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People in the English society during Chaucer's time viewed the world in a similar way and accepted the same beliefs. People then believed that behind the chaos and frustration of the day-to-day world there was a divine providence that gave a reason to everything, though that reason wasnt always obvious (Werthamer 1). Those views were represented in the medieval world by two structures: the church and the class system. People believed God established both setups, and each went unchallenged (Werthamer 1). Chaucer was born in London sometime between 1340 and 1343. He came from a prosperous middle class family and he was trained as a civil servant and diplomat.
He held various positions at court and in the Kings service. Chaucer was appointed controller of customs in the port of London in 1374 (Harvey). His experience in all these positions helped develop his fascination with people, and his wide knowledge of English life. Chaucer found his characters in the world about him and in the world books and brought them eternally alive through his own creative powers. He presented his characters in the jumble and haphazard y of life, with a mild apology for his neglect of rank. All was to seem fortuitous, and yet all the ranks and vocations, the trades and the professions were there. (Rowland 248) Many believe that the church created these social structures to maintain control, so it is no wonder the clergy occupied the first class.
The church maintained this control by being deeply imbedded in the structures of society and government. There were two types of clergy in the fourteenth century; the secular clergy and the regular clergy. The secular clergy's responsibility was to attend to the spiritual needs of the non-clerical people of the other class (Singman 10). The regular clergy consisted of monks and friars that led dictated lives. Every clergyman had been raised either as an aristocrat or as a commoner.
This distinction often played a role in their clerical life. Aristocratic clergymen tended to gravitate toward the upper levels of the clergy and to the more coveted positions. Commoners tended to have a harder time rising in the clerical establishment. Simple parish priests of rural parishes were often from peasant families and lived a life not much different from their peasant neighbors (Singman 11).
In all the clergy may have accounted for some 1. 5 percent of the population of England (Singman 10). The parish priests were at the bottom of the church hierarchy. The parish was the smallest unit of church organization, typically corresponding to a village in the countryside or to a neighborhood in the towns; it had its own church and theoretically, its own pries (Singman 11). On the such low wages they received it was hard to attract good help.
One chronicler complained that many of the men who became priests after the plague knew nothing except how to read to some extent, medieval clerics were expected not simply to be able to read and write, but to do so in Latin a fourteenth century clerical illiterate might not have been so by twentieth century standards (Singman 12). However, the poorer parishes could not have attracted well-educated parsons. The oldest form of the regular clergy were the monks. However, they were a step below the parish priest. Every monk belonged to a particular order, each having its own administration and rules governing the monks way of life.
The monks description is the first that is noticeably sarcastic (Werthamer 14). There is evidence in the way he talks that he believed it pointless to follow his monastic duties. Instead of attending his daily church duties, the monk was often hunting or riding across the countryside. Friars, like monks, lived under the authority of the rule of their order, in particular, they werent allowed to own private property (Singman 12). The Nuns description gives insight to the fact that Chaucer may have had a crush on her. The description makes it seem that she is a gentlewoman, who possibly entered a convent because she had no marriage dowry (Werthamer 12).
Chaucer portrays her as a lovely lady in a romance rather than a nun. The Nuns belonged to the first estate, but they did not enjoy the same privileges. For example, they could not become priests. Chaucer describes the Prioress as tender heart who can not bear the sight of pain or physical suffering. It could represent that she has a frail soul with low tolerance for pain and suffering.
The latter description carries over into the modern stereotypes about women as skittish and afraid members of society who need to be cared for (Patterson 2). The poor Parson is the ideal of what someone in his class ought to be. He is learned, patient, and a noble example to his parishioners. He practices what he preaches, knowing that he must set the example for the common people (Werthamer 24).
The second structure split itself between the nobility / knights and the commons. Knights ranked amongst the highest of this group. A knight received his title during his lifetime and could not pass it down to his heirs. Chaucer uses all the conventional descriptions because the Knight is what every knight should be, but usually isnt (Werthamer 9). These include loving, chivalrous, and courteous. The knights of England had been more or less all those men whose lands yielded enough income that they could afford a horse and armor (Singman 18).
The Franklin is a wealthy landowner and is one of Chaucer's more colorful characters. His beard is white as a daisy, a symbol of earthly or heavenly love (Werthamer 19). He delights in food and pleasure and his station in life is to be a generous good neighbor. The Millers reputation was one of power and dishonor.
Chaucer tells us he could easily steal corn and charge three times the price. This matches the medieval conception of a miller as the most important, and the most dishonest tenant on a manor farm (Werthamer 25). During the fourteenth century, numerous millers were found to have unjustly detained up to four bushels of barely and corn. The Wife of Bath represents the other extreme in regards to female stereotypes of the Middle Ages. Unlike most women of the time, she has traveled a great deal and seems knowledgeable about things of the world.
She is described as knowing much about love which is illustrated by her physical defect, being gap-toothed, which was a sign of sexual accomplishment. She things very highly of herself and enjoys showing off her Sunday clothes whenever the chance arises. It is important to note that Chaucer's female pilgrims represent the two extremes in his view of women. The Prioress represents the admirable and devoted followers of the church, and the Wife of Bath represents the extravagant and lusty woman (Patterson 2).
The Plowman is the Parsons brother who is also the perfect ideal. This portrait may well have amazed Chaucer's audience, just as wed be surprised to hear of such a chivalrous workman (Werthamer 24). He would work for a poor person without pay, he pays all his taxes on time, and he loves his neighbor as himself. Some think Chaucer may have presented an ideal plowman because he had such a low opinion of the real ones (Werthamer 24). The Canterbury Tales serves as evidence that although on the boundary between several distinctive social formations such as nobility, clergy, and commons, Chaucer participates in all three of them.
Interacting within these three groups may have influenced Chaucer's interest in individuality. In short, Chaucer's view of humanity produces the whole range of comic and romantic experience, a range so comprehensive as to make a tragedy a mere episode and so inclusive as to admit the presence even of the vile Pardoner and the intrusion of the Canons Yeoman, trembling on the brink of momentous conviction. (Rowland 228) Chaucer ends the prologue to the Canterbury Tales by asking his readers to forgive him if there is anything theyve read that they disapprove of. He asks God to pray for him and forgive him the worldly vanities he has written or translated (Werthamer 111). The reason why Chaucer wrote this is not clear, however, it does serve to remind the reader of the seriousness of Chaucer's tales and faith. Gies, Frances and Joseph. Life In A Medieval Village.
Philadelphia: Here &# 038; Row Publishers, 1990. Harvey, Paul. The Oxford Companion To English Literature. 4 +ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1967. Patterson On Chaucer. Chaucer. (28 February 1999): 8 pp.
Online. Internet. Available web Rowland, Beryl, ed. Companion To Chaucer Studies. New York: Oxford University Press, 1979. Singman, Jeffery.
Daily Life In Chaucer's England. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1995. Werthamer, Cynthia C. Barons Book Notes: Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. New York: Barons Educational; Services, Inc, 1984.
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