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The Medieval period, also known as the dark ages were from 1066 to 1485. During the Medieval period, William the Conqueror brought French ideas to the people of England. He brought the class systems and continued Christianity. Throughout history, nobles have been known for greed, corruption and the need for more power and material items. This greed soon trickled down toward the middle class. They began leaving their farms and taking other jobs; even owning land. Geoffrey Chaucer despised the idea of class jumping and felt the middle class should stay below the upper class and continue with their own roles in society. Since he could not stop it, he uses his novel to satirize class jumping and several institutions heavily involved with class jumping.
The middle ages took place around the 10th century. During this time period the social structure was divided into 4 classes which made up the feudal system. The lowest class that made up the majority was the peasants, which also included the serfs. The
One might assume that the person telling the story has a lot to do with the story they're telling. This is the case in the Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales." In the tale of "The Pardoner's", the voice tells a tale dealing with his famous preach; "Radix malorum est Cupiditas." In English, "The root of all evil is Greed." An ironic distinction can be made with what a "Pardoner" is known to be, the character (the voice/Pardoner), and the tale that he tells.
The Canterbury Tales can be understood as a Chaucerian satire according many readers. Chaucer sets out to deliberately upset the social order present at that time and to mock the faults present in the characters. Although he baffles about the complexity of the characters, Chaucer also praises and condemns characters for their unique qualities. Chaucer further gives us feedback of what actions the characters are taking in their lives. Many of the pilgrims are headed off to Canterbury, to worship the relics of Saint Thomas Becket. Thomas Becket was murdered by his friend King Henry and soon Canterbury became a pilgrimage site for people to pray for their healings. As for Chaucer, he observed both high and lower social class to get a better perception of how social class made a difference in the character’s lives. Chaucer always believed that true gentility showed what class you fell into instead of judging it on social rank and wealth. To show that true gentility gives a character true rank in society, Chaucer in the “Prologue” of The Canterbury Tales illustrates the variance of life in the eyes of the honest and truthful Knight, the shrewd Merchant, and the good-hearted Plowman.
Within popular discourse, the historical period of the Middle Ages is synonymous with the term “Dark Ages”: how did this particular equation come about? The immediate connotations of the Dark Ages are clearly negative: they suggest oppression, ignorance and a period of motionless in human development. The reason behind this description of the Middle Ages is arguably the result of a contrast to the subsequent periods of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment: the Renaissance itself signals a “new birth”, whereas the Enlightenment clearly evokes images of a new insight and vision wielded by humanity. Accordingly, the negative values ascribed to the Middle Ages are the result of this historical period’s difference to the Renaissance. Such an account, namely, judges the Middle Ages from an entirely different world-view.
The Canterbury Tales were written and pieced together in the late 1380's, early 1390's. The author of the book is Geoffrey Chaucer. When considering the structure of the tales, one can deduce that they were put together using Framework Narrative, a very unique style of writing. The opening prologue speaks of 29 pilgrims, including Chaucer, who are all on a pilgrimage to Canterbury. All of them are seeking a certain shrine for spiritual cleansing, and relief. The journey was to be long, but in the end it would all be worth it. Chaucer's social views and prejudices are revealed through his description of the pilgrims in The Canterbury Tales.
The middle ages, a time around 500 to 1400 AD, have been known to be the dark ages of medieval times. The middle ages are known to be dark because the lack of cultural advancements. The middle ages were not that dark and there is evidence to prove it. For example, agriculture flourished during the early middle ages, which caused the population to rise. Another example of the middle ages having a positive outcome is that fair laws that were being made like, the Magna Carta. Another example is that universities were starting to pop up during this time period, this is example of an advancement in the middle ages. Agriculture flourishing, laws becoming fair, and universities being born, are all ways to prove that the middle ages were not that dark.
In Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, the prioress’s behavior can be interpreted as being part of the change occurring within religious institutions, which were changing to allow for freedom of thought and individual choice, as the nun does when she takes the liberty of customizing her fine garb by wearing it with beads and a gold brooch. The nun is one of the first characters to be given a name and as such is identified as being an individual, and not just seen as being a nun. The nun’s deviation from expected behavior and norms can thus be seen as a positive trait which Chaucer praises as women became more independent and redefined their own roles in society. Excessive understatement, negative imagery, and refined diction, however satirize the unwarranted care that the nun places on her appearance as well as her shallow take on piety. The corruption and hypocrisy of religious institutions and of aristocracy are highlighted through the nun’s lack of true religious devotion and effort to gain reverence through the mimicking of the court’s manners. The prioress represents the decline of morality and devoutness in monasteries and convents in the Middle Ages, and is an embodiment of the vice present within nobility. Though the narrator praises the refined etiquette and manners that the nun practices, the praise inadvertently allows for the reader to picture the nun as being monstrous and grotesque. The narrator’s passing remarks on her actions allow for the underlying cruelty in the nun to be revealed. Because the narrator fails to notice the corrupt nature of the prioress, the narrator is associated with superficiality as he focuses on the appearance of people and fails to understand the flaws in their actions.
For some the middle ages was filled with fine writing and stories with a strong leader and government and for some individuals in the same society the day was filled with hard and tedious work for hours on end. Some brought terror and fear while others brought the joy of language the Middle Ages cannot be summed up in one word, one essay, and not nearly by one person. The middle ages were filled with new ideas and culture and with that came hard work and dedication for the world comes at balance a society thriving with new inventions but with that comes irksome consequences the world will remain in balance at one point or
The Medieval Ages was a time in history when people were extremely undeveloped, war was not uncommon, and people had absurd beliefs. Among these poor things, culture did have a big role in the Medieval Ages; since there was a majority Christian population, the church often ruled most lives. This was also a time of great kings and their kingdoms, and the valiant knights that protected them.
There is no question that contradictory values make up a major component of The Canterbury Tales. Fate vs. Fortuna, knowledge vs. experience and love vs. hate all embody Chaucer's famous work. These contrasting themes are an integral part of the complexity and sophistication of the book, as they provide for an ironic dichotomy to the creative plot development and undermine the superficial assumptions that might be made. The combination of completely contradictory motifs leads to the unusual stories and outcomes that come to play out in the tales. And these outcomes draw focus on the larger universal issues that in many cases transcend the boundaries of vernacular periods to all of humanity. That is the essence and success of the tales; their themes are universal and their irony is still applicable today.
After reading explications of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, a student is likely to come away with the impression that the Franklin is the critics favorite punching bag. To the average reader in the modern English-speaking world, the Franklin comes across as surprisingly fair-minded and level-headed, noteworthy as the man kind and inventive enough to resolve the marriage cycle with a tale of decency and openness. The critics, however, often depict the Franklin as a man primarily concerned with upward mobility, finding in his tale a number of remarks intended to win over the nobility and subtly assert his own claim to a kind of nobility. The contrast between the fawning Franklin of certain critical approaches and the open-minded Franklin of the more pedestrian reader can probably be summed up in the word "bourgeois." Some critics find in the Franklin a good example of the less flattering qualities of the word, while modern American readers -- products of a society in which the bourgeois lifestyle is considered the norm -- tend to find in the Franklin an intelligence, style and tolerance often associated with the upwardly mobile or the middle class. His "everybody wins" approach to the problems of the romance might even be an example of what Marxists and anarchists used to decry as bourgeois liberalism.
The time period between 500-1400 C.E. deserves the title “The Dark Ages”. It began with the fall of the Roman Empire and ended with the rise of the Renaissance. The Middle Ages were split into three different periods. The first period was the end of the Roman Empire. The second period was the birth of population growth in Europe. This population growth was accompanied with many new ideas and economic growth. The third period was the worst period of all, the late Middle Ages. During this period, the Black Death and other deadly disease spread across Europe. With the end of the Middle Ages came the beginning of the early modern period.
In the General Prologue Chaucer had many characters he used to describe and reflect on the social classes of the medieval society. He had characters that went anywhere from the highest to the lowest class. For example he described the Doctor, the Woman and the Skipper.
none so plainly as the developments witnessed in the Language and Literature of that time. It began with the Norman Conquest: eloquent french words substituted for the “harsh” saxon equivalents, primarily in the upper levels of society. Literature began to reflect these changes in the language, and continued to evolve throughout the Renissance. Together, these aspects helped define the Middle Ages.
72). That is, the knight is "just home from service" (l. 73) and is in