrimage to Canterbury”).

The Canterbury Tales begins with travelers spending the night at an inn before setting out on the pilgrimage to Canterbury cathedral. At dinner the inn’s host proposes that, since the group of strangers will be traveling together, they should come up with a game to pass the time. The Canterbury Tales

• The host proposes that everyone be required to tell four stories (two on the way to Canterbury cathedral and two on the way back). The host will judge the stories and the winner will receive a free dinner (paid for by the other pilgrims) when they return from Canterbury. The Canterbury Tales

“Each one of you shall help to make things slip By telling two stories on the outward trip To Canterbury, that’s what I intent, And, on the homeward way to journey’s end Another two, tales from the days of old; And then the man whose story is best told, That is to say who gives the fullest measure Of good morality and general pleasure, He shall be given a supper, paid by all, Here in this tavern, in this very hall, When we come back again from Canterbury. And in the hope to keep you bright and merry I’ll go along with you myself and ride All at my own expense and serve as guide” (Chaucer 144). “That eech of you, to shorte with oure waye In this viage, shal tellen tales twaye— To Canterburyward, I mene it so, And hoomward he shal tellen othere two, Of aventures that whilom have bifalle; And which of you that bereth him best of alle– That is to sayn, that telleth in this cas Tales of best sentence and most solas– Shal have a soper at oure aller cost, Here in this place, sitting by this post, Whan that we come again fro Canterbury. And for to make you the more mury I wol myself goodly with you ride– Right at myn owene cost– and be youre gide” (Chaucer 99).

The Canterbury Tales travelers agree and they set The twenty-nine out the next day. This would have resulted in one hundred twenty stories. However, Chaucer only completed twenty-two, although two more exist in fragments. Most scholars use the Ellesmere manuscript as the standard version of the poem.

The Canterbury Tales Chaucer himself is in the poem and on the pilgrimage to Canterbury cathedral because there is an “I” in the text. This narrator allows Chaucer to inject opinions without claiming they are his own. This tactic enables much of the satire and irony in the poem.

Satire “The pilgrims’ facial features, the clothes they wear, the foods they like to eat, the things they say, the work they do are all clues not only to their social rank but to their moral and spiritual condition and, through the accumulation of detail, to the condition of latemedieval society, of which, collectively, they are representative” (“Middle English Literature” 80).

• The Roman Catholic Church was the most important social institution in medieval times. It touched the life of every citizen. • There were various jobs in the clergy, several The Church of which are dealt with in The Canterbury Tales.

• “There is a tendency… to think of the Middle Ages as a single culture epitomized by the Great Gothic cathedrals in which architecture, art, music, and liturgy seem to join in magnificent expressions of a unified faith…Such a view overlooks the diversity of medieval cultures and the social, political, religious, economic, and technological changes that took place over this vastly long period” (“The Middle Ages” par. 5). Cathedralism

Literary Criticism • Analysis of literary texts falls into several different categories depending on the elements of the text that are examined. • Literary criticism requires readers to look not only at what is on the page and what the author intended, but also at what is implied by the work and what the author included unintentionally.

• New Criticism: focusing only on the text. Not taking anything about the culture or the writer into context. This type of criticism usually focuses on literary elements: theme, symbolism, etc. New Criticism

New Criticism of The Canterbury Tales • The Canterbury Tales is an expression of the “human condition. ” • There is a sense of rising individualism among the pilgrims… the sense of communal duty is being eroded by a personal desire for money and the fine things money can buy

Theme of Balance • Erotic drive vs. Religious and communal duty

• Feminist Criticism: looking at a text to identify the assumptions that are made about each gender, how those assumptions are reinforced, and how those assumptions might be subverted. This criticism Feminist focuses on the portrayal of Criticism women in a text.

• Marxist Criticism: literary criticism that focuses on social class, political manipulation, and stereotypes of the “haves” and “have nots. ” Marxist Criticism

Sociological Analysis • Sociological Analysis: several different schools of criticism that analyze the different ways that groups and group members interact and how they function in society.

• Psychological Criticism: literary criticism that seeks to identify the subconscious motivations of characters and authors. Psychological Criticism

New Criticism Feminist Criticism Marxist Criticism Sociological Analysis Psychological Criticism What type of analysis could you write about this movie?

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