(no subject)
Jonathan Benoit
ENG 303: Chaucer
M/W/F 10:00-10:50
Paper #1
The General Prologue and Social Difference:
A Portrait of Portraits
No doubt Chaucer’s General Prologue and the Canterbury Tales were written in the midst of great social, economic, and political change. For a wide range of reasons, the fourteenth century signaled the break-up of Feudalism. Famine and the outbreak of the Black Death between 1348 and 1349 and again in 1361 decimated nearly one third of the population in less than half a year. Agricultural production suffered at the hands of the plague because there were not enough vassals to grow crops. Therefore, surfs were no longer tied to land. Now free to move from place to place, peasants could demand higher wages for their much needed service. As surfs saved their money, they sent their children to school increasing the growth of towns and urban areas. In addition, the Peasantry could move to the Clergy. The Nobility, as well, would often install family into plush clerical positions. For these reasons, the Clergy became a mixture of classes and produced social wealth - which gave rise to the merchant class. To be sure, the fourteenth century was a time of unparalleled change. Simply put, Chaucer embraces change. Throughout the General Prologue, the narrator of the Canterbury Tales focuses on social difference, discourse, and language. For the narrator, language is social and indicative of social class. Through the use of highly individualized portraits, the narrator advances his friendly, journalistic, non-judgmental attitude and seems to imply the difficulty with which any and all attempts to introduce classification of the characters falls apart in the face of growing change in social class structure. Certainly, the narrator values individuals - individuals are always linked to their social class. The portraits of the characters of the General Prologue and the actions of the narrator come to mirror the rise of Capitalism in the fourteenth century.
ENG 303: Chaucer
M/W/F 10:00-10:50
Paper #1
The General Prologue and Social Difference:
A Portrait of Portraits
No doubt Chaucer’s General Prologue and the Canterbury Tales were written in the midst of great social, economic, and political change. For a wide range of reasons, the fourteenth century signaled the break-up of Feudalism. Famine and the outbreak of the Black Death between 1348 and 1349 and again in 1361 decimated nearly one third of the population in less than half a year. Agricultural production suffered at the hands of the plague because there were not enough vassals to grow crops. Therefore, surfs were no longer tied to land. Now free to move from place to place, peasants could demand higher wages for their much needed service. As surfs saved their money, they sent their children to school increasing the growth of towns and urban areas. In addition, the Peasantry could move to the Clergy. The Nobility, as well, would often install family into plush clerical positions. For these reasons, the Clergy became a mixture of classes and produced social wealth - which gave rise to the merchant class. To be sure, the fourteenth century was a time of unparalleled change. Simply put, Chaucer embraces change. Throughout the General Prologue, the narrator of the Canterbury Tales focuses on social difference, discourse, and language. For the narrator, language is social and indicative of social class. Through the use of highly individualized portraits, the narrator advances his friendly, journalistic, non-judgmental attitude and seems to imply the difficulty with which any and all attempts to introduce classification of the characters falls apart in the face of growing change in social class structure. Certainly, the narrator values individuals - individuals are always linked to their social class. The portraits of the characters of the General Prologue and the actions of the narrator come to mirror the rise of Capitalism in the fourteenth century.