Although the Canterbury Tales remain unfinished due to Chaucer's untimely death, his message is clear. Then again, maybe it isn"t. Often his tone is indistinguishable; the reader is not aware of the feelings he harvests toward his subjects, but the point is that may not be his point. Certainly he wishes to poke fun at certain people like the Prioress and her "tender feelings," scorn others such as , and still praise others such as the Parson and his "noble example." What he is truly trying to say can be dissected from his work without any outside knowledge of people and events he is referring to. This could very well be the reason behind the dearth of text referring to particular happenings during the time. Surely, Chaucer could not foresee the impact The Canterbury Tales would have on modern literature, so what was his motive for pursuing such an endeavor? Possibly he was attempting to make something work that had not yet been completed successfully. The stories may not have been entirely original, the framework not overly extravagant, but Chaucer's words contain so much meaning that brings everything else to a whole new level. Between the blend of carefully chosen words and.
Chaucer's obsession is with the individual. He writes about nearly every class of Medieval society minus the highest and lowest orders. Class structure is not his concern, nor is he concerned with problems within a certain class. He wishes to address individuals from many facets of life and relate them back to their stereotypical selves. Chaucer's characters aren"t motivated by unclear actions to predetermined ends. They are not simply two-dimensional characters used to represent their class as a whole. They are developed with an extra dimension to do with what they please. Surely, Chaucer is biased and prefers certain characters over others, but his bias appears to be on an individual level. For example, he cannot help disliking certain persons involved in the church, while being fond of others.
