General Information about Enlighteners in the English literature

The English Period: (1385-1400)

The English period in Chaucer’s life is filled with his grand and most famous Canterbury Tales. The plan of the book was to represent a wide range of people across social standings. Some thirty pilgrims (ranging from a high-class knight to the poorest ploughman) decide to tell stories to each other to enliven their journey to the shrine of Thomas Beckett in Canterbury. Their assemblage starts from Tabard inn. It was decided that each pilgrim would narrate two stories in their forward journey and two in their return journey. Originally, the plan was to write one hundred and twenty stories, however, only twenty-four were written. The stories cover a wide range of themes starting from love and chivalry, travels, religious figures, adventures, animal fables, allegories and even satires. Two of the stories were written in prose. The characters were not glamourised heroes and divine figures but common men and women with ordinary human virtues and foibles. Among the many characters, the most popular ones are Harry Bailey (the merry host of Tabard Inn), the remarkable Wife of Bath, Madame Eglantine, the kindly ploughman, the gentle knight and the parish priest. Chaucer infuses his writing with such a detailed and empathetic presentation of ordinary human experience that he set a new standard for literature.

14.Geoffrey Chaucer’s lyric poetry

Chaucer, considered the first poet of English literature, brings many changes to the table in regard to English literature. His prose is realistic, simple, clear, and harmonious. He is also humorous, detailed (sometimes too detailed for modern readers) and well researched. His works are both romantic and dramatic.
English prose begins with Chaucer and descriptions of life in Medieval England are prominant. Chivalry, war, and religion are highlighted, applauded, and criticized. In the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer details the socio-political conditions that permeate English life during his lifetime, and though the tales are witty and humorous, they are also starkly real.
The Canterbury Tales", for which Chaucer's name is best remembered, is a long poem with a general introduction ("The Prologue"), the clearest picture of late medieval life existent anywhere. The framework, which serves to connect twenty-four stories, told in verse, is a pilgrimage from London to Canterbury. In the prologue thirty men and women from all ranks of society pass before readers' eyes. Chaucer draws a rapid portrait of each traveler, thus showing his character. Chaucer himself and a certain Harry Bailly, the host (owner) of a London inn, are among them. Harry Bailly proposes the following plan: each pilgrim was to tell two stories on the way to the shrine and two on the way back. The host would be their guide and would judge their stories. He who told the best story was to have a fine supper at the expense of the others.
Chaucer planned to include 120 stories, but he managed only twenty-four, some of them were not completed. The individual stories are of many kinds: religious stories, legends, fables, fairy tales, sermons, and courtly romances. Short story writers in the following centuries learned much about their craft from Geoffrey Chaucer.