The Age of Geoffrey Chaucer

There is always a man behind a book and an age behind a man. But in the case of the age under review, the role of the age is more than it is in any other age.

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Chaucer was too much impressed by his age and, being a realist he could not escape from the influence of his age. If we study the social history of England of the age of Chaucer. 

We will come across some important historical events like the Hundred Years War with France, the Black Death, the Peasant’s Revolt and prevalent corruption of the Roman Catholic clergy. We will also come across the rise of the middle class in the towns and the transition from feudalism into a society in which men and women were free, though far from being equal. 

In this age, we also see the growth of the spirit of inquiry and the critical attitude of the public towards the clergy. It was an age of new learning and of humanism. In this age, we see a new language and new literature. In this particular age, England witnessed the birth of nationalism. All of these events are reflected in the literature of this age, especially, in the works of Chaucer, who was the evening star of the medieval ages and morning star of the modern age. Now let’s discuss some Salient features of the age of Chaucer.

Firstly, the age of Chaucer was an age of transition from medievalism into modernism. The medieval age was breathing its last, while the dawn of the modern age was about to rise. There was only one man, whose works contain elements of medievalism and modernism and that was Chaucer.

Secondly, in the age of Chaucer, the English literature expanded. It witnessed the disappearance of historical literature composed in poetry and metrical romances of the Middle Ages. A curious modern note is visible in the literature of the age.

Thirdly, in the age of  Chaucer, there was a marked advancement in poetry. Poetry remained, like in the Middle Ages, to be a dominating form of literature.

Fourthly, we see the standardization of the English language in the age of Chaucer. The East Midland dialect of the English language became the Standard English and it, later on, became one of the few international languages. This was the language spoken in the Oxford and Cambridge Universities as well as in the government circles.

Fifthly, various forms of literature like allegory, ballad and descriptive and narrative poems developed during the age of Chaucer.

Sixthly, the age of Chaucer also witnessed the establishment of poetic style. New meters were established and the complicated stanzas were on the verge of melting away. In this age, we also see the revival of alliteration, which had been replaced by rhymes in the Middle Ages. It is pertinent to mention here that there was no poetic diction in English poetry in this age. For the birth of poetic diction, a father was necessary and it was Spenser who took the responsibility of being the father of poetic diction.

Seventhly, the age of Chaucer also witnessed the development of prose. The English language was ripe enough for the prose style which was born in this age. In this regard, we may refer to the translation of the Bible by John Wycliffe and Thomas Malory’s Le Morte D’ Arthur, which is the prose romance in English literature and which shows its author as an English prose stylist of high rank. Though there was no drama and novel in the age, yet historians believe that Chaucer’s Prologue to the Canterbury Tales and his Troilus and Criseyde contain the germs of the English novel. Had they been written in prose, Chaucer would have been the father of English novel. Had he divided his narratives into scenes and acts, he would have been the father of English drama?
Though he is not the father of English novel and drama, yet he is the grandfather of them.

In this sense, we see that the age of Chaucer was the age of germination, which is followed by the beautiful and sweet-smelling flower i.e., the Age of Queen Elizabeth. So, we should keep it in mind that if there had been no germination, the seed would have become one with the soil and the flower would have been lost forever.

The Canterbury Tales and Satire

We will discuss Geoffrey Chaucer, his work The Canterbury Tales, and Satire, which is a genre that The Canterbury Tales is often categorized within. Part of setting yourself apart is your story who are you? where did you come from? where are you going? Through Sir Gawain failure, we have already seen that living up to social ideals is not an unreachable goal, but maybe a goal that is difficult to reach consistently or repeatedly. Through modern pop culture, we see celebrities athletes and politicians repeatedly fail to live up to the ideals society have laid down for each group. Perhaps a movie star ends up on house arrest for drug possession. Maybe an athlete is humiliated when he succumbs to the temptations of alcoholism. Too, a politician may be accused of cheating on a spouse or taking bribes. If the stars can deliver, how can we be expected to? Enter Geoffrey Chaucer. An expectation for writers in his time period -- the Middle Ages was that writers from England wrote in French or Latin.

Chaucer, though, chose to write in Middle English, which gave the common man access to his writing, since French and Latin were the languages of the educated upper class. Along those same lines, Chaucer characters are a variety of upper, middle, and lower class people -- innkeeper, cook, parson, nuns, merchant, physician, and more -- whom Chaucer audience would have no trouble relating to understanding The premise of Chaucer Canterbury Tales is that this varied group of people meet at an inn, and all intend to travel to the Canterbury Cathedral, where a shrine exists to honour the saint and martyr, Thomas Becket. The people at the inn are called pilgrims -- not the ones who sailed over to America -- but ones who are going on a pilgrimage, or holy journey, to Canterbury Cathedral.

Now, you would expect anyone on a pilgrimage, or holy journey, to be religious, a good person, or at least trying to achieve goodness. What Chaucer shows us, instead, is a group of reasonably sinful and/or misguided individuals who are far from the holy ideal, and who seem particularly concerned with what might be considered noble behaviour. Sound familiar These less-than-perfect pilgrims agree to participate in a gambling venture, which involves each of them telling a story. The best story wins.

Chaucer never finished writing The Canterbury Tales, but what he did finish of it serves as a satire of social expectations in the Middle Ages. For example, the Middle Ages expected that women should be quiet and obedient, but the pilgrim called the Wife of Bath has been married six times and is fiercely independent, endlessly clever, and more than somewhat charming. Another pilgrim, the Pardoner, whose job it is to grant forgiveness of sins, routinely preaches about the dangers of greed in order to get the church-goers to give up their money. He has become very wealthy through this tactic of reverse psychology.

Additionally, though you might not expect a clergyman to tell dirty jokes, Chaucer writes that the other pilgrims expect pardoners to have a sick sense of humour. As the pilgrims travel on horseback towards Canterbury Cathedral, they take turns telling their stories. Some are funny, some sad, some shocking, and some cautionary. All of this storytelling, both by the narrator and by the characters themselves, falls into the literary category of satire.

What is satire?

Generally, satire is humorously making fun of man shortcomings in order to shame him into better behaviour. Often, these shortcomings will be exaggerated in satirical literature, so that the shortcomings are more easily seen than they might otherwise An important part of satire is irony, where actions and outcomes contradict custom or expectation.

Chaucer masterfully uses satire in The Canterbury Tales in order to demonstrate the weaknesses of mankind, while also celebrating the variety inherent in any group of individuals. This course is centred around actions and outcomes contradicting custom or expectation. Setting yourself apart is, for better or for worse, an attainable goal. While Sir Gawain tried to reach the unsustainable ideals of chivalry, the narrator in The Canterbury Tales sets his travelling companions apart through their shortcomings and hypocritical behaviour.