Canterbury Tales Essay

It seems almost impossible without directly asking the author the purpose of their writings. Chaucer is obviously long gone, but even if an author is alive they usually won’t give a concrete single reason behind their work especially fiction. Considering there is no definitive answer to a century’s old text like the “Canterbury Tales” I would draw the conclusion that the underlying motive seemed to be to inform people of life in Britain at the time, create a legacy of English literature, and showcase the disparities of folks in different walks of life yet how they all converge and interact. Given his position in court Chaucer was unique since he was one of the few that could witness this and tell of it. Others able to see this would be the clergy or nobility, these people may have interacted with lower caste but not associated so writing about them would have been questionable to say the least.

Chaucer’s work brought a new perspective to the people of the medieval world. His work is one of the few contemporary resources at the time to document the lives of regular people. The few literate people at the time were either in the clergy and nobility and focused on themselves. By describing the lives of the lesser people he was shattering the tradition at the time. Few societies even outside of Europe cared about the endeavors so this was revolutionary. Critics at the time would’ve viewed this as against the status quo of only mentioning the highest and most educated people in literature. Also being in the vernacular this opened the door to the less privileged to have something in their language that they could comprehend. Another thing this contributed to was a way that people who would be scorned by their peers for associating with other castes to understand what the other people experienced.

Previous tales from England at the time were being told in Latin, Gaelic, or other European languages, this was the first to be told and written down in Middle English which started the legacy of the English language. Other works of both fiction and nonfiction were retold orally but these were subject to change due to the evolving speech and differences by the raconteur. When this story finally put the words on paper ending the old tradition of only writing in Latin or French and started the new way that would be followed by more great authors in the centuries to come. This began a movement at the time to not only make new works in English but translate preexisting text which applied for most secular stories and even the Bible in 1611. Doing this fairly odd act at the time like publishing in the vernacular gave English writers that would live later on a source of inspiration and a chance to add to the cannon most notably Shakespeare.

Although the characters of this story all have different professions, social statuses, and acquaintances the Canterbury Tales shows how all sorts of people are brought together and interact. The majority of people in the story are walking contradictions the friar doesn’t care about charity but his own money, the cook that serves many people food is absolutely disgusting, and the squire descended of chivalrous blood lacks morals. Yet all these characters hear the same call of faith to meet in Canterbury. We see that along the way is what is retold, the journey not the final destination. Most stories before had one protagonist, one perspective, one motive; but this story can incorporate over 20 different protagonist. Not just through the host eyes can we see this plot unfold instead it is via everyone’s perspective which is underused in literature still today.

To sum it up Chaucer’s masterpiece the Canterbury Tales continues to be important because of how it vividly described life in England at the time for many different people, created the future foundation for all English literature, and portrayed how all kinds of individuals treat each other.