Canterbury tales

FEATURES OF CHAUCER'S WRITING " CANTERBURY TALES "
Content
I.CHAPTER . GENRE SPECIFICITY OF "THE CANTERBURY STORIES"
1.1. Elements of novelistic narrative in the "Canterbury Tales"
1.2. Elements of the chivalric romance in the Canterbury Tales
1.3. THE INFLUENCE OF OTHER GENRES OF MEDIEVAL LITERATURE ON THE "Canterbury Tales"
II.CHAPTER. REALISM J. CHAUCERA AND THE GENRE SPECIFICITY OF HIS WORKS
2.1. English literature of the 15th century: a general description.
2.2. D. Chaucer and the "Canterbury Tales": A Contemporary View of the Society of England XIV . in.
Conclusion
Bibliography

Introduction
For more than two centuries, researchers have been paying close attention to the problem of literary types and genres. If everything is more or less clear with its first part: the main part of scientists agree that there are three literary types - epic, lyric and drama, then as for the second, there are different rather controversial points of view. The problem of the genre can be formulated as the problem of classifying works, identifying common genre features in them. The main difficulties of classification are associated with the historical change in literature, with the evolution of its genres.
In our work, we explore the problem of the genre specifics of "The Canterbury Tales" by J. Chaucer. This problem was addressed at different times by such literary scholars as Kashkin AND. , Mikhalskaya M. , Meletinsky E. , Matuzova V. , Podkorytova N. , Belozerova N. , Popova M. etc. As M. Popova rightly noted: “the genre diversity of English literature included allegorical didactic and chivalric poems, ballads and madrigals, messages and odes, treatises and sermons, vision poems and the Canterbury Tales crowning Chaucer’s work, which absorbed all the diversity genres of that time . I. Kashkin , in turn, claims: “it is difficult to determine the genre of this book. If we consider separately the stories from which it is composed , then it may seem like an encyclopedia of literary genres of the Middle Ages . E. Meletinsky , agreeing with I. Kashkin , also proves that the plots of The Canterbury Tales are “mostly realistic and, on the whole, represent a completely Renaissance (by type) encyclopedia of English life in the 14th century, and at the same time - an encyclopedia of poetic genres of the time : here is a courtly story, and a household short story, and le , and a fablio, and a folk ballad, and a parody of knightly adventurous poetry, and a didactic narrative in verse. - And, in addition, the researcher emphasizes, “new genres are also outlined, for example, “little tragedies” that a monk expounds in Chaucer, instructive historical miniatures, clearly related to pre-Renaissance motifs ".
The purpose of the work is to determine the genre originality of "The Canterbury Tales" by J. Chaucer. In connection with the purpose of the study, we set ourselves the following tasks:
Consider the concept of genre in literary theory;
Summarize the current level of the problem of the genre specifics of "The Canterbury Tales" by J. Chaucer;
Highlight the genre features of the short story and the chivalric romance in the Canterbury Tales;
Present your own version of the Canterbury Tales genre specifics.
The relevance of this work is due to an attempt to systematize the existing concepts of the genre originality of the Canterbury Tales, as well as an attempt to consider this problem in the light of the achievements of modern literary criticism.
The scientific novelty of the work is due to the lack of special works devoted to this problem.
I. Chapter . GENRE SPECIFICITY OF "THE CANTERBURY STORIES"
1.1. ELEMENTS OF NOVELLISTIC STORY IN THE CANTERBURY STORIES
World famous J. Chaucer brought his "Canterbury Tales". Chaucer got the idea for stories from reading Boccaccio's Decameron.
Modern poetry begins with Jerry Chaucer (1340-1400), diplomat, soldier, scholar. He was a bourgeois who knew the court, had an inquisitive eye, read a lot and traveled through France and Italy to study the classical works in Latin. He wrote because he was aware of his genius, but his readership was small: the courtiers, but part of the workers and merchants. He served in London Customs. This post gave him the opportunity to get acquainted with the business life of the capital in many ways, to see with his own eyes those social types that will appear in his main book, Canterbury Tales.
The Canterbury Tales came out from his pen in 1387. They grew up on the basis of a narrative tradition, the origins of which are lost in ancient times, which declared itself in the literature of the XIII-XIV centuries. in Italian short stories, cycles of satirical tales, "Roman Acts" and other collections of instructive stories. In the XIV century. plots, selected from different authors and in different sources, are already combined in a deeply individual design. The chosen form - the stories of traveling pilgrims - makes it possible to present a vivid picture of the Middle Ages. Chaucer's view of the world includes Christian miracles, which are narrated in The Abbess's Tale and The Lawyer's Tale, and the fantasy of Breton le , which appears in The Weaver 's Tale of Bath, and the idea of Christian forbearance in The Story the tale of an Oxford student. All these representations were organic for medieval consciousness. Chaucer does not question their value , as evidenced by the inclusion of such motifs in The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer creates images-role. They are created on the basis of the professional class characteristics and the inconsistency of the heroes with it. Typing is achieved by duplication , the multiplication of similar images. Absolon from The Miller's Tale, for example, appears in the role of a minister of religion - a lover. He is a church clerk, a semi -spiritual person , but his thoughts are turned to God, but to pretty parishioners . The prevalence of such an image in literature is evidenced, in addition to numerous French fablios , by one of the folk ballads included in the collection Secular lyrics of the XlVth and XVth centuries ". The behavior of the hero of this short poem is very similar to the actions of Absolon . The repetition of the image makes it typical.
All literary scholars who have studied the problem of the genres of The Canterbury Tales agree that one of the main literary genres of this work is the short story.
“Novella (Italian novella , lit. - news), - we read in a literary encyclopedic dictionary, - a small prose genre, comparable in volume to a story, but differing from it in a sharp centripetal plot , often paradoxical, lack of descriptiveness and compositional rigor. Poeticizing the incident, the short story reveals to the utmost the core of the plot - the center, the ups and downs, reduces life material into the focus of one event ".
Unlike the short story, a genre of new literature at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, which brought to the fore the figurative-verbal texture of the narrative and gravitated towards detailed characteristics , the short story is the art of the plot in its purest form, which developed in ancient times in close connection with ritual magic and myths, addressed primarily to the active, and not the contemplative side of human existence. The novelistic plot, built on sharp anti- theses and metamorphoses, on the sudden transformation of one situation into its direct opposite, is common in many folklore genres (fairy tale, fable, medieval anecdote, fablio, schwank).
“A literary short story arises during the Renaissance in Italy (the brightest example is the Decameron by G. Boccaccio), then in England, France, Spain (J. Chaucer, Margaret of Navarre , M. Cervantes). In the form of a comic and instructive short story, the formation of Renaissance realism takes place, revealing the spontaneously free self-determination of a person in a world fraught with vicissitudes. Subsequently, the short story in its evolution starts from related genres (story, short story, etc.), depicting extraordinary, sometimes paradoxical and supernatural incidents, breaks in the chain of socio-historical and psychological determinism.
Chaucer as a poet was influenced by French and Italian literature even before the creation of The Canterbury Tales. In the work of Chaucer , as you know, some pre-Renaissance features already appear, and it is customary to refer to the Proto-Renaissance. The influence of the creator of the classic Renaissance novel Giovanni Boccaccio on Chaucer is debatable. Only his acquaintance with the early works of Boccaccio and the use as sources of the Boccaccievs " Filocolo " (in the story of Franklin), "History of famous men and women" (in the story of a monk), " Theses " (in the story of a knight) and only one of short stories of the Decameron, namely the story of the faithful wife Griselda , according to the Latin translation of Petrarch (in the story of a student ). True, some echo with the motifs and plots developed by Boccaccio in the Decameron can also be found in the stories of the skipper, the merchant and Franklin. Of course, this roll call can be explained by an appeal to the general tradition of short stories. Other sources of the Canterbury Tales include Yakov Voraginsky 's The Golden Legend , fables (in particular, those of Mary of France) and The Romance of the Fox, The Romance of the Rose, the chivalrous novels of the Arthurian cycle, French fablios , and other works of the medieval , partly of ancient literature ( for example , Ovid). Meletinsky also says that: “Legendary sources and motifs are found in the stories of the second nun (taken from the Golden Legend, the life of St. Cecilia ), a lawyer (the story of the vicissitudes and sufferings of the virtuous Christian Constanta dating back to the Anglo-Norman chronicle Nicola Trive - the daughter of the Roman emperor ) and a doctor (ascending to Titus Livius and the "Roman of the Rose" story of the chaste Virginia - the victim of lust and villainy of Judge Claudius). In the second of these stories, legendary moti - you are intertwined with fabulous ones, partly in the spirit of the Greek roman , and in the third - with the tradition of Roman "valor". A taste of legend and a fairy-tale basis are felt in the student's story about Griselda , although the plot is taken from Boccaccio.
Representatives of various strata of society went on a pilgrimage. According to the social status of the pilgrims can be divided into certain groups:
High society (Knight, Squire, church ministers);
Scientists (Doctor, Lawyer);
Landowners (Franklin);
Owners (Melnik, Majordom);
Merchant class (Skipper, Merchant);
Artisans (Dyer, Carpenter, Weaver, and so on);
Lower class (Plowman).
In The General Prologue, Geoffrey Chaucer introduces the reader to practically every pilgrim (simply by mentioning his presence, or by giving details of his character). The "General Prologue" in some way forms the reader's expectations - the expectation of the main mood and theme of the story, the subsequent behavior of the pilgrim. It is from the "General Prologue" that the reader gets an idea of what stories will be told, as well as the essence, the inner world of each pilgrim. The behavior of the characters presented by Chaucer reveals the essence of their personalities, their habits, personal lives, moods, good and bad sides. The character of this or that character is presented in the prologue to the "Canterbury Tales" and is revealed further in the story itself, prefaces and afterwords to the stories. “Based on Chaucer's attitude to each character, the pilgrims participating in the journey can be organized into certain groups:
Ideal images (Knight, Squire, Student, Plowman, Priest);
"Neutral" images, descriptions of which are not presented in the "Prologue" - Chaucer only mentions their presence (clerics from the environment of the Abbess);
Images with some negative character traits (Skipper, Economy);
Inveterate sinners (Carmelite, Pardoner, Bailiff of the church court - they are all church employees) .
Chaucer finds an individual approach to each character, presenting him in the General Prologue.
“In the poetic Canterbury Tales, the compositional setting was national - the setting of the scene: a tavern by the road leading to Canterbury, a crowd of pilgrims, in which, in essence, the entire English society is represented - from feudal lords to a cheerful crowd of artisans and peasants. In total, 29 people are recruited into the company of pilgrims. Almost each of them is a living and rather complex image of a person of his time; Chaucer masterfully describes in excellent verse the habits and clothes, the manner of carrying oneself, the speech features of the characters .
As the characters are different, so are Chaucer's artistic means . He speaks of a pious and brave knight with friendly irony, because the knight looks too anachronistic with his courtesy in a rude, noisy crowd of the common people. About the son of a knight, a boy full of enthusiasm, the author speaks with tenderness; about the thieving majordomo, miser and deceiver - with disgust; with mockery - about the brave merchants and artisans; with respect - about a peasant and a righteous priest, about an Oxford student in love with books. Chaucer speaks of the peasant uprising with condemnation, almost even with horror.
The brilliant genre of literary portraiture is perhaps Chaucer's main creation. Here, as an example, is a portrait of a weaver from Bath.
And the Bat weaver chatted with him ,
Sitting famously on the pacer;
But to the temple
One of the ladies squeeze in front of her, -
Instantly forgot, in a furious pride -
About kindness and kindness.
Pretty and ruddy face.
She was an enviable wife.
And survived five husbands,
Crowds of girl friends, not counting.
What has changed in six and a half centuries? Is that the horse gave way to a limousine.
But soft humor gives way to harsh satire when the author describes the seller of indulgences he hates.
His eyes shone like those of a hare.
There was no vegetation on the body,
And the cheeks are smooth - yellow, like soap.
It seemed he was a gelding or a mare,
And though there was nothing to brag about,
About this he himself bleated like a sheep ...
As the work progresses, the pilgrims tell various stories. Knight - an old courtly plot in the spirit of a knightly novel; carpenter - a funny and obscene story in the spirit of modest urban folklore, etc. In each story, the interests and sympathies of a particular pilgrim are revealed, which achieves the individualization of the character, the task of depicting him from the inside is solved.
Chaucer is called the "father of realism". The reason for this is his art of a literary portrait, which, it turns out, appeared in Europe earlier than a pictorial portrait. Indeed, when reading The Canterbury Tales, one can safely talk about realism as a creative method that implies not only a truthful generalized image of a person, typifying a certain social phenomenon, but also a reflection of changes taking place in society and a person.
So, the English society in Chaucer's portrait gallery is a society in motion, in development, a society in transition, where the feudal order is strong, but outdated, where the new man of the developing city is revealed. It is clear from the Canterbury Tales that the future does not belong to the preachers of the Christian ideal, but to business people, full of strength and passions, although they are less respectable and virtuous than the same peasant and country priest.
The Canterbury Tales laid the foundation for a new English poetry, based on the entire experience of advanced European poetry and national song traditions.
Based on the analysis of this work, we came to the conclusion that the genre of the Canterbury Tales was strongly influenced by the genre of the short story. This is manifested in the features of the plot, the construction of images, the speech characteristics of the characters, humor and edification.
1.2. ELEMENTS OF A KNIGHT NOVEL IN THE CANTERBURY TALES
Since in the time of J. Chaucer the novel and, in particular, the romance of chivalry were one of the main genres of literature, the writer simply could not ignore them. He used elements of courtly romance in The Knight's Tale.
In general, “novel (French Roman , German Roman , English novel ; originally, in the late Middle Ages, any work written in Romance, and not in Latin) is an epic work in which the narrative is focused on the fate of an individual personality in the process of its formation and development, deployed in the artistic space and time, sufficient to convey the "organization" of the personality. Being the epic of private life, "the image of feelings, passions and events of the private and inner life of people" [cit. according to 5, 330], the novel presents individual and social life as relatively independent, not exhausting and absorbing each other elements, and this is the defining feature of its genre content .
In the Middle Ages, the romantic tendency is most fully manifested in the genre of chivalric romance, which brought with it freedom of narration, liveliness of dialogues, psychological " portraiting " of characters ("The Tale of Tristan and Isolde"). The narrative traditions of the French chivalric romance predetermined for a long time the leading position of French literature in the development of the novel.
One of the most common genres in the literature of the Middle Ages was the chivalric romance (French roman chevaleresque , roman de chevalerie ; German Ritterroman , hofischer Roman ; English romance of chivalry , Spanish romance ; ital. romanzo cavalleresco ; Czech _ rytifsky roman ), which largely determined the literary development in the named era. “It arose in a feudal environment during the heyday of chivalry, for the first time - in France in the middle. 12th c. He took from the heroic epic the motives of boundless courage and nobility. In the chivalric novel, the analysis of the psychology of the individualized hero-knight, who performs feats not in the name of the family or vassal duty, but for the sake of his own glory and glorification of his beloved, comes to the fore . The abundance of exotic descriptions and fantastic motifs brings the chivalric romance closer to folk tales, the literature of the East and the pre-Christian mythology of Central and Northern Europe. The development of the chivalric romance was influenced by the rethought legends of the ancient Celts and Germans, and by the writers of antiquity (Ovid). The most popular were novels about the Knights of the Round Table, about the legendary King Arthur of the Britons, about the love of Tristan and Iseult, about the search for the Holy Grail. The cheerful ideal of free love and the search for adventure gives way to a Christian-ascetic beginning in later chivalric romances. Originally the romance of chivalry was in verse; from ser. 13th c. his prose adaptations appear (for example, the Lancelot cycle ). Knightly novels were also created in Germany and England. The poetics of the chivalric romance influenced the heroic epic , which was recorded at that time in the written tradition, the development of prose and versification (in particular, the Alexandrian verse). In parallel with the chivalric novel, the chivalric tale and short story developed. Already in the 13th century. parodies of the chivalric romance appear. In the 15th century. the genre declined, but with the advent of book printing it revived again in the form of popular prints (including in Russia in the 17th and 19th centuries). In Spain, the romance of chivalry flourished during the Renaissance, filled with his ideas. Cervantes in Don Quixote did not ridicule the chivalric romance as such , but epigone revisions and continuations of the best examples of the genre. Attempts by writers of a precision direction in the 16th-17th centuries. to revive the chivalrous romance, acquired the character of a conditional stylization .
In the prologue to The Canterbury Tales, all the pilgrim characters are most vividly presented as unique individuals, which distinguishes the work from any other novels of the Middle Ages. The author's approach to the description of the characters is notable for the fact that the author approaches the description of the participants of the pilgrimage in detail:
35: But nathelees , while I have time nd space ,
36: Er that I ferther in this tale pace ,
37: Me thynketh it acordaunt to resoun
38: To telle yow al the condition
39: Of ech of hem , so as it semed me ,
40: And whiche they weren , and of what degree ,
41: And eek in what array that they were inne …
35: But still, as long as there is a place and time,
37: I think it would be appropriate
38: Tell you about the situation
39: Each of them, as they seemed to me,
40: And what they were, and to what extent,
41: And about their outfits...
Considering the image of the Knight as an ideal figure presented by Chaucer, the embodiment of dignity, nobility and honor, but at the same time having some shortcomings, we will conduct a study of the Knight's story, taking into account the structure of the story and the poetic means used by the author to create the completeness of the image of the character.
The story tells about the love of two cousins - Palamon and Arsita - for the daughter-in-law of the Duke of Athens, Emilia. The cousins, being princes of a hostile state, are imprisoned in a dungeon by order of Theseus, from the high tower of which they accidentally see Emilia and both fall in love with her. Enmity breaks out between the cousins, and when Theseus learns of the rivalry between the two brothers, he arranges a jousting tournament, promising to give the winner Emilia as his wife. By the intervention of the gods, Palamon wins ; Arsita dies by accident; the story ends with the wedding of Palamon and Emilia.
It should be noted that the Knight's tale is one of the longest tales presented by the Pilgrims. One gets the impression of the solemnity, majesty of the narrative, since the narrator often deviates from the main action, presenting the audience with large fragments of detailed descriptions, often not related to the development of the plot itself (description of the women of Thebes, mourning the death of their husbands, description of temples, festivities, battles). Moreover, the Knight, as the story progresses, interrupts himself several times, returning to the main characters and to the main development of the plot:
885: But al that thyng I moot as now forbere .
1000: But shortly for to telle is my entente .
1201: But of this story list me nat to write .
885: But I must forget about that now.
1000: But my intention is to tell you briefly.
1201: But that's not what I want to tell you about.
2965: But shortly to the point thanne wol I wende ,
2966: And made of my long tale an end . 2965: But I'll get to the point quickly,
2966: And I will complete my long story ".
“Long passages representing descriptions of temples, ceremonies, armor of warriors emphasize the pretentious luxury of knightly life. The descriptions are rich in figurativeness and metaphorical, although, as some researchers note, they are standard: "... Palamon in this fightyng were a wood leon , and as a crueel tiger was Arcite ... "(" ... Palamon in this battle is like a mad lion, and like a ferocious tiger - Arsita ..."); when describing captives, Palamon and Arsita ; the author does not go beyond the standard epithets: " woful " ("poor"), " sorweful " ("sad"), " wrecched " ("unfortunate"), " pitous " ("miserable") are epithets that are repeated throughout the story.
The central figures of the narrative (unfolding of the action) are Palamon and Arsita , but most researchers note that Duke Theseus is the central image. He is presented at the very beginning of the story as an ideal image, the embodiment of nobility, wisdom, justice and military virtues. The narrative opens with the introduction of the duke, a description of his virtues, although it would be logical to expect at the very beginning of the story the introduction of the central figures of the narrative, Palamon and Arsita . Theseus appears as a model of chivalry, an ideal figure, and then a judge in a dispute between Arcita and Palamon . The greatness of the duke is confirmed by military victories and wealth:
859: Whilom , as olde stories tellen us ,
860: Ther was a duc that highte theseus ;
861: Of Athenes he was lord and governor ,
862: And in his time swich a conquerour ,
863: That gritter was ther none under the sonne .
864: Ful many a rich contree hadde he wonne ;
865: What with his wysdom and chivalrie ,
866: He conquered al regne of femenye …
952: This gentil duc down from his courser erase
953: With herte pitous , whan he herde hem spike .
954: Hym thoughte that his herte wold break ,
955: Whan he saugh hem so pitous and so maat ,
956: That whilom were of so greet estaat ;
957: And in his arms he hem alle up hente ,
958: And hem comfort in ful good entente ,
959: And swoor his ooth , as he was trewe knyght …
987: He faught , and slough hym manly as a princess
988: In Plein bataille …
859: One day, as the old tales say,
860: There was once a duke named Theseus;
861: He was ruler and lord of Athens,
862: And he was such a warrior at that time,
863: What was not mightier than him under the sun.
864: He captured many rich countries;
865: By his valor and wisdom
866: He conquered the kingdom of the Amazons...
952: The good-hearted duke dismounted
953: With a compassionate heart, as I heard their speech.
954: He thought his heart would break his heart,
955: When I saw them so miserable and weak
956: What was not more unfortunate than them;
957: And he raised his whole army,
958: And gently comforted them,
959: And swore like a true knight...
987: He fought and slew many like a knight
988: In combat"
Theseus is an ideal image in terms of knightly virtues: he protects those who need it, has knightly prowess in battles, is prudent in controversial matters, and is sensitive to the suffering of others. So, as we have seen, the Duke of Athens, Theseus, is presented to the reader as a model of chivalrous behavior, an ideal image, which will then act as a judge in a dispute between two brothers.
“The structure of the story is unusual for a simple narrative as a development of any plot. The symmetry of the structure of the story, the symmetry of the images, the pretentious static descriptions, the rich symbolism suggest not focusing on the search for skillfully drawn images, not on moral conclusions - all the reader's attention is focused on the aesthetic impression of the story ".
At the lexical level, a large number of epithets were noted (when describing characters, temples, rituals), but the standardity, repetition of epithets does not allow us to determine the stylistic coloring of the text. To a greater extent, the stylistic coloring of the text, the lyricism of the story is presented with the help of parallel constructions, enumeration (that is, at the syntactic level).
“The images presented are more symbolic than real. The images are revealed by the structure of the story - the structure presupposes the role and position of each character in the story, his characteristics (if any), symbolism .
The story presents the reader with an augmented image of the Knight as the image of a romantic hero.
At the same time, Chaucer rethinks the genre tradition of the chivalric romance. The writer presents all the characters as unique individuals, approaches their description in detail; creates the ideal image of the Knight, as the embodiment of the dignity of nobility and honor; uses a large number of epithets and metaphors; especially rich in imagery of his descriptions of nature and terrain.
1.3. THE INFLUENCE OF OTHER GENRES OF MEDIEVAL LITERATURE ON THE "Canterbury Tales"
As mentioned earlier, The Canterbury Tales is an encyclopedia of poetic genres: here is a courtly story, and a household short story, and a la , and a fablio, and a fable, and a parody of knightly adventurous poetry, and didactic narrative in verse.
The stories of the monastery chaplain and the steward have a fable character. The story of the seller of indulgences echoes one of the plots used in the Italian collection " Novellino ", and contains elements of a folk tale and a parable (the search for death and the fatal role of the found gold lead to the mutual extermination of friends).
The most vivid and original are the stories of the miller, the majordomo , the skipper, the Carmelite, the bailiff of the church court, the canon's servant, revealing closeness to the fablio and, in general, to the medieval tradition of the novelistic type.
The spirit of the fablio emanates from the story of the Bat weaver about herself. In this narrative group, there are the themes of adultery and the tricks of cheating and counter-tricking associated with it ( in the stories of the miller, the majordomo and the skipper), familiar to both the fablio and the classic short story. In the story of the bailiff of the church court, the brightest description of the monk who extorts the gift of the church from the dying is given, and the rude response joke of the patient is sarcastically described, rewarding the extortionist with stinking “air”, which still needs to be divided among the monks. In the story of the Carmelite, another extortionist appears in the same satirical vein , "cunning" and "dashing fellow ", "despicable bailiff, pimp, thief ". At the moment when the church bailiff tries to rob the poor old woman, and she sends him to hell in despair, the devil present at the same time takes the soul of the bailiff to hell. The story of the canon's servant deals with the popular theme of exposing the roguery of the alchemists.
The innovation of J. Chaucer lies in the synthesis of genres in one work. So almost every story of his belongs to a certain genre, and this makes his "Canterbury Tales" a unique encyclopedia of genres of the Middle Ages.
Thus, we have come to the conclusion that Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is a unique encyclopedia of medieval literary genres. Among them are a courtly tale, and a household short story, and a le , and a fablio, and a folk ballad, and a parody of knightly adventurous poetry, and a fable, and a didactic narrative in verse.

Chapter . REALISM J. CHAUCERA AND THE GENRE SPECIFICITY OF HIS WORKS

2.1. English literature of the 15th century: a general description.
“The essence and basis of the book is its realism. It includes portraits of people, their assessment, their views on art, their behavior - in a word, a living picture of life .
Not without reason did Gorky call Chaucer the “father of realism”: the rich painting of portraits of his contemporaries in his poetic “Canterbury Tales” and, even more so, their general concept, such a clear clash of old feudal England and new England of merchants and adventurers, testify to Chaucer’s belonging to the literature of the Renaissance.
“But the category of realism is a complex phenomenon that has not yet received an unambiguous definition in the scientific literature. During the discussion in 1957, several points of view on realism emerged. According to one of them, realism, understood as plausibility, fidelity to reality, can be found already in the earliest monuments of art. From another point of view, realism as an artistic method of cognition of reality arises only at a certain stage in the history of mankind. Regarding the time of its origin, there is no complete unity among the supporters of this concept. Some believe that the conditions for the emergence of realism are formed only in the 19th century, when literature turns to the study of social reality . Others associate the genesis of realistic art with the Renaissance, believing that at this time writers begin to analyze the influence of society and history on a person.
Both of these statements are correct to a certain extent. Indeed , realism as an artistic method was fully developed only in the 19th century, when a direction known as critical realism developed in European literatures. However, like any phenomenon in nature and society, realism arose “not immediately, not in finished form, but with a certain gradualness, going through a more or less long process of formation, formation, maturation” [cit. according to 8, 50]. It is natural , therefore, that some elements, certain aspects of the realistic method are also found in the literature of earlier eras. From this point of view, we will try to find out what elements of the realistic method appear in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. As you know, one of the most important principles of realism is the reproduction of life in the forms of life itself. This formula, however, does not imply realism or plausibility in the modern sense of the word , which is mandatory for works of all historical periods. As Acad. N. I. Kondrad : “The concept of “reality” carried a different content for writers of different centuries. “The love potion in the novel Tristan and Isolda is not “mysticism” at all, but simply a product of the pharmacology of that time . . ." » .
The idea of reality, which found its expression in the Canterbury Tales, was largely based on medieval ideas. Thus, "reality" in the late Middle Ages included astrological representations. Chaucer took them quite seriously. This is evidenced by the fact that in the Canterbury Tales, characters and situations are often determined by the position of the stars and heavenly bodies. An example is The Knight's Tale. Astrology in Chaucer's time combined medieval prejudices and scientific astronomical knowledge. The writer's interest in them is manifested in the prose treatise "On the Astrolabe ", in which he explains to a certain "little Lewis" how to use this ancient astronomical instrument.
Medieval philosophy often declared real not only objects surrounding a person, but also angels, and even human souls. The influence of these ideas can also be seen in Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales . His view of the world includes Christian miracles, which are narrated in the "Abbess's Tale" and in "The Lawyer's Tale", and the fantasy of the Breton le , which appears in "The Tale of the Weaver from Bath", and the idea of Christian long-suffering - in "The Story of the tale of an Oxford student. All these representations were organic for medieval consciousness. Chaucer does not question their value , as evidenced by the inclusion of such motifs in The Canterbury Tales. For Chaucer, as a writer of the earliest stage of the English Renaissance, it is not a denial of medieval ideals that is characteristic, but a somewhat ironic attitude towards them. This is manifested, for example, in the Oxford Student's Tale, which details the story of the patient Griselda , popular at that time . The daughter of a poor peasant, she becomes the wife of a large feudal lord, who demands unconditional obedience from her. Wanting to test Griselda , her husband and master orders the children to be taken away from her and fakes their murder. Then he deprives Griselda of all property and even clothes, expels her from the palace and announces his decision to marry again a young and noble girl. Griselda meekly fulfills all the orders of her husband. Since obedience is one of the basic Christian virtues, at the end of the story, Griselda is fully rewarded for it. The husband returns his favor to her, she again becomes the mistress of the whole neighborhood and meets with the children whom she considered killed.
Chaucer's hero conscientiously retells a well-known parable. But his final words are ironic:
It were ful hard to fynde now -a - dayes
In al a town Grisildis thre or two .
It would be very difficult these days
Find two or three Griseldas in the whole city .
The conclusion of the narrator-student is very revealing. It reflected the understanding of unrealism , the implausibility of ideas that were part of medieval reality .
Realistic tendencies in Chaucer's art have not fully formed , they are in the making. In relation to the literature of the XIV century. one can hardly speak of the reproduction of reality in the forms of reality itself. However, the author of The Canterbury Tales is distinguished by a completely conscious desire for a truthful depiction of life. Confirmation can be the words that the writer puts into the mouth of a pilgrim named Chaucer. In the prologue to The Miller's Tale , he expresses his fear that not all storytellers will follow the rules of a good thane in their stories .
I moot reherce
Ніг tales alle , be they bettre or
Or elles falsen son of my matere .
I have to convey
All their stories, be they good or
Or fake a part of mine
works ".
The poet strives to reproduce these stories in a form as close as possible to the way they were allegedly told during pilgrimages . The Canterbury Tales reveals, albeit in a rudimentary form, a creative attitude towards a realistic reproduction of life.
Domestic literary critics, regardless of whether they recognize realism in the literature that preceded the 19th century, believe that the identification of features of realism in the works of different eras contributes to a correct understanding of continuity in the development of artistic creativity. So, R. M. Samarin, speaking about the realism of the Renaissance , notes its close connection with the fruitful traditions of medieval art.
Chaucer's work belongs to a complex and transitional historical period, uniting contradictory trends: the originality of the Canterbury Tales largely stems from the fact that the writer continues medieval traditions, interpreting them in a new way. This is manifested, for example, in the ways of characterizing the characters. The artistic method of realism involves the depiction of typical heroes in typical circumstances. The French researcher J. Bedier , analyzing the fablio, one of the main genres of medieval literature, noted that typification was still weak in it. He probably meant typification, as it was understood in the 19th century.
The character of the hero of that time was determined by his position on the hierarchical ladder, however , since antiquity, in scientific treatises and their popular transcriptions, there have been ideas about the influence of external circumstances on a person’s character. Of course, the circumstances were often understood in a metaphysical, and even in an astrological spirit. In the era of Chaucer , fiction begins to look for the reasons for certain features of the human personality, not just in the position of a person within the feudal hierarchy, but in himself and in external circumstances . Attempts by writers of the late Middle Ages to penetrate the secrets of human psychology relied on the teaching of temperaments dating back to Hippocrates , according to which all people were divided into choleric, melancholic, sanguine and phlegmatic. Each type of temperament corresponded to certain character traits. Chaucer was probably familiar with this doctrine, since its influence is felt , for example, in the portrait of the majordomo. The words and deeds of the hero confirm this characterization.
One of the most important circumstances that shape the character of a person , in the time of Chaucer, was considered astrology. According to astrological concepts, the star under which a person was born affects his character. Thus, the weaver from Bath claims that her abundance of love was predetermined by Venus, and her warlike spirit by Mars. Both of these planets were in the sky at the hour of her birth.
In some cases, Chaucer shows the influence of social circumstances on the character of his hero. In this regard, the image of the miller Simkin from the Majordomo's Tale is very curious. The dishonesty of millers was a well-known fact, so it is no coincidence that in Chaucer's time there was a riddle: "Who is the most courageous in the world ?" - "The miller's shirt, because she hugs a swindler every day." Depicting his hero as a thief, the writer follows the medieval ideas about the people of his profession. However, Chaucer is not limited to class and professional characteristics. Simkin is a representative of the wealthy strata of the third estate, so there are many features in his image that are due precisely to this circumstance. He is a man with a pronounced sense of dignity, comically turning into swagger. But he has no traditional reasons for pride: he is not of noble origin, he did not accomplish great feats of chivalry. The basis of the miller's independence is his wealth, created by himself through deceit and theft. In the face of Simkin, the Canterbury Tales is an attempt to show a socially conditioned character.
One of the main features of realistic art is the ability to reveal the typical in the individual and through the individual . Since such a technique was unknown to medieval literature , writers of that time usually limited themselves to a brief typical description, for example , in a fablio. In contrast, Chaucer gives his characters individualized features. The individualization of images in the Canterbury Tales is due to certain processes that took place in the society and ideology of the 14th century. The early Middle Ages, according to D.S. Likhachev, “does not know someone else’s consciousness, someone else’s psychology, someone else’s ideas as an object of objective representation,” because at that time the individual had not yet separated from the collective (estate, caste, corporation, workshop). However, in the time of Chaucer , in connection with the growth of entrepreneurship and private initiative , the role of the individual in the life of society increases, which serves as the basis for the emergence of individualistic ideas and trends in the field of ideology.
"In the XIV century. the problem of the individual sounds in literature, art , philosophy, religion. P. Mrozkowski connects the tendency towards individualization with the ideas of scotism , which "emphasized the beauty of each given individual object." The founder of this philosophical and theological trend was Dun Scotus (1266-1308). In the well-known dispute between medieval realists and nominalists, he took the position of a moderate nominalist. According to J. Morse, in the teachings of Okot, two points are of the greatest value: the idea of the primacy of will over reason and the idea of the uniqueness of the individual ". For us, the second position is more important, which is connected with the dispute about the reality of abstract concepts. According to Duns Scotus, the phenomena denoted by these concepts really exist: after all, humanity consists of individuals. The possibility of combining them into one is due to the fact that the difference between individuals is not generic, but formal . All human souls belong to the same genus, they have a common nature, so in the aggregate they can be called humanity . But each soul has an individual form. “The very existence of a separate soul,” writes J. Morse, analyzing the views of Duns Scotus, “consists in its uniqueness. The soul has not only quidditas (" whatness ", spirituality), but also haecceitas (" thisness ", ... individuality ) ... It is not only "soul", but "this soul"; likewise, the body has not only corporeality, but also individuality. Man is not just a human being, he is a human being , and this quality determines his belonging to humanity .
The fifteenth century in the history of England usually presents itself to us as a time of decline and decay. In all spheres of life and culture of this historical period, the observer's gaze reveals, first of all, the features of decay, the weakening of creative activity. The literature of this period, at first glance, does not put forward a single major name; the place of former poetic luminaries is occupied by compilers, imitators, translators who live entirely on the legacy of past times. Continuous wars and civil strife did not favor the development of peaceful creative labor. The 14th century ended with the deposition of King Richard II (1399). In the person of Henry IV, the Lancaster dynasty entered the English throne. Henry's reign was troubled and full of setbacks. The arbitrariness of the feudal lords, the constant strife between them, the heavy taxes that fell on the shoulders of the working population, the beginning of the fanatical persecution of "heretics" - all this soon hardened the population, and at the beginning of the reign of Henry V (1413-1422) led to massive popular unrest . Henry V tried to divert attention from internal troubles with widely conceived military campaigns against the French, thus resuming the Hundred Years' War with France, which had somewhat died out under Richard II and Henry IV. Outwardly, these were successful and for a long time then they amused the English national pride. The battle of Agincourt (1415), when Henry, having landed on the French coast with his small detachments, defeated a large French army, never lost its attractive force for English poets, playwrights and novelists; She was made famous by Shakespeare. The further successes of Henry V seemed even more dazzling; the capture of the entire north of France, the capture of Paris (1422) were the limit of the hopes that his contemporaries placed on him. But Henry V died unexpectedly, at the height of his military glory. The crown was received by his young son (Henry VI, 1422-1461). Immediately began the strife of the feudal lords, the struggle of court parties for influence and power; the French possessions of England began to decrease rapidly, after a period of brilliant victories, a time of bitter defeats began. By 1450, the British retained only one Calais on the continent. Before the Hundred Years' War with France had ended, however, new, this time internecine wars arose in England, which plunged the country into a state of complete lawlessness. The War of the Scarlet and White Roses (1455-1485) was the last mortal battle of the rebellious feudal forces. It was a struggle for the crown and, at the same time, for the creation of a new absolute monarchical regime. On the battlefields between the supporters of the Yorks and the Lancasters, along with the death of almost all the old feudal nobility, the old feudal culture bled and died. The Battle of Bosworth (1485), when Henry Tudor defeated his rival Richard III, begins a new era in English history. The young Tudor dynasty relied on new social forces. The new nobility, which seized the hereditary land holdings of the old feudal families destroyed during the internecine wars, was directly dependent on the royal power and supported its desire for further national-state unification of the country. Throughout the 15th century, the influence of the gentry, the merchants, and the cities was continuously growing, and was already noticeable in the 14th century; industry and trade are expanding, and the spirit of entrepreneurship is growing. Throughout this period, literacy undoubtedly increased in a wider circle of the population than before. Together with the growing needs of the strengthened middle class, the network of schools in London and the provinces increased, ranging from schools established by the king (at Eton and Cambridge), and schools run by churches or guilds, down to small private institutions in which children were given their first lessons in literacy. Characteristically, the largest number of schools belonged to the category of primary schools, where students did not receive a scientific education, but only prepared for a purely practical, most often merchant, activity. The development of school education increased the demand for the book, increased the production of manuscripts as a form of publishing at that time. On the basis of one official document dating back to 1422, we can conclude that in this year, out of 112 London guilds, four guilds were specially occupied with copying handwritten books for sale. By the middle and especially by the end of the 15th century, we have a number of information about the libraries of such handwritten books, which arise not only among the landed magnates or representatives of the church, but also among the nobles and wealthy townspeople. One of the most famous documents of this kind is the inventory of the private library of John Paston , the landowner, made shortly after 1475. Other arts - painting, sculpture, architecture - in England of the 15th century were also not in decline, on the contrary, they received new and more solid foundations for of its development. English painting and sculpture of this time, for example, experienced the beneficial effects of the Italian and Burgundian schools and created a number of wonderful works designed not only for church use. Architecture experienced one of the periods of its heyday and also gradually secularized; along with the magnificent buildings of churches and monasteries, remarkable secular buildings were also erected in England - university colleges, houses of wealthy citizens ( Crosby Hall in London, 1470), buildings for guild associations (London Guildhall , 1411-1425). Commercial connections attracted to London and the English port cities a much larger number of foreigners than before. The largest number of Englishmen who showed in the first half of the XV century. propensity to engage in classical antiquity and commitment to the new science, belonged to the highest clerical nobility. Against this background, the figure of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, brother of Henry V, who was the first humanist-philanthropist, patron of humanistic interests among English scientists and writers of his time, stands out sharply. Humphrey was a great lover of antiquity and an ardent admirer of Italian scholarship. He ordered teachers from Italy to study ancient authors, spent huge amounts of money on the acquisition of manuscripts, corresponded with a number of humanists, and ordered translations of Greek authors from them. The most important result of Humphrey's activity was the accumulation of remarkable book wealth, which the first English humanists were able to use half a century later. Humphrey's library was bequeathed by him to Oxford University. Next to Humphrey, one can name another representative of the English aristocracy of the 15th century, who gained considerable fame in Italy itself for his exemplary Latin oratorical cuts. It was John Tiptoft Tiptoft , Earl of Worcester . Beginning in the 1450s, there was an increasing number of young English people who were drawn to Italy by a thirst for knowledge. Of great importance for everything under consideration and for subsequent periods were changes in the field of language. Compared with the XIV century. in England at this time the prevalence of French speech undoubtedly decreased, even among the circles of the highest nobility. Throughout the century, the importance of the London dialect grew. Under its influence, dialectal differences in the written language of other English regions were obscured. The completion of the centralization of political power by the end of the wars of the Scarlet and White Roses also contributed to the centralization in the field of language, the development of common English literary speech based on the London dialect. Of great importance in this respect was the appearance of printing in England.
2.2. D. CHAUCERA AND THE CANTERBURY TALES: A CONTEMPORARY VIEW ON THE SOCIETY OF ENGLAND OF THE XIV CENTURY
In this article we will turn to the problem of literary texts as one of the types of historical sources. At the same time, the question of their relevance, one way or another, concerns the problem of the author, and on closer examination, how origin, education and social experience affect the nature of the text and the ways in which it reflects the surrounding reality. Let us analyze D. Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales from the aforementioned positions.
Geoffrey Chaucer ( 1340? - 1400) is considered the father of English poetry, the creator of literary English, the first English realist poet, a pre-Renaissance humanist. The main work of the poet, the result of his creative path, is The Canterbury Tales, where the author's interest in the political, economic, ethical, religious phenomena of England in the 14th century was fully expressed, and most importantly, in his contemporaries - people of various classes and states.
Chaucer's biography is an excellent example of the existence of an individual in various social fields. At different periods of his life, the poet communicated with representatives of almost all classes, which allowed him to know all aspects of the life of English society. And if we take into account that Chaucer was successful not only as a poet and various kinds of employee, but also as a husband and family man, his personality in a good sense becomes amazing.
D. Chaucer was born into a London merchant family of Norman origin, his father was a wealthy wine merchant, had a large enterprise importing Spanish and Italian wines to England. Apparently he was the supplier of the royal court, which made it possible for Chaucer, even in his youth, to get into the circle of courtiers, into the English aristocratic society, where the future poet learns the life and customs of the upper feudal class. In 1357, he already holds the position of a page in the retinue of the wife of Edward's son, the Duke of Lionel Clarence , and two years later becomes a squire and takes part in the military campaign of King Edward in France. There, Geoffrey is captured near the city of Reims, but the generous king ransoms him for only 16 livres. Chaucer experienced ups and downs in his court career, treated differently by successive English kings, but the poet himself was always loyal to his patrons, such as Edward III's son the Duke of Lancaster, John of Gaunt.
At court, Chaucer witnessed one of the most important events of the 14th century: the last surge of chivalrous culture in the history of England under Edward III. The king was a passionate lover of tournaments, embodied all knightly ideals and tried to revive the cult of chivalry. Chaucer shared similar sentiments. In addition, the poet lived in the era of the Hundred Years War, and moreover, he was a participant in it. Military operations, coupled with the predilection of Edward himself, allowed Chaucer to feel the lifestyle of the knighthood : reading the story of the knight from the Canterbury Tales, we see that Chaucer was quite well versed in knightly duels and tournaments, we meet their detailed description.
From 1370 a new streak began in Chaucer's life. He began, on behalf of the king, to accompany diplomatic missions to Europe: he visited Italy twice - in 1373 and 1378. It is suggested that there the poet personally met with the founders of Italian humanism Petrarch and Boccaccio, although there is no reliable data on these meetings. One thing is clear, this period in the life of Chaucer is one of the most important. He gave the poet the opportunity to observe the highly developed urban early humanistic culture, master the Italian language, and expand social and cultural experience. Moreover, the influence of early Renaissance Italian literature is clearly felt in the same Canterbury Tales.
From 1374 to 1386 Chaucer served as Customs Comptroller for wool, leather and furs at the Port of London. This position was not easy. The poet had to spend the whole day in the port, write all the reports and accounts with his own hand, inspect the goods, collect fines and duties. There was no time left for creativity, and only at night Chaucer worked on his works. Then he read books and educated himself.
The poet's passion for reading is obvious. His writings testify to the knowledge of ancient and medieval literature, the works of Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio (which is not typical for England), Holy Scripture, the works of the "Church Fathers", an interest in philosophy, music, astronomy, alchemy. References to books are constant in all of Chaucer's major writings. And tradition ascribes to the poet the possession of a library of 60 volumes, which was a lot for that time. The answer to the question of what education the poet received is still not clear, but many researchers suggest that it was legal. Based on what knowledge Chaucer must have had, holding various government positions, and in what educational institutions people of his circle and wealth studied, Gardner comes to the conclusion that the poet could have studied sciences in the Inner Temple - a guild of lawyers created from the Temple Church in London.
Surprisingly, "customs" is the most productive period of the poet's work. Now Chaucer saw the true life of London in the 14th century, got acquainted with urban England. Merchants and officials, artisans and small merchants, yeomen and villans, monks and priests passed by him. Thus, the service brought him into contact with the business world of London, and the social types he saw later appeared in his stories.
In addition to service and writing, Chaucer also realizes himself in his personal life: since 1366, the poet was married to Philippa Roet , the maid of honor of the second Duchess of Lancaster, and had three children. In addition, despite his strong employment, Chaucer was also engaged in social activities - he was a justice of the peace in Kent (1385), a deputy in parliament from the same county (1386). While in Kent, he got acquainted with rural England, communicated "with people from the earth": landowners, tenants, managers, villans, cotters . This environment greatly enriched his observations.
The following years were not very successful in Chaucer's life. The era of Richard II was full of intrigues and political conflicts: the Duke of Gloucester and the patron of the poet D. Gaunt and the Duke of Lancaster fought for influence on the young Richard II. After Gloucester's victory, Chaucer lost his place in the customs. His financial situation worsened, and in 1387 his wife died. Chaucer was morally depressed, a "black streak" came in his life. Only in 1389, when the matured Richard II took power into his own hands, Chaucer received the post of superintendent of the royal estates and overseer of the repair of royal buildings, but did not last long. In 1391 he was deposed, and for the last years of his life he lived on occasional handouts and commissions. On October 25, 1400, Chaucer died, and his grave became the first in "Poets' Corner" in Westminster Abbey.
Surprisingly, in - in the most difficult years in his life (political intrigues, removal from office, financial problems, death of his wife), Chaucer creates the most vivid, cheerful book, full of humor and irony - The Canterbury Tales. The stories can be called "an encyclopedia of the literary genres of the Middle Ages ". Here is a chivalric romance, and a pious legend, and a historical story, and a fablio, and a sermon, and a short story. By the way, the frame structure of Chaucer's book itself was innovative for that time, it was well known in the east, but in Europe it was found only by a few authors (for example, Boccaccio ).
On an imaginary April morning, 29 heterogeneous pilgrims from various parts of England set off from Southwark to Canterbury to the tomb of St. Thomas Becket and, to amuse themselves on the road, tell each other stories - that, it would seem, is the whole plot of the Canterbury Tales. However, in it Chaucer was able to express the realities of medieval England. Becket , Archbishop of Canterbury, who died a violent death in 1170, was famous for the fact that many were healed of her diseases. Such a pilgrimage was very popular in England, it is believed that the poet himself made it in 1385 .
In the general prologue, the narrator, whom Chaucer endowed with his name, appearance, and even calling as a poet, introduces and describes the pilgrims in turn. Pilgrims can be divided into several groups: people whose life takes place in military campaigns, rural residents, townspeople, clerics, representatives of the urban intelligentsia. We see that the pilgrims belong to different strata of society, only the highest court (dukes, princes) and church (bishops, archbishops) aristocracy are not represented. This is due to the fact that by the mid-1380s. Chaucer's connection with the royal court was greatly weakened, and he intended the stories for a society of townspeople who usually did not clash with the upper classes.
So, in The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer speaks from the position of the author-storyteller. At the same time, he not only characterizes modern English society and shows the realities of England in the 14th century, but also expresses the views of a representative of a new social type that began to take shape in the cities of that time - a secular official, an educated layman. Although there are several semantic levels and the views of Chaucer himself can not always be distinguished, the researchers note that the characteristics of the pilgrims given by the poet are objective, and express the trends of the time.
In the prologue, Chaucer describes three characters whose life is connected with war: a knight, a squire-squire, and a yeoman. In this trio, the main character is a knight. More than a third of all the stories are devoted to the theme of chivalry, apparently the “chivalrous” youth of Chaucer himself had an effect here. Two trends can be distinguished in them in the depiction of chivalry: one develops the image of a valiant and noble warrior outlined by the prologue (the story of a doctor, the knight himself), the other shows the emerging tradition of ridiculing a knight (the story of a weaver from Bath and a merchant). The latest tradition of depicting a knight not only goes back to fablio and urban literature, but also expresses a general European trend - the decline of the knighthood, which was also observed in England.
Chaucer draws in the stories a large number of representatives of the clergy (abbess, Benedictine monk, Carmelite monk, priest, bailiff of the church court, seller of indulgences). In characterizing these characters, he notes such trends of his time as secularism and formal piety, forgetfulness of the vow of poverty and money-grubbing, and deception of the population. At the same time, contrasts play an important role: the negative qualities of most of the clergy are set off by the image of the parish priest idealized by the author. This is the only type of clergy for which the poet apparently felt respect and sympathy: “I didn’t know a better priest,” he says . D. Chaucer not only abstractly criticizes the clergy, he reflects in the stories the realities of England in the 14th century. - the decomposition of the clergy, an increase in the number of mendicant monks-money-mongers, the defrauding of money from the people by the practice of papal indulgences, the arbitrariness of church bailiffs and the spread of Wycliffe's ideas . Apparently, Chaucer was quite familiar with the ideas of the Lollards, because his contemporary, the reformer of the English church D. Wycliffe, was assisted by D. Gaunt, a friend and patron of the poet. It is important to note that in Chaucer, who was a Catholic all his life, the ironic image of the clergy does not turn into a sharply accusatory one, concerning the institution of the Catholic Church as a whole. Obviously, this is not a criticism of faith, but of its bearers.
"Canterbury Tales" draws a whole gallery of city pilgrims. We are interested in craftsmen (dyer, carpenter, hatmaker, weaver, upholsterer) and a merchant. Chaucer describes five wealthy burgher artisans, members of the guild brotherhood, who were part of one of the London guilds. This is the craft elite, wealthy citizens, they are richly dressed, have sufficient income, are wise, and may well become aldermen - participate in city government. These people "with importance, awareness of wealth" keep to themselves all the way. They are drawn to the gentry class in every possible way, emphasizing their high social position: their wives demand that they be called madam, and the townspeople themselves bring a cook with them to prepare meals for them on the road. In fact, Chaucer thus reflects the economic and social processes taking place in England in the 14th century: the decomposition of the guild system, the differentiation of guild artisans, the formation of the bourgeoisie, which concentrates power in the city in its hands. It is no coincidence that the poet speaks about all the artisans at once - perhaps he unconsciously expresses the view of his contemporaries, who perceived the townspeople as a single whole. Describing the merchant, Chaucer calls him a worthy man who knows how to conduct his business, cares about profit, richly dressed. Although the poet ironically remarks that the merchant gives money at interest and skillfully hides his debts, he is far from the traditional condemnation of the merchant, does not use the epithet "deceitful", speaks of him with respect, thus reflecting the growing influence of the merchants in London life.
In the stories, Chaucer also emphasizes the new meaning that money began to acquire in English society in the 16th century. as one of the main types of wealth. Getting rich by any means is the main aspiration of many of the poet's contemporaries.
Conclusion
Compared to other classes, Chaucer paid little attention to the peasantry: the pilgrim plowman in the prologue is practically the only image of the peasant. There is no duality in the image of the peasant, the poet idealizes the plowman, as well as the priest, saying "he was his brother ". The plowman is industrious, merciful, very pious, willingly pays tithes. The peasant is completely devoid of the combat traits of Wat 's followers. Tyler , the leader of the peasant uprising of 1381. Chaucer approached the peasantry from the positions of Wycliffe , he was far from both defending the peasantry and cursing the peasant rebels; for him, social compromise and observance of the class hierarchy were the most acceptable. It is not for nothing that another hero of Chaucer, the priest, in his sermon condemns both the recalcitrant " servants" - the peasants, and the cruel "masters" -lords, because each has different, but inevitable obligations to each other. Chaucer does not speak directly about social conflicts in the stories, however, we find references to other equally important events in the life of England in the 14th century. - for example, the plague - "Black Death" in the years. in the prologue.
Of the three representatives of the medieval secular "intelligentsia" (a lawyer, a doctor and an Oxford clerk), it is worth highlighting a student. The clerk is a beggar, hungry, but strives for knowledge and it would be better to have 20 books than an expensive dress. Perhaps this rather benevolent description of a student is inspired by Chaucer's own love of books and knowledge. The idealized image of a student was rarely seen in life, because Chaucer shows more real clerks, cheerful and resourceful, loving worldly life and love adventures (stories of a miller and a majordomo).
The general realism of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is also expressed in the fact that many of the characters in the book are believed to have had real prototypes in life: the sailor is identified with the pirate John Pierce, and the knight with Henry Lancaster, cousin of Edward III. Moreover, even the Tabard tavern itself and its owner, Harry Bailey , described by Chaucer in the stories, actually existed.
So, the content of The Canterbury Tales is closely connected with the social experience of Chaucer, who came from the urban class and was the bearer of his mental attitudes. Due to his occupations associated with the constant change of professional activity, he had the opportunity to closely contact not only the townspeople, but also the court aristocracy, the clergy and, in part, with the villagers. The stories touched on many issues that were relevant to Chaucer's time, for example, socio-economic issues: the disintegration of the guild system, the growing influence of the merchant class, the formation of the bourgeoisie, and the justification for the pursuit of profit. At the same time, the poet not only captures the events and describes the characters, but also evaluates them to some extent - ironically criticizes the greed of the clergy, reflects on the ideals of chivalry that are fading into the past. That in Chaucer's approach to the estates there is a specific urban worldview is manifested in a realistic and benevolent depiction of the townspeople and in the practical absence of attention to the peasantry, in ridiculing the clergy and in the dual assessment of chivalry.

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