The Canterbury Tales

By Geoffrey Chaucer

Henry II and Thomas Beckett

• Henry II wants to control the Roman Catholic Church

• Appoints Thomas Beckett as Archbishop of Canterbury

• The two argue and Henry II regrets his appointment

Beckett’s Assassination

• Thomas Beckett is assassinated at Canterbury Cathedral when a few royal guards kill him

• Guards hoped to win favor with Henry II

• Henry II is disgusted with murder

Canterbury Cathedral

• After Beckett’s assassination, Canterbury Cathedral becomes pilgrimage shrine

• Geoffrey Chaucer’s pilgrims journey to this cathedral

Geoffrey Chaucer

• Born 1343• Died 1400• A son of a well to do

wine merchant• Spent his boyhood in

downtown London where the merchants had their shops

Geoffrey Chaucer

• In his early teens, he was sent to serve as a page in one of the great aristocratic households of London

• The rest of his life was spent in close association with the ruling nobility

Geoffrey Chaucer

• Earliest works: a translation of Roman de la Rose– a 13th century French poem

• First major work: Book of the Duchess

• Probably began writing The Canterbury Tales in 1386, and was his chief writing interest until his death

The Canterbury Tales

• A collection of stories in a frame story

• Written between 1387-1400

• It is the story of thirty people who travel as pilgrims to Canterbury

• The pilgrims, who come from all layers of society, tells stories to each other to kill time while they travel

The Canterbury Tales

• Twenty-Two Tales• Chaucer’s original

plan was 120 stories• Two tales for each

pilgrim on the way to Canterbury and two on the way back

The Canterbury Tales• Chaucer never

finished his enormous project and even the completed tales were not finally revised

• Scholars are uncertain about the order of the tales

• The Canterbury Tales has been passed down in several handwritten manuscripts

The Canterbury Tales• No single literary genre

dominates The Canterbury Tales

• The tales include romantic adventures, fabliaux, saint’s biographies, animal fables, religious allegories and even a sermon, and range in tone from pious, moralistic tales to lewd and vulgar sexual farces

The Canterbury Tales

• The form that Chaucer most often employs for his tale is the fabliau

• These tales generally concern lower class characters; the standard form has an older husband whose younger wife has an affair with a man of flexible social status

The End

An Amber Benkle PowerPoint