Music and literature

Musical allusions and references abound in The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer uses music, the most cultivated art form of Christianity in the fourteenth century, to characterize the moral nature of his settings, themes, and characters. In addition, he employs music as a great film director would to heighten the intensity of certain scenes and enrich the structure of the plot. Chaucer took many ideas from medieval philosophic tradition for granted and expected his readers to share them. His conscious application of these ideas makes The Canterbury Tales more profound and clearly more exciting and enjoyable for those who are able to "hear" the music.