Themes Of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales

“The first finder of our fair language” is not a title lightly bestowed (Bailey). No one more could be more worthy than Geoffrey Chaucer. Chaucer was the first person to write in English. He is most popular for his frame story The Canterbury Tales. Some of his other works include The Book of the Duchess, a Knight’s Tale, The Legend of Good Women, Troilus and Criseyde, The House of Fame, and The Parliament of Fowls (“Chaucer, Geoffrey,” Hutchinson; Gassner; “Chaucer, Geoffrey,” Columbia; Hutchins v). Chaucer writings contain many common themes, such as human love and rationality (“Chaucer, Geoffrey,” Hutchinson). He was a medieval contributor to the belief in “fake news,” which he wrote about in his poem The House of Fame (Lumiansky). Chaucer’s

Examining The Canterbury Tales allows one to see his innovation. While he did get the idea for his frame story from The Decameron Tales his frame story is different because he uses characters from all classes (Bailey). This wide range of characters is possible because the story is about a pilgrimage taken by all classes to a holy place in Canterbury. On the pilgrimage to and from Canterbury, each of the 30 pilgrims must tell two stories each (“Chaucer, Geoffrey,” Columbia). This allows Chaucer to have many different kinds of themes in the tales, including greed, love, faithfulness, and many others. While these tales were never finished, they stand alone in literature for their vivid and humorous characterization. Many 15th Chaucer’s style, like John Heywood with his palmer, pardoner, and pothecary that were very similar to Chaucer’s characters (Gassner). John Fletcher based his The Two Noble Kinsmen on Chaucer’s A Knight’s Tale. In addition to these early authors, an increasing number of scholars and critics have studied Chaucer’s works (Lumiansky). Chaucer also set new standards in poetry with metre. He introduced the heroic couplet, which is two lines of rhyming iambic pentameter (“Chaucer, Geoffrey,” Columbia). He also “perfected the seven-line stanza” a technique later named “rhyme royal.” However, his main accomplishment was simply writing in

Through the years, the main hub for scholars had gone from Greece to Rome, and from Rome to France (Minnis). Coinciding with this movement the language of scholarship went to Greek, Latin, and French, respectively. Because of this, many scholars would adopt one of these languages to write so their work would be considered mature (Higl). At this time, the English language was considered very poor, it had a limited vocabulary and lacked flow. Chaucer was a pioneer because he was the first person to actually use english as a scholarly language (Minnis). Even the royal court of England spoke French. This is why his work was so important, without him the English monarchs would have faced a more difficult time proving that English was a mature language that could develop (Higl). In a time dominated by other language, English printers profited from Chaucer’s work. In 1532, Chaucer became the first English poet to have his collected works published. Chaucer’s most important contribution to society and literature was proving that English had a place among other more developed