Middle Ages And The Canterbury Tales

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The Dark-Middle Ages Although the Dark Ages are known to have ended in the year 1066, the coming of the Middle ages did little to enlighten a dark Europe. In Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, the Middle Ages were portrayed as a dark and destitute period in history due to the lack of an altruistic society, the corruption within the institution of the Roman Church, and through the glorification of war and violence. Despite the arrival of a new age, the animalistic culture of the Dark Ages persisted. The Middle Ages was a time where one’s own welfare was all that mattered, and any sense of altruism in Middle Age society was virtually non-existent. Despite the ever-present crimes of the time, which included thefts, kidnappings, and murders, there was no institution to combat communal harms. Kidnappings, for example, were so common that it became a recognized method of acquiring income. Moreover, towns and villages had no institutionalized method of responding to the threat of fires. Because buildings of the time were made entirely out of organic material, fires easily spread from one building to another, and any small mishap, such as a misdirected spark from the work of a blacksmith, could cause an unyielding and destructive conflagration. With no “firemen” or local order, towns could do little to inhibit the ubiquitous threat of fires (Bankers, “The Middle Ages”). The social and political system of the time, feudalism, also repressed the development of civil society and an egalitarian culture. Feudalism involved the parceling of land by the king to his most powerful supporters. These supporters carried many titles, such as duke or baron, and controlled a given parcel, known as a fief. All who lived under the head of a fief, the overlord, was known as a vassal. Vassals paid taxes and in return, received protection from the overlord. Knights served their overlord

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