The Estates in - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

The Estates in Chaucer’s England

by Jayne Pynes

for Dual Credit English and the analysis of Chaucer’s characters in “The Prologue” to

Canterbury Tales

10/31/11Slide2

The Three Traditional Estates

The Clergy---those who prayed

The Nobility---those who fought

The Commoners---those who worked

And then there were splits occurring:

The Intellectuals—those who read

The Legal Class—those who practiced law

The

Merchant Class—those who made/sold goodsSlide3

The First Estate

During this time period, there was no other church in England; it was the Catholic church.

The Clergy was the First Estate:

They were to be the spiritual and moral guides,

ie

those who pray.

This system came from the Holy Roman Empire.

They were the archbishops, bishops, pardoners,

summoners

, friars, monks, parsons, prioresses, and nuns who “ran” the church on an institutional or local level dependent on their own backgrounds.Slide4

So Who Were the Clergy, really?

The “noble” clergy were the second and third (and so on) sons and daughters whose fathers/older brothers/uncles were higher ranking nobles in favor with the king and the church. They either couldn’t make a “successful” marriage or didn’t want to marry.

The “noble” clergy were mostly educated in Latin and the humanities. They had some knowledge of the faith….this actually varied from none to expert.

They came with small amounts of land in order to create “jobs” with some prestige and places for them.

Archbishops and bishops had ecclesiastical power over the areas they were granted.Slide5

The “Noble” Clergy, cont.

They were often allied with their father/brother to help keep control over the family lands.

Their authority was exerted through the church courts and through church taxes.

Women whose family had quite a bit of money and/or land that could be given to the church as a dowry often found themselves in positions of authority in their convent. Those w/o money/land, were the lesser nuns.

As always, the characters profiled in “The Prologue” are stereotypes. So, there were those who took to their positions and were faithful. But, the problems were due to those that didn’t.Slide6

The “Common” Clergy

Commoners also joined the clergy.

Working class commoners, who showed some talent and wished to have a place that was somewhat secure, entered service to the church as well. Faith may have also lead them.

They often were considered secular in role because they lived outside the monasteries and served and/or interacted with the common people directly.Slide7

The Clergy, cont.

So, as you analyze the clergy in “The Prologue,” you have a leading question to ask.

Is this character a “noble” or “common” clergy member?

Where does the character serve? In a cloistered monastery or convent? Or in public (parish, traveling, etc.)

How can you determine the answer to that question?

Clothing -- Actions

Manners --AccessoriesSlide8

The Second Estate

The role of the Nobility was to fight; they were the Second Estate.

So, basically, as we learned from our study of

Beowulf,

nobility rose from those who lead and fought.

Kings, princes, lords, dukes, knights, and their sons were noble not because of birth originally but because of bravery on the battlefield.

Then the idea of succession, primogeniture, came into play. The idea is that the first or, in some cases, favored son inherits the title the father earned, but the son may not have done anything but be born (so the tradition of being noble to become a noble becomes lost).

Nobles continued to rise from commoners who fought.Slide9

The Second Estate

The Nobles ran the civil part of life as it were.

They were responsible for the land area granted to them.

They were the lords to the commoners and oversaw their work (or they were supposed to do this).

They also would donate portions of their land, bounty, and people (yes, those who worked for them) to the king and/or church as needed (think wars and crusades).

They owed allegiance to the king and to the church. This caused problems when those two institutions were at odds.Slide10

The Second Estate, cont.

So the question to ask as you look at the three possible “noble” characters for analysis:

Is this character noble in action or by birth?

Some critics put the Yeoman into this category.

Others put him into the Commoner category.

If you choose to analyze him, you need to decide to which category you will assign him.Slide11

The Third Estate

The commoners, also known as the workers/peasants/serfs, comprise the Third Estate.

They are more than 90% of the population of England at this time.

They do the daily work communities needed to survive:

c

ooking, sewing, cleaning, farming, weaving,

barkeeping

, winemaking, and other common tasks.Slide12

The Third Estate, cont.

This group, as presented in “The Prologue,” really are the

rising Merchant

M

iddle

C

lass.

They are commoners who have made good through a craft.

They COULD be a noble child who chose to go into a craft

vs

the clergy but more often are commoners who rose up.

They work for the nobility, but they are beginning to resent that fact as they have had to earn what they have

vs

potentially being given what one has via birth.Slide13

The Emerging Intellectual Class

This class comes primarily from the noble sons who are sent to the clergy but wish to focus upon studies over serving the church.

The Emerging Legal Class

This class comes from the noble class as well, but its focus is to serve the concerns of the king as he works to exert legal power over the land

vs

that of the church (which has its own courts). (The whole argument is who really owns the land…thus has the power?)Slide14

The Various Third Estate…

So the question becomes to which of the varying Third Estates (Working, Merchant, Intellectual, or Legal) does the character belong? Remember the Third Estate is defined by what work the character does.

What does the character’s clothing, manners, concerns, etc., reveal about him or her? (Can you discern if the genesis is peasant or noble class?)Slide15

Final Thoughts (well, not really)

Your paper, rough draft due on 11/10 and final draft due on 11/17, will analyze this question:

What does Chaucer reveal about 14

th

century England in “The Prologue” to

Canterbury Tales

through three characters who belong to different estates (one must be clergy; one must be noble; the other must be from one varying estates that are considered working; if you bring in more characters to show differences, that is fine as long as three major characters are your focus). (These are the instructions copied to EPCC.)Slide16

More on the paper

This is a formal analytical paper.

You must not use first (I) or second (you) person in it.

You need to focus upon

the characters and society

itself.

The textbook, “The Prologue,” and my notes are all you need to do this paper.

Note page numbers if you quote the history from the text; note line number from “The Prologue.”

Your rough draft must be submitted to EPCC’s online service. 10 points off the final paper if this is not done.