Social Structures

Abstract

Chaucer's social commentary, notably in the Canterbury Tales, offers important insights into the ideals and contemporary realities of late-medieval English society. One task of this chapter is to set Chaucer himself within the context of that society. Beyond that, its conceptual structures – both contemporaneous and in modern academic analyses – need consideration. Individual pilgrims and (as appropriate) characters mentioned in their tales, are also examined, to consider their assorted roles within a society in the early decades of what has been called an ‘age of transition’, as the aftermath of the Black Death brought substantial change and reconfiguration.

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