On Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

I think sometimes it is easy to think that a book written hundreds of years ago can no longer truly relate to people and the experiences that they go through today. Somehow, the impression is that just because people have changed their clothes or their cultural practices in the time since these tales have been written that the content is no longer an accurate depiction of humanity. Reading from the Canterbury Tales has really shown me that we still through the same struggles and deal with the same issues. So, without further delay, here is what I learned from Chaucer:

1. Human Beings are on the same journey together through life

In the General Prologue, we meet a lot of really interesting characters including: a knight, a starving college student, a drunken mill worker, a woman who enjoys travelling and getting married, a corrupt friar, a summoner who takes bribes, a rich guy who loves to eat, an innkeeper, and a spiritual adviser to a nun. All these people have their faults, some of these people have their virtues as well and all of them are joined together in order to take this journey to Canterbury. They soon decide to pass the travelling time by sharing tales and giving a meal to the person who tells the best story and every person is welcomed to participate regardless of their wealth or education. There are so many people in this world and no matter how different we are, the fact remains that we are all breathing the same air and trying to understand what life is all about.

2. People really don't like being cheated on

This one seems somewhat obvious because people aren't really all that fond of being cheated on today either. But somehow, it just makes things a whole lot worse if your spouse is having an affair while you sleep paranoid in a tub afraid of the end of the world like we see in the Miller's Tale

3. Concern about the end of the world

Somehow people didn't quite get the memo when Jesus said "It is not for you to know the time" when it concerns the end of the world. People are still making predictions that generally don't happen but some people believe them. We can see this in the Miller's Tale when Nicolas tells a man named John that the flood is coming back so that Nicolas can get a chance to sleep with John's wife.

4. What does a successful marriage look like

We can see concern about marriage in several stories by Chaucer. The Wife of Bath suggests that Marriages would be successful if women were put in charge while the Clerk tells a story where the wife needs to listen to her husband unquestioningly. The Franklin also poses an answer by suggesting that the man should let his wife be in charge in the home but that she needs to act like he is in charge when they are in public. While not being an expert on marriage, I would say that the question of "who's in charge" is not really the right one to be asking. In a loving relationship, both the husband and the wife should put their spouse first.

5. Trying to upstage the other guy

For some reason, the Friar and the Summoner decide that they don't like each other and the both are able to figure out that each of them are corrupt and are using their work for the church as a means of stealing money from the people. The Friar tells a story that basically says that the Summoner is best buddies with the devil and sold his soul a long time ago. The Summoner then upstages him by saying that all of the Friars live in hell, beneath the devil's tale so really the friars are much more geographically close to the devil.


6. The Problem of Evil

Basically, this "problem" is still one of the most asked that people have about Christianity: "If God is good, why is there so much evil in the world". Chaucer asks this question in the Franklin's tale when a young woman named Dorigen is waiting for her husband to return from sailing and wonders why God placed such sharp rocks along the English coastline when they only seem to serve the purpose of sinking ships. I think Chaucer answers this question in the story by having the rocks covered by the tides. Basically, there will be hard times but there will be good times too and God has his reasons for both.

7. Free Will V.S. Predetermination

This a debate that many Christians are caught up in by asking "How much choice do we really have?" In The Nun's Priest's Tale, a rooster named Chaunticleer has a dream that he will meet a monster and possibly die but his wife tells him that dreams are ridiculous and that he should go on with his life. Chaunticleer then wonders if he has a choice and he chooses to ignore his dream, he is then almost eaten by a fox until he discovers a way to escape. It seems to me that Chaunticleer thinks that he is making his own decisions but that God is orchestrating things outside of the rooster's knowledge.

So, there you go, I know this is much longer and more philosophically dense than the one I made last time about The Odyssey, but I really got some deep Philosophical stuff out of Chaucer and I wanted to share.