Final answer:
Chaucer wrote 'The Canterbury Tales' to depict a slice of 14th-century English society and critique its norms and institutions through humorous and ironic storytelling, reflecting the value of literature in moral and imaginative exploration.
Step-by-step explanation:
Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales as a collection of stories told by a group of pilgrims on their way to Canterbury Cathedral. The tales represent a cross-section of medieval society and are written in the vernacular Middle English, which was innovative at the time. Chaucer's work is often seen as a critique of the social norms and institutions of the 14th century, including the Church. Through humor and irony, Chaucer explores various themes such as the corruption of the church, the power of storytelling, and the complexity of human nature. The tales range from the comic and bawdy to the philosophical and moralistic, revealing Chaucer's ability to blend entertainment with serious critique. This multifaceted approach may have been inspired by the proliferation of literature following Gutenberg's invention of the printing press, where defenders of poetry and storytelling like Sir Philip Sidney championed its moral and imaginative value against critics who regarded it as frivolous or even morally suspect.