Canterbury+Tales

The Canterbury Tales is a book by Geoffery Chaucer published in 1475. The book is one of the first ever written in modern English vernacular (writing the way people actually talk) instead of being in Latin or French. It is a collection of short stories from people who were going on a pilgrimage to Canterbury Castle. On their way they would share two stories with a man at a tavern one the way there and one on the way back. The stories show the religion and culture of the the different social classes. The book holds around twenty-five accounts of people on their pilgrimage. All though the story was never finished, it is still considered to be one of the greats in English literature.

The pilgrims are traveling together from Southwark to Canterbury to visit the tomb of Saint Thomas Beckett, a martyr killed for his Catholic beliefs. To pass the time, each of the pilgrims takes part in a story telling challenge, each telling two tales, trying to win a free meal at the Tabard Inn upon their return.

One of the stories told was the one of the Parson. He was an ideal medieval clergyman and a very holy man who helped the sick and worked for God. Chaucer downed many clergymen this showed even in the fourteenth century the church was a hypocrite to many people not only the clergymen. The clergymen were only judged at being prudent and level headed. After writing about a monk who was as well judged by Chaucer he wrote about a nun who was very emotional. The story about her shows us that at that time woman were known to be more sensations emotionally. She was told to have cried just by seeing a 'mouse in a trap' because she felt sorry for it due to its death. Chaucer describes in his book how at the time England was a very feminist country. The woman were thought not as important as the men. Norton Anthology states that there were many anti-feminist writings that the medieval church cherished.

Today it allows us to better understand the time at which they told the stories on their pilgrimage.