Wealth led to an individual’s social status. From Chaucer’s Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, the wealth of a portrait linked them to their social status and often to the fashion of this time also; the wife of Bath is an example of this. She was a good-looking woman who had had five husbands in total, and she was very well-off due to her profession in cloth-making which Chaucer explains to be ‘the best’ – ‘Of clooth-making she hadde swich an haunt, She passed hem of Ypres and of Gaunt’. Her social status was very high, as she was the first woman in the church to make an offering to the parish priest, but she used her status to her advantage, for if someone went before her ‘she was out of alle charitee’ (she would be very angry) and would not give her offering. Her high status also linked in with the fashion of this era. She wore scarlet stockings, which is very much a status symbol because of the colour, but also, the wife of Bath wore ‘shoes ful moiste and newe’ – these would have been soft leather shoes which were very expensive. The expense gone into her clothing reflects her social status and also her wealth very much so.
The prioress is another portrait that resembles the link between social status and fashion, bringing wealth into the link also, due to having such a high status. The prioress is one of the group who represented the church in the fourteenth century, which was a position that entitled her to great wealth and a very high social status. With this high social status she wore very expensive clothes in sense of fashion. Chaucer mentions the prioress’ appearance a lot at the end of her description in his prologue. She was a very attractive woman who wore shiny gold jewellery and the wimple she wore, as part of being a nun, was pleated, and made much more ‘fashionable’ than a plain wimple that nuns wore in general, although that wasn’t allowed. It is evident that she was very well-off due to having such a high social status and the type of clothing she wore was very elegant in comparison to an average person living in medieval times.
The portrait of the knight shows an honest and worthy man of the medieval society. He was seen as the most socially important pilgrim and Chaucer tells much of his circumstances and very little of his appearance or personality. ‘He loved chivalrie, trouthe and honour, freedom and curteisie’. The life of the knight was an example of how to be unselfish. Chivalry was an important quality in his knighthood and he fulfilled that and was admired for it. He, as well as the prioress, who was the chief nun, showed the importance of manners in the medieval society. The knight never said anything cruel about anyone and throughout Chaucer’s description of him in his prologue, he repeatedly mentions how worthy he is – ‘and evere honoured for his worthiness’. The prioresses actions show the relevance between her and the important of manners in the medieval society. In Chaucer’s description of the prioress, there are seven lines dedicated to her ladylike table manners. From the way she dresses and the way she eats, to the order in which she will enter the church on a Sunday, presents to us the importance of manners in medieval society.
The church played an important part of medieval life and society, especially around the fourteenth century. Everyone was religious in one way or another, mainly within the Roman Catholic religion. If someone was ex-communicated from the church then they were frowned upon and were no longer welcomed in society. Many of the high social status roles of the portraits in Chaucer’s General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales are those that were involved within the church. The wealth of the country at this time came from the church and it was very powerful, owning much of the land in England. However, the church was involved in some bad practices. The church owned its own courtrooms to which people would be summoned and put on trial often receiving fines of very large sums of money. Not only did the church then ex-communicate many of the people in the medieval society causing them to be looked down upon, but also they made a lot of money from it. Chaucer could feel that the church’s practice at this time was immoral and that the church should be reformed and in one of his portraits in his general prologue, he talks of one of these bad practices within the church through the character of the Pardoner. The Pardoner was based at the church in Rouncivale and he travelled around selling people pardons. As he travelled around the countryside he would make visits to the naïve peasants and sell them pardons and in that day he would make more money from a single peasant than that peasant would make in a year! ‘But with thise relikes, whan that he fond a povre person dwellinge upon lond, upon a day he gat him moore moneye than that person gat in monthes tweye;’. The Pardoner was able to sing very well – ‘Was never trompe of half so greet a soun.’ – and he used his talent to sing whilst the offering took place, which resulted in the church receiving more money, although he would keep some of that money for himself. It is evident in that the church was involved in some bad practices, but nevertheless, the church was a major part of society in medieval times.
Romantic love was displayed through a few of the portraits in Chaucer’s General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. The squire is one of these. He was described as ‘a lovyere and a lusty bachelor’ and we are told that ‘he sleep namoore than dooth a nightingale’ for he is up all night making love. Although he is very lustful, he is a very well-mannered and modest man with much respect for his father (‘And carf biforn his fader’). The wife of Bath is another portrait which displays romantic love throughout medieval society. She had had five husbands in total and Chaucer hints that her commitment to the church could have been partly to do with her having an ambition of finding a new husband. In the description of her appearance it is made clear that she has a sexual appetite by stating ‘gat-tothed was she’, which simply means she had a large gap between her teeth. This shows she was a passionate person which links in with the fact she had a sexual appetite. At the very end of Chaucer’s description of the wife of Bath, in his prologue, he mentions her ‘remedies of love’ and that she knew how to get a husband ‘for she koude of that art the olde daunce’ (which was a dance of love). Romantic love was very much existent throughout medieval society, as it is today, but the way in which people displayed there affections with ‘love dances’ and ‘love remedies’ is very much different to how it would be displayed today.
From reading Chaucer’s General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, I have found out about many different aspects of medieval life and society. I have seen how people with such high status and authority within the church could show such a vain and sinful character to society, but with the naïve people, living an ordinary life, remaining so oblivious to it all. I have seen the role of the church within society during that era, and the affect it had on people’s lives. Medieval life and society was much more religious than any kind of society people live in today, yet it was so strict in the means of social status and wealth. Chaucer did a very detailed job in creating an atmosphere of medieval life and society that people can read and relate to in many different ways.
