Realism and the Depiction of Fourteenth Century England in The Canterbury Tales

The age of Chaucer is the age of transition - transition between the two incongruous periods- the medieval and the modern or the Renaissance. The medieval and the Renaissance world stood side by side. The distinctive feature of the medieval mind is its belief in spirituality and abstract ideas, whereas the Renaissance lays emphasis on the sensuous and the concrete.


Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400)

Medieval mind supports communism, whereas the Renaissance advocates individualism. Medieval mind does not tolerate free thought, speculation and reason, whereas the right of private judgment was the hall-mark of the Renaissance. Chaucer symbolizes the Middle Ages, and his world is medieval, but beneath the medievalism the leaven of the Renaissance is already at work, and the poet stands at the dividing of ways, linking himself with the old world of medievalism that was passing away, and heralding the birth of the new age that was peeping at the horizon. It was the greatness of Chaucer that he combined both the Medieval and the Renaissance spirit in his poetry, and exhibited the essential spirit of an age that was passing away and also of that age which was to assert itself in the reign of Elizabeth. Thus, Chaucer is praised for his ability to take a fuller scenario of his society and portray a true image of the daily life of the fourteenth century.

The first and foremost important thing that is noticed in The Canterbury Tales is the setting of the medieval age. He primarily deals with the features of medieval age, but at the same time he is not untouched by the upcoming spirit of the Renaissance. Though his contemporary writers were dreamy and deals with allegorical representation of life, he has the power to peep through the unfolded realities of life. He is extremely true to his time and the way he presents the life of people at that time.   

Each and every pilgrims are shown formal and independent. The upper class and the lower class people are not his characters, but only the middle class. Because the upper class people would not travel with the group of middle class and the lower class people would not have time to travel as they are busy in earning their lives. There are only two women, the Prioress and the Wife of Bath, in the group. Women were not supposed to leave home at that time to travel, but these women must be independent to travel. His characters are not only an individual, but a type who represents the then society like, the hunting monk, the venal friar, the dedicated knight, the gay young squire, the ladylike prioress, the piratical ship man, the wife of Bath. His characters have both vices and virtues like real people in their lives and the way of their dressing, manners and behaviors are greatly realistic to the age of Chaucer. Every tale told by different characters have different ways, comments, narrations, dictions and humor which prove that Chaucer is totally successful in representing his age in The Canterbury Tales. 

The Canterbury Tales is successful in showing the true picture of the chivalric spirit of the era which was symbolized by the Knight. When the Knight represents the fading chivalric middle age, his son, a young Squire, represents the rising new concept of chivalry. The chivalric knights were judged on the basis of the wars they fought for the religion and the old knight falls in this group, but the new generation knight, like the young Squire, are happy go lucky type who loves singing, dancing, drawing, and playing flute. The Renaissance has already started to work in the work of Chaucer and the fact is proved in the depiction of the new generation of the knight. The Squire, thus, is the representation of the early dawn of the Renaissance.

In his tales, Chaucer genuinely presented the political condition of his times. He mentioned to The Peasants' Revolt in the Clerk's Tale, and in the Nun's Priest's Tale when bands of peasants armed with weapons turned out from villages, plundering, raiding, burning and killing the aristocracy of the age. In the Clerk's Tale, he referred to the 'stormy people' their levity, their untruthfulness, indiscretion and fickleness, their garrulity and their foolishness, and he frankly gave his opinion that it was an act of great folly to have any trust in them. In the Nun's Priest's Tale Chaucer says:

So hideous was the noise, ah Bencite ! That of a truth Jack Straw, and his meine Not made never shoutes half so shrill When that they any Fleming meant to kill.

There was a prominent rise of the middle class a merchant in the 14th century. The business with European countries, handicrafts and the small trades all were creating the foundation of the industrial revolution of the England. The traders and the small businessmen became powerful and contested for the seats in the Parliament. The type of the merchants in the Canterbury Tales is the rising merchants with a bright future ahead.

In Chaucer's Doctor of Physic we have an excellent picture of the medieval medicine man, with his herbal remedies and his knowledge of astrology. As a type character of the physicians of the day, he had no time for reading the Bible. Chaucer makes a clever study at him for his fee-loving propensities.

Chaucer displays the religious state of his time by creating apostolic characters in the Prologue. He presents convincingly the worsening condition that had set in the religious life of the times. The clergymen, instead of dedicating their time and energy to religious meditation, had fallen prey of extravagance, and Epicureanism. The satirical picture of the Clergy and the monks who had forgotten the rule of poverty and labor are not encouraging. Chaucer's Monk is a fat who is more interested in hunting than in the performance of his religious duties.

The Friar is a corrupt fellow, for he knows all the town taverns, and every inn-keeper and barmaid better than the lepers and the beggar-women. The Summoner and the Pardoner are traders in religion, selling religious pardons to those who seek their blessings for money Chaucer presents these religious figures of his times in true colors and thereby realistically provides a peep into the religious condition of his age. Chaucer presents a saintly clergyman in the figure of the Parson who is a learned man faithfully preaching Christ's gospel and devoutly instructing his parishioners.

Chaucer throws light on the condition of women in the Prologue as well as in The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer’s tales with the exception of one or two contain bitter attacks on women in keeping with the conventional attitude of men towards this sex. In the Nun's Priest's Tale, Chaucer points out that a husband who follows the advice of his wife will come to grief. In the Prologue Chaucer has presented two ladies: The Prioress and the Wife of Bath. These ladies represent women of his times.

The reality of the inn is also brought into consideration in his poem. The inns were located far from the human residence and they sell beer too. The characters love to display and do not hesitate in the extravagance as that of the people of the 14th century do. The decoration of the horse of the knight, the fabrication of the Wife of the Bath with the 'kerchiefs' and the fine dress of the young Squire are the examples of the then trendy show off of the time. Through the character of the Clerk of Oxford Chaucer has presented the interest that people of this age started taking in the classical writers. The new learning began to be popular at the time, as can be seen in the case of the Clerk of Oxford.

In all these ways it can be said that Chaucer is the chronicler of his age and reflects his century not in fragments but almost complete. He heralds the birth of the new humanism and the dawn of the Renaissance, and at the same time he vividly brings before us the traditions and conventions which his age had inherited from the middle Ages.

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Sharma, Kedar N. "Realism and the Depiction of Fourteenth Century England in The Canterbury Tales." BachelorandMaster, 14 Mar. 2018, bachelorandmaster.com/britishandamericanpoetry/realism-canterbury-tales.html.