The Middle Ages, which is the time period that Chaucer lived in, were a rough time in history for ordinary people. There was an instablity taking place on every level: political, economical, social, and religious. However, for all of this turmoil it was a time when there were emerge great works of art and literature. A driving force behind all of the upheaval during this time was the fact that religion was being challenged. This was due to the black plague that had effectively given rise to the middle class and ended feudalism, for the most part. However, religion was still very much an overiding governance in many people's lives. To that end, they made pilgrimmages to holy shrines. This is what Chaucer based his book on and peopled it with caricatures of the types of individuals and classes of people that were alive and living during his time period. Through his work we can see the wry sense of humor and satrical jabs he offers to the religous factions that propose to be holy but underneath it all are just as human as everyone else. Politically, the nobility still existed, as is depicted by the Knight. However, they were not as popular as they once were. Economically, the only people making a lot of money were the guildsmen and the con men, and of course, the priests pretending to do their job,but pocketing money from the parishoners.
