The Canterbury Tales
What does Chaucer's work tell us about life in medieval England? Give 2 very specific details
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canterbury
I think it tells us that the Church had a lot of authority and was largely corrupt. THe Pardoner, for example, is clear about having no problems that taking people's money for nothing in return, his shtick is all a sham. He will even take from starving widows and children. WE also learn a lot about gender and the role of women in the Middle Ages. In the Wife of Bath's Tale, for example, Chaucer foregrounds the issue of female "maistrie", and in the series of Tales often called "the Marriage group" by critics, Chaucer actively explores the potential dynamics of a male-female marriage. In the Middle Ages, feminism had obviously not been invented; but one sees very clearly in the mouth of the Wife of Bath that ideas of female equality were by no means unusual.