How the book canterbury tales reflects its time Essay

How the book canterbury tales reflects its time - Essay Example All these experiences trained him to be a poet of men as he appeared eventually in the Canterbury Tales. In the Canterbury Tales he fixed up the spirit of his age for future generations to observe and appreciate. In the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer is almost silent about the very stirring historic and political events of his age (Phillips 27). Chaucer does of course casually refer to some of these events, but there is no full length treatment of any of them. The Peasant’s Revolt is referred to in the Nun’s Priest’s Tale. The Battles of Crecy and Poietiers are glanced at elsewhere. The allusion to the Black Death comes in Chaucer’s character sketch of the Doctor of Physic in the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. There is then a latent reference to Lollardism in the delineation of the Poor Parson who like a Lollard believed in simple living and high thinking. Chaucer’s subtlety with the treatment of historical events could be attributed to his concern as a poet, with the dateless and universal aspects of human nature. The Canterbury Tales gives us a fairly authentic and equally extensive picture of the socio-political conditions prevailing in England in the age of Chaucer (Schoeck & Taylor 31).