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The Canterbury Tales - Coggle Diagram
The Canterbury Tales
Plot and Setting
Set in spring :; a group of 30 people goes on a pilgrimage to Canterbury to visit Thomas Becket’s shrine.
Pilgrims belong to the feudal middle class: merchants, yeomen, artisans, and clergy.
They meet at the Tabard Inn in Southwark, London.
The inn’s host proposes a storytelling game: each pilgrim tells two stories on the way to Canterbury and two on the return; a free dinner is promised to the best storyteller.
The poem opens with Chaucer’s prologue introducing the situation, characters, and atmosphere.
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Characters
Represent different social classes and aspects of feudal society, especially middle class and clergy.
Chaucer portrays love, rivalry, and religious corruption.
Characters are individualized and dynamic, unlike conventional static medieval portraits.
Detailed descriptions of tools, clothes, personal traits, and small fears.
Names often reflect professions, showing how work shapes social identity.
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Chaucer narrates the tales, often expressing his opinion directly or ironically.
Themes
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Social criticism, especially of church corruption.
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Storytelling as a means to explore human life, social critique, and entertain.
Style
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Structured in three parts: General Prologue, individual tale prologues, and tales themselves.
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Use of exaggeration, caricature, and irony to depict characters realistically and humorously.