Chaucer: Then and Now.

Chaucer: Then and Now.

People: Medieval Times vs. Contempory Times
The years between 1066 and 1485 are known as the Middles Ages.   People in this time period faced many hardships, such as disease, oppression, and corruption.   The people also experienced many joys, such as success, wealth, and new found prosperity.   The people in present day society, too, undergo the same experiences and share the same feelings of the people of over 500 years ago.   This parallel can easily be seen in reading Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales and comparing his pilgrims to contemporary peoples.   The English poet divides his pilgrims, his characters, into five classes, the nobility, the clergy, the professional class, the business class, and the lower class, and not only describes them, but also "reiterates" their tales concerning the pilgrimage.   Connections between the people of today and of the Medieval Period can easily be made between these two seemingly different peoples using Chaucer’s tale.   Chaucer’s work illustrates to the modern-day reader that people are virtually the same regardless of the time in which they live.
The wealthy of today have much in common with the nobility of Chaucer’s era.   The pilgrims of the nobility described in The Canterbury Tales include the knight, the squire, and the Franklin.   The Franklin is not really of nobility per se, but he is rather one rank below the gentry, being a wealthy landowner, and thus recognized by the elite due to his affluence.   The Franklin, moreover, is further accepted by the nobility because he is a brilliant entertainer and throws lavish receptions for all the nobility to attend.   He is in essence a socialite.   Chaucer tells us that "He [the Franklin] lived for pleasure and had always done/For he was Epicurus’ very son,/In whose opinion sensual delight/Was the one true felicity in sight./As noted as St. Julian was for bounty/He made his household free to all the County. " (Chaucer 127 ll. 345-50).   In today’s world socialites are also...