Theme: Social Significance of The Canterbury Tales contents

Conclusion

The final tale and the retraction have led some scholars to conclude that The Canterbury Tales is a finished work. Scholar Larry D. Benson, for example, writes:

The Retraction leaves us in no doubt that, unfinished, unpolished, and incomplete as The Canterbury Tales may be, Chaucer is finished with it. One wonders if a more finished, more nearly perfect version could have been any more satisfying. (22)
There is no consensus, however, on what The Retraction means or whether it was even intended to be included in the manuscript of The Canterbury Tales. No version of the work exists in Chaucer's own hand, all extant versions are copies and copies of copies, in which scribal errors alter who tells a tale, the tales appear in different order, or some do not appear at all. The most complete copy, The Ellesmere Manuscript (15th century CE) is the one most commonly used for modern-day editions of the work and includes The Retraction (as do many others) and so most scholars agree The Retraction was part of the original manuscript. Still, scholars who believe the work was left unfinished at Chaucer's death cite the plan outlined in The General Prologue and the non-speaking characters (such as the Plowman) who should have been given a tale as proof Chaucer never completed the work.
Whatever its state of completion, The Canterbury Tales has been entertaining and fascinating audiences since it was written. More than any of Chaucer's other works, the Tales validated the use of Middle English in vernacular writing as it brought the characters and their stories to life. Popular fiction of the Middle Ages was written in French verse before Chaucer elevated Middle English poetry to the same height of popularity.
His characters became as real to readers as their family, friends, and neighbors, and the work was copied again and again long before it was published in c. 1476 CE. Although his earlier works had earned him fame and the respect of his fellow poets and members of the court, The Canterbury Tales would make Chaucer immortal as the author of one of the greatest works in English and grant him the honorable epithet of Father of English Literature.