geoffrey chaucer the nun's priest's tale

In her Prologue, the Wife of Bath presents a parody of religious logic, giving her own readings of Scripture to back up her view that experience is the only authority.Įven though the Tales are fictitious, Chaucer draws directly on real people and real events in his satire of human life. Supposedly pious religious figures are shown to be corrupt and greedy just underneath the surface. The Nun’s Priest’s tale satirizes courtly love by putting chivalry in the setting of a barnyard. The social satire that Chaucer sets up in the General Prologue continues throughout the tales that the pilgrims tell. Chaucer puts all of society on parade, and no one escapes his skewering. As the son of wine merchants and clerk to the king, Chaucer belonged to both of these new suborders of society. An intellectual class was also rising – people trained in literature but, unlike monks, not destined for church life. A merchant class had begun to rise and was quickly gaining money and power throughout secular society.

By the late fourteenth century, the rigid organization of these three estates had begun to break down.

In the Chaucer's portraits of the pilgrims, he sets out the functions of each estate and satirizes how members of the estates – particularly those of the Church – fail to meet their duties. The General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales is an estates satire. Medieval society was divided into three estates: the Church (those who prayed), the Nobility (those who fought), and the Peasantry (those who worked).

Geoffrey chaucer the nun's priest's tale