Concetti Chiave
- Geoffrey Chaucer is known as the father of English literature, having laid the foundation for modern English and depicted the English context of his time.
- The Canterbury Tales is Chaucer's masterpiece, written during his English period, and inspired by Boccaccio’s Decameron but with notable differences in form and content.
- Unlike the prose of the Decameron, The Canterbury Tales are written in poetic couplets, featuring a pilgrimage rather than a plague as the narrative frame.
- The tales involve thirty pilgrims, each telling stories during their journey to Canterbury, symbolizing the journey of life with each tale prefaced by a prologue.
- Chaucer himself is a character within the tales, offering insights into the pilgrims based on their appearance and behavior, with stories concluding in a moral.
Geoffrey Chaucer's influence
Geoffrey Chaucer is considered the father of English literature, because he built the basis for modern English and was able to provide us with an accurate portrait of the English context at that time. He was able to give us a portrait of the context he lived in. His works can be divided in three periods: French, Italian (an imitation of classical literature) and English.
The French period is so called because the poems which age back to this period are modelled on French literature. One of those poems is The Book of the Duchess, written after the Duchess of Lancaster’s death.
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What are The Canterbury Tales?
The Canterbury Tales are Geoffrey Chaucer’s masterpiece and they belong to the English period. They are inspired by Boccaccio’s Decameron, but there are some differences:
1)Decameron is not a poem, but it is written using prose. Canterbury Tales are written in couplets;
2)In the Decameron the frame is the plague, but Chaucer chooses a “more English” frame: the pilgrimage to the shrine of Thomas Becket in Canterbury.
3)Decameron tells the story of some boys and girls from the aristocracy, but Chaucer chooses to represent middle-class members, since nobles would have come to Canterbury by coach, and townspeople would have to work;
4)Boccaccio is not a character, Chaucer is.
Symbolism and structure
The Canterbury Tales are set in Spring, which is the symbol of rebirth, and the journey itself is a metaphor for the journey of life, but it is real: London represents the worldly pleasures, whilst Canterbury is holy.
Thirty pilgrims, including Chaucer, who is the reporting pilgrim, set off from an inn in London, and the host suggests that each pilgrim tells two stories on the way to Canterbury, and two on the way back. The teller of the greatest story will win a free supper, and whoever will give up along the way will have to pay.
Chaucer describes every pilgrim based on what he thinks about them or about the clothes they wear, or the way they move. Every story is preceded by a prologue and ends with a moral
Domande da interrogazione
- How did Geoffrey Chaucer contribute to the development of English literature?
- What distinguishes The Canterbury Tales from Boccaccio’s Decameron?
- What is the symbolic significance of the setting and structure in The Canterbury Tales?
Geoffrey Chaucer is regarded as the father of English literature because he laid the foundation for modern English and provided an accurate depiction of the English context of his time. His works are categorized into three periods: French, Italian, and English, each reflecting different influences and styles.
The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer's masterpiece, differ from Boccaccio’s Decameron in several ways: they are written in couplets rather than prose, use a pilgrimage as the frame instead of the plague, focus on middle-class characters rather than aristocrats, and include Chaucer as a character.
The Canterbury Tales are set in Spring, symbolizing rebirth, and the pilgrimage represents the journey of life. The tales are structured around a storytelling contest among thirty pilgrims, each story framed by a prologue and ending with a moral, reflecting Chaucer's observations of the pilgrims' appearances and behaviors.
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