The Canterbury Tales
Most of Chaucer's characters are named after a profession. What does this emphasis on the characters' social roles suggest about medieval society?
The Canterbury tales, the prologue
The Canterbury tales, the prologue
I think that Chaucer was out to satirize various professions for the hypocrisy they possessed while being legitimized by powerful institutions like the Catholic Church and government.
I am just starting out my studies with this - but I wonder if by identifying each character with a professional name he is putting a hierarchy to the society that he lived in - it seems that there is a tremendous amount of interpersonal strife throughout these stories so maybe Chaucer is trying to show the sociological implications