Geoffrey Chaucer: riassunto in inglese

GEOFFREY CHAUCER: RIASSUNTO IN INGLESE

Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400)
-    Life: he was born in London and was well educated, even if we unknown if he went to university.

In 1372-1373 was sent to Italy where met Petrarca and became familiar with Boccaccio and Dante’s works. His works can be divided into four periods: the French period, the Italian period and the English period. During the first period, he wrote exclusively in English and was influenced by the French models, he wrote: “The Romaunt of the rose” and “The book of the duchess”. During the Italian period he following the examples of Dante and Boccaccio and wrote: “The parlement of Foules”, “The house of fame”, “Troylus and Cryseyde” and “The legende of Good Women”. In the third periods he worked on his masterpiece “The Canterbury Tales”, written in middle English. Originally he planned to write 120 tales, but he was able in write only 24.

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GEOFFREY CHAUCER CANTERBURY TALES: RIASSUNTO

-    The Canterbury Tales: it is structured as a series of interlinked stories; in fact they complete each other. In the general prologue the narrator gives us a brief description of each of the pilgrims and each tale is preceded by a prologue in which the pilgrim tells us something about himself. The host of The Tabard Inn tavern in London proposed the tale-telling competition at the pilgrims. Each of them has to tell two tales on the way to Canterbury and two on the way back. The pilgrims come from all levels of society, such as the military, the clergy, the middle classes and the trades and each one’s of them had human and individual quality.
-    General Prologue: The opening of The Canterbury Tales can be divided into four different parts. The first part starts at line 1 and finishes at line 11, and tells us about April. In fact in the first part Chaucer gives us a description of this month, he tells us about the birds and the wind Zephyrus. In the second part, that is to say from line 12 to line 18 he says what people generally do in April. In the third part that is to say from line 19 to line 34, he tells us what happens at the Tabard Inn. Finally in the last part, from line 35 to line 42, he speaks about the method of description the poet will employ. The month of April brings rain and more generally the rebirth of nature. In this month Zephyrus, the sweet spring wind, blows everywhere upon the tender shoots and the bird are singing and they’re so excited that they sleep all night with open eyes.

The Cantebury Tales: trama e personaggi