Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales"?

Question

Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales”

1. what was poetry like in that time?

2. what is so great about The Canterbury Tales that makes them so important to British literature?

3. how does Chaucer include a complete range of medieval society in the same story?

4. why are these people going to Canterbury? What kind of people are going?

Answer 1

On a basic level:

Most poetry of the time was allegorical. Chaucer's Tales were about ordinary people with their own traits and characters, drawn from real life. He also wrote in English, a break from the court language of French, thus helping English gain more importance and standing in its own country and standardising it.

Chaucer bases his Tales on a group of disparate pilgrims from various walks of life who join forces on a pilgrimage to Canterbury (to Thomas a Becket's tomb, which was one of the popular pilgrimages of the time), and on the way each pilgrim has to tell a story; another on the way back. (It was not completed, though.)

Here are some sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Chaucer
http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=aa08
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Canterbury_Tales

Answer 2

properly the entire tale is approximately chaucers critique with regard to the ppl. exceedingly the clergy, he noted how between the characters (i forgot who) used to trick ppl into giving him money, and talks approximately how the priest or regardless of replaced into wearing all this fantastic rings while the clergy is supose to be modest. and how the priest likes to seek for interest. (aka KILLING for exciting)