It follows a group of people as they make a pilgrimage from London to the Canterbury Cathedral. To pass the time during their long journey, each member of the pilgrimage tells a story.
When and where did The Canterbury Tales take place?
The Canterbury Tales takes place in late fourteenth-century England, around the time that Chaucer wrote the work. He began working on the text sometime between 1386 and 1389 and continued to work on it throughout the 1390s.
When and where does The Canterbury Tales prologue take place?
“The Prologue” takes place in April at the Tabard Inn in Southwark. What event or circumstance causes the characters to gather? The characters gather for a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Thomas à Becket in Canterbury.
How does The Canterbury Tales work?
The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories built around a frame tale, a common and already long established genre in this period. Chaucer’s Tales differs from most other story “collections” in this genre chiefly in its intense variation. Most story collections focused on a theme, usually a religious one.
How does The Canterbury Tales start?
The action begins at a tavern just outside of London, circa 1390, where a group of pilgrims have gathered in preparation for their journey to visit the shrine of St. Thomas Becket in Canterbury. The narrator, Chaucer, encounters them there and becomes one of their company.
What is the main theme of Canterbury Tales?
Social Class. One present theme throughout The Canterbury Tales is the importance of social status during Chaucer’s time. For example, the Prioress and the Parson are opposite characters in their regard for social status. The Parson is more concerned with his religious devotion than his class.
Why is The Canterbury Tales so important?
The Canterbury Tales is considered Chaucer’s masterpiece and is among the most important works of medieval literature for many reasons besides its poetic power and entertainment value, notably its depiction of the different social classes of the 14th century CE as well as clothing worn, pastimes enjoyed, and language/
Where does The Canterbury Tales take place?
Written in Middle English, the story follows a group of pilgrims who are travelling the long journey from London to Canterbury Cathedral. Setting off from a London inn, the innkeeper suggests that during the journey each pilgrim should tell two tales to help pass the time.
What is the setting of The Canterbury Tales prologue?
The narrator, Geoffrey Chaucer, is in The Tabard Inn in Southwark, where he meets a group of ‘sundry folk’ who are all on the way to Canterbury, the site of the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket, a martyr reputed to have the power of healing the sinful.
What was the journey in Canterbury Tales?
One of the most famous works of medieval literature is based around a pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral. Geoffey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, written between 1387 and 1400, is a long poem concerning a group of thirty pilgrims on their way from Southwark, in south London, to the shrine of St Thomas Becket in Canterbury.
What is a summary of The Canterbury Tales?
In The Canterbury Tales, a group of pilgrims traveling to Canterbury Cathedral compete in a storytelling contest. This overarching plot, or frame, provides a reason for the pilgrims to tell their stories, which reflect the concerns sparked by the social upheavals of late medieval England.
How does The Canterbury Tales reflect society?
Its vivid portrayal of a diverse group of travelers reveals much about the composition and values of society in late medieval England. It shows us shifting dynamics of social power, an economy in flux, and diverse expressions of faith and doubt within late medieval Christianity.
What is The Canterbury Tales structured as?
Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales is a frame narrative, a tale in which a larger story contains, or frames, many other stories. In frame narratives, the frame story functions primarily to create a reason for someone to tell the other stories; the frame story doesn’t usually have much plot of its own.
When did The Canterbury Tales happen?
1387
The Canterbury Tales is traditionally dated to 1387 (although some tales appear to have been written before then). The poem survives in 92 manuscripts, but no manuscript of the work dates from Chaucer’s lifetime. The poem as we know it is the product of 15th-century scribes.
What was The Canterbury Tales inspired by?
From the 1370s on, Italian poetry became the overriding influence for Chaucer’s work. Obviously familiar with the writings of Dante and Petrarch, Boccaccio especially was a major source.
What is the most famous Canterbury tale?
Perhaps the most famous – and best-loved – of all of the tales in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, ‘The Miller’s Tale‘ is told as a comic corrective following the sonorous seriousness of the Knight’s tale.
What is the problem in The Canterbury Tales?
Major conflict The struggles between characters, manifested in the links between tales, mostly involve clashes between social classes, differing tastes, and competing professions. There are also clashes between the sexes, and there is resistance to the Host’s somewhat tyrannical leadership.
What does Chaucer use to set his story in motion?
The key thing about Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales is that it’s a story … within a story. He uses a frame narrative to set up who all of the characters are, and then the characters each tell stories of their own.
What is the setting for The Canterbury Tales quizlet?
What is the setting and basis of the Canterbury Tales? The setting is the Tabard Inn in Southark, just outside of London. This is where the 29 pilgrims meet the night before the pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Thomas a Becket in Canterbury.
Who are the 31 pilgrims in Canterbury Tales?
The Pilgrims
- The Narrator. The narrator makes it quite clear that he is also a character in his book.
- The Knight. The first pilgrim Chaucer describes in the General Prologue, and the teller of the first tale.
- The Wife of Bath.
- The Pardoner.
- The Miller.
- The Prioress.
- The Monk.
- The Friar.
What has the journey been like for the characters of The Canterbury Tales?
They are well-off and seem to be traveling for pleasure, not necessarily piety. We assume that they are riding and walking as they tell stories, but we are not told. The journey from London to Canterbury Cathedral is not very difficult, and not incredibly long, so we can assume it goes easily.