Medieval England and Geoffrey Chaucer

NORMANS CHANGED LIFE IN ENGLAND

• Normans were descendants of Scandinavian.• They retained their Scandinavian vitality and

love of adventure.• They acquired some French manners and

culture and had learned the French language.• They had order and a great administrative

ability.• Normas also brought the feudal system.

WHAT WAS FEUDALISM?

• It was a political and social system common in the Middle Ages.

• It was based upon the relationship of lord to vassal.

• Each group owing service to the smaller group above and indirectly to the king at the top.

KING

NOBLESY AND THE CLERGY

LESSER NOBLES

PEASANTS

Literature of Medieval England

Romantic stories reached England

The tone of the literature began to be more cheerful

It introduced a new device: rhyme

There were three languages in

England: Latin, English and French

The English language was made into that amazingly

rich and flexible instrument

HOW THE COMING OF THE NORMAN AFFECTED LITERATURE

Geoffrey Chaucer

William Langland

The author of Sir Gawain and the Green

Kinght

THREE MEDIEVAL POETS

GEOFFREY CHAUCER• He was born in London between

1340 – 1344.• He became page in household of

Prince Lionel.• He was sent several times on

important diplomatic mission to France and Italy.

• He was made controller of the customs in the Port of London.

• He was a Justice of the Peace.• He was a student and poet.• He died on October 25, 1400, and

was buried at Westminster Abbey.

GEOFFREY CHUCER’S LITERARY PRODUCTION

• MAJOR WORKSThe Canterbury TalesThe Book of the DuchessThe House of FameParliament of Fowls

SHORT POEMSTruthThe Former Age.The Complaint of Venus

The Canterbury TalesBY GEOFFREY CHAUCER

PLOT OF THE CANTERBURY TALES

At the Tabard Inn, the narrator joins a company of 29 pilgrims.

The pilgrims, like the narrartor, are travelling to the shrine of the martyr Saint Thomas Becket in Canterbury.

The narrator gives a description of 27 of these pilgrims, including for example:

Perfect and genteel man who loved truth, freedom and honor. The most socially  prominent person on the journey; the battles he fought were all religious wars of some nature.

Rich and powerful rising middle class; well-dressed. No  one would tell he was deeply in debt.

Student at Oxford; extremely thin on a thin horse; he wears worn clothes; and he is one of the most admired people in the group of pilgrims.

The host suggest that the group ride together and entertain one another with stories. He decides that each pilgrim will tell two stories on the way to Canterbury and two on the way back. And the man who told his story best was to be given a expensive dinner by the other pilgrims.

PRINCIPAL THEME

He provides the reader with a picture of a

disorganized Christian society in a state of

decline and obsolescence

He draws an ironic portrait of the Prioress and

presents satiric portraitures of the Monk, the Friar, the Summoner,

and the Pardoner

The description of an ideal Parson in turn serves to indicate the sins of the average priest in the fourteenth century

His ironic praise of the Prioress’s affectations, classical beauty, and

attachment to worldly concerns only serves to

highlight her inappropriateness as the

head of a religious convent

His praise of the Monk’s delight in the finer things

of life and passion for hunting is aimed at

eliciting the reader’s disapproval as they go

against his monastic vow of poverty

Chaucer’s critique of the

church of medieval England