Books / the-role-of-chaucer-s-canterbury-tales
Facts about The Role of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
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Chaucer drew on Boccaccio's Decameron and other European sources, adapting existing tales into the distinctive voices of his English pilgrims.
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Among the pilgrims in Canterbury Tales, the Knight is presented first in the General Prologue, reflecting his high social status in medieval hierarchical order.
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Unfinished at Chaucer's death in 1400, the Tales contains far fewer stories than the original plan outlined in the General Prologue suggests.
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Written in Middle English, the Tales features over twenty distinct narrators, each speaking in a voice suited to their social rank and occupation.
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Chaucer's Canterbury Tales uses a frame narrative structure in which a group of pilgrims traveling to Thomas Becket's shrine tell stories to pass the time.