Geoffrey Chaucer and the Canterbury Tales

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Geoffrey Chaucer is one of the most noted writers of the fourteenth century. Though Chaucer wrote many things, mostly poetry, his greatest work was the extensive Canterbury Tales. It began as a listing of people on a pilgrimage to Canterbury, and then continued with each person telling a tale or story along the way. He details each person’s occupation, personality, and clothing with historical accuracy and societal perspective. Due to this, Canterbury Tales has become an important English collection of writings that all historians should be familiar with, because Chaucer's works give great insight into the fourteenth century’s reflections of social change, religious controversies, and gender expectations. Photo of Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer was born into the Middle Class, but was very aware of all the classes. Geoffrey Chaucer was born into the Middle Class, but was very aware of all the classes. Source: Frédéric, via Wikimedia Commons Chaucer's Background Chaucer was born into Great Britain’s middle class in or around 1343, but then placed in an aristocratic home as a page. This allowed Chaucer to understand the affairs of upper class-and middle-class, as well as their relationship to the lower-class. [1] Because of this, he had an ability to uniquely write about those in all social ranks with humor and accuracy, while also reflecting the society’s changes.He was also very well educated, which was not typical of his era. Especially having been born into the middle-class. The Canterbury Tales is set up so that each pilgrim tells a story on the way to Canterbury. Although he started it around 1387, he did not finish it before his death in 1400's. Although unfinished, many of the tales were complete and remains one of the world's greatest writings of all time. From the beginning of Canterbury Tales, he shows how the younger generation was
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