The Next Stage in Literary History: The Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is such an interesting time in our history, and Geoffrey Chaucer managed to capture it with his fantastic writing style. This time period was full of turmoil and tension in England and Europe. Here's an interesting fact for you; once William the Conqueror invades England and defeats the Earl of Wessex, the ruling class of England becomes French not British. William takes all of the land away from the English Barrons that fought against him and gave it to his French Allies. Years later the Crusades begin, and the Plantagenet empire starts to loose it's foothold in France. During this whole time the church in England and the government are at odds. Henry II felt that everyone should be held to the same laws. The church disagreed. If you committed a crime as a church official you went to a court run by the church and the punishment was much less severe than that of the regular churches. Henry fought hard to change this, but with the murder of Thomas a Beckett this becomes impossible. The church just becomes more corrupt. This is where Chaucer steps in. He creates caricatures of the typical corrupt church officials for all to see. His stories by these characters further highlight their hypocrisy. I can't wait for you to start reading and see the message that Chaucer portrays for his audience, and how we could easily connect it to many people in our society today.