Canterbury Tales: Hybrid Essay

Michael Hall

Period 4

10/12/14

Canterbury Tales: Hybrid Essay

            Geoffrey Chaucer was seen as a revolutionary writer in his time by how he challenged and questioned not only the social traditions but also the literary traditions of his society, his ideas and styles can be seen in all types of media today. His style of using many characters and different perspectives was revolutionary at the time and gave him the ability to show more insight into the class and social systems of England. Chaucer’s heavy use of irony to show humor has been used by many authors and artist since.

            Chaucer challenged social traditions by showing all social classes and writing the book in Middle English instead of the Latin or French. Middle English was spoken by the majority of people in England, mostly the lower classes. The majority of literature written was in Latin or French as they were seen are higher and used by the higher classes. People have always stood up against those with higher power, such as Pink Floyd in Another Brick in the Wall

 Aside from them many people challenge the rule of authority such as this quote from Bruce Lee. 

The theme of questioning the normal can also be seen in the music styling of N.W.A (wanted to put the explicit but choose not to, if u want to hear it you can look it up sorry.) 

            Chaucer’s new type of literary structure was revolutionary for its time, he told the story of all these people through each perspective. There are not many times that this has been used since his development, but the movie Vantage Point does. It tells a thrilling story about an attempt to kill the president; each part is retold through different perspectives until the end where all is revealed.   

            One element that Chaucer uses a lot in his literary techniques is irony and humor. This is very evident in both the Sea Captions Tale and The Cooks Tale. In the Cooks Tale, he is described as a disgusting a vile person, yet he is the one who handles all the peoples food. In the Sea Captains it is full of deception and puns that create a humorous story. These same ideas or humor and irony can be seen today in the musical parodies of Weird al Yankovic.

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            Altogether Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales challenged both the literary and social traditions that were presented before him, the same spirit lives in many artist and creators now and it represented heavily through music. Aside from that his use of irony and humor has also lasted through the generations.