ENGL 203 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Frame Story, Geoffrey Chaucer
Document Summary
Text that was written for a certain class was said to be written ad status". Feudal society was traditionally divided into three estates (men) Like men, women were born into the second or third estate but were also categorized under the feminine estate. Women are de ned by their relationship with men. Rigid division of society began to break down by the later middle ages. By the time of chaucer an urban middle class known as mercantile class rose while a subdivision of the clergy known as intellectuals emerged. Chaucer is very aware of the estates in canterbury tales. The genre is a frame narrative and the general prologue is an estates. Form of extended metaphor in which objects and persons within a narrative are equated with meanings that lie outside the narrative itself. Exists on a literal level of meaning and the symbolic level. Allegory may involve personi cation of abstract qualities, an event, represent historical events.
