Who are the characters in the Canterbury Tales?
The Canterbury Tales Characters. 1 Chaucer. Chaucer does not name himself in the General Prologue, but he is one of the characters who gather at the Tabard Inn. All of the descriptions ... 2 The Knight. 3 The Squire. 4 The Prioress. 5 The Monk. More items
Who is the narrator of the Canterbury Tales?
The Narrator. The narrator is none other than the poet, Geoffrey Chaucer, himself. Still, he has kept himself away from including his personal biased opinions. His expertise in carving the characters is projected in presenting the characters as they were. In ‘Canterbury Tales’, he too is a pilgrim who is on his way to Canterbury.
What is the General Prologue of the Canterbury Tales about?
Chaucer gives a detailed picture of the characters he has used in ‘The Canterbury Tales’ in his ‘ General Prologue .’ His characters, the Thirty Pilgrims including the Host belong to diverse ranks and professions, represent a wide range of society.
Who are the Pilgrims in the Canterbury Tales?
The Pilgrims in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer are the main characters in the framing narrative of the book. In addition, they can be considered as characters of the framing narrative the Host, who travels with the pilgrims, the Canon, and the fictive Geoffrey Chaucer,...
What was Nicholas in the Millers tale?
Nicholas is the mover and shaker behind most of the action in the tale: it's he who seduces Alisoun and tricks John into sleeping in a tub so he can spend the night with her. Nicholas takes a hot poker to the butt when his rival Absalom shows up at Alisoun's window intent on revenge.
How is the Shipman described in The Canterbury Tales?
In Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, the Shipman (or the Sailor in some versions) is a wild but good man of the sea. He's describe in the Prologue as a tough, weathered, bearded man who has no conscience about stealing alcoholic drinks or throwing a man overboard in a fight.
Which type of characters are depicted in Canterbury Tales?
The characters in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer fall into one of the three estates, or social classes, used to categorize people in feudal and medieval England. These included members of the First Estate, or Church hierarchy, like The Prioress, Monk, Friar, Parson, and Pardoner.
What do the characters in The Canterbury Tales represent?
Characters in The Canterbury Tales, represent Geoffrey Chaucer's idea of love, rivalry and religious corruption in the context of medieval society.
How is the doctor described in The Canterbury Tales?
Chaucer portrays the Physician as well-educated and cunning, greedy, and a bit boastful.
Who are the three main characters of the Shipman's tale?
Plot Summary The story incorporates three main characters, a merchant, the merchants wife, and their friend Sir John who is a monk.
How does Chaucer describe the Prioress?
These elements combine to show a clear picture of the Prioress: shallow, vindictive, unChristian, childish, and immature. She is the antithesis of a truly pious nun of the Middle Ages. Chaucer uses this characterization of her to show his own religious trepidations, and to make a statement about the clergy of his time.
What are the 5 social classes in The Canterbury Tales?
The five groups were Royalty, Nobility, Church, Merchants, and Peasantry.
Who are the 32 in Canterbury Tales?
In the prologue of "The Canterbury Tales" the following characters are mentioned: Chaucer, Harry Bailly (the Host), the Knight, the Squire, the Yeoman, the Prioress, the Nun, the three priests, the Monk, the Friar, the Merchant, the Clerk, the Sergeant of Law, the Franklin, the Haberdasher, the Carpenter, the Weaver, ...
Who is the main character in Canterbury Tales?
The PardonerThe HostThe Wife of BathThe MillerThe KnightThe NarratorThe Canterbury Tales/Characters
Who are the 31 pilgrims in Canterbury Tales?
The PilgrimsThe Narrator. The narrator makes it quite clear that he is also a character in his book. ... The Knight. The first pilgrim Chaucer describes in the General Prologue, and the teller of the first tale. ... The Wife of Bath. ... The Pardoner. ... The Miller. ... The Prioress. ... The Monk. ... The Friar.More items...
Who is the best pilgrim in The Canterbury Tales?
In Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, the most virtuous pilgrim is the parson because he is a genuinely good-natured and amicable individual who demonstrates the importance of putting the lives of others before his own. He is a priest and is strictly devout to God.
What does a Shipman do?
Since the majority of Shipman's life would be on the ship his daily jobs could be: cleaning, s raising the sails, loading/unloading the ship's cargo, and repairing the ship to keep it in working order.
Is the Shipman the merchant?
It is based on an old French fabliau and resembles a story found in Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron. In the tale told by Chaucer's Shipman, the wife of a rich merchant convinces a young monk that her husband refuses to pay for her clothes and asks him to lend her 100 francs.
What is the moral of the Shipman's tale?
Moral. The presented moral is that you can't trust anyone, even your closest friends. The monk was a close friend to the Shipman and a man of the church, yet he still deceived the Shipman by being involved with his wife.
What is a Shipman in Middle Ages?
The Shipman is a ship's captain, the most skilled from here to Spain, more at home on the deck of a ship than on the back of a horse. He is not above a little larceny or piracy, and in a sea fight he does not take prisoners.
Who is the Squire in The Squire?
The Squire. The Squire is a young knight in training, a member of the noble class. While he is chivalrous and genteel, he is not quite as perfect as his father, the Knight, as he wears… read analysis of The Squire.
What does Chaucer say about the Prioress?
The Prioress attempts to be dainty and well-bred, and Chaucer makes fun of her by describing how she speaks French with a terrible accent and sings the liturgy straight through her nose. Although the Prioress… read analysis of The Prioress
What was the name of the mendicant who could not work but had to live off the charity of others?
The Friar. In medieval society, friars were mendicants, or beggars who could not work but had to live off the charity of others. Although they were supposed to be humble and modest, this Friar is jolly and… read analysis of The Friar.
Who is the knight?
The Knight. The Knight is a noble man who fights for truth and for Christ rather than for his own glory or wealth. He has traveled throughout many heathen lands victoriously. The Knight is one of the… read analysis of The Knight.
Is the summoner a hypocrite?
The Summoner is another supposedly devout religious figure who is actually a hypocrite. In medieval society, summoners brought people to the ecclesiastical court to confess their sins. He has a disgusting skin disease that makes… read analysis of The Summoner.
Who are the pilgrims in Canterbury Tales?
The Pilgrims in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer are the main characters in the framing narrative of the book. In addition, they can be considered as characters of the framing narrative the Host, who travels with the pilgrims, the Canon, and the fictive Geoffrey Chaucer, the teller of the tale of Sir Thopas ...
Who is the narrator of the tale of Melibee?
Name. Tales. Notes. Narrator. Geoffrey Chaucer. Sir Thopas and the Tale of Melibee. Although he writes all of the tales, Chaucer describes himself telling two tales as one of the pilgrims. Host. Harry Bailey.
What is the Parson's role in the Tales?from litcharts.com
Unlike most of the other religious characters in the Tales, the Parson is a sincere and devout priest, devoted to his parishioners. He genuinely practices what he preaches, traveling through rain and shine to the farthest corners of his parish.
What is the narrator's character in the book?from sparknotes.com
In the General Prologue, the narrator presents himself as a gregarious and naïve character . Later on, the Host accuses him of being silent and sullen. Because the narrator writes down his impressions of the pilgrims from memory, whom he does and does not like, and what he chooses and chooses not to remember about the characters, tells us as much about the narrator’s own prejudices as it does about the characters themselves.
What does Chanticleer dream of when he dreams of the fox?from sparknotes.com
She is his equal in looks, manners, and talent. When Chanticleer dreams of the fox, he awakens her in the middle of the night, begging for an interpretation, but Pertelote will have none of it, calling him foolish. When the fox takes him away, she mourns him in classical Greek fashion, burning herself and wailing.
What does Chaucer say about the Prioress?from litcharts.com
The Prioress attempts to be dainty and well-bred, and Chaucer makes fun of her by describing how she speaks French with a terrible accent and sings the liturgy straight through her nose. Although the Prioress… read analysis of The Prioress
What is the fox in the story?from litcharts.com
The fox is the wily villain of the story , the murderous threat that Chaunticleer sees in a dream . The fox also is an allusion to the threat of royal power disrupting peasants’ lives, as Chaucer hints when he describes the barnyard chase as being like the Jack Straw rebellion.
What does Absolon wear in the Miller's Tale?from sparknotes.com
The local parish clerk in the Miller’s Tale, Absolon is a little bit foolish and more than a little bit vain. He wears red stockings underneath his floor-length church gown, and his leather shoes are decorated like the fanciful stained-glass windows in a cathedral.
What are the three rioters in the Pardoner's Tale?from sparknotes.com
All three indulge in and represent the vices against which the Pardoner has railed in his Prologue: Gluttony, Drunkeness, Gambling, and Swearing . These traits define the three and eventually lead to their downfall.
What was Chaucer's use of astrology?
Like Dante from his previous century, Geoffrey Chaucer lived when astrology was a routine part of astronomy, medicine, and psychology. Dante’s use of astrology was general and cosmological. Chaucer used astrological symbolism allegorically, to depict appearance and character, to depict the course of maladies and illnesses, and, in one passage, to note a terrible time to set sail for an arranged marriage. It is not coincidental that the Wife of Bath, a character from the middle classes who is not defined by her work, who discusses features of her natal chart.
Where does Chaucer meet the Canterbury Tales?
We meet her early in The Canterbury Tales, in lines 445-476 of the General Prologue. We learn that she has a hearing problem. (She will tell us later how that came about.) She has such skill in weaving and making clothes that she surpasses the Belgians and Dutch who were known for such things. Interestingly Chaucer doesn’t follow this up subsequently. In fourteenth century England women had few ways to make their own living. We also find out that she had been married five times; we’ll be hearing much more about her marriages from her.
What is the wife of Bath?
The Wife of Bath from Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, was, and continues to be, one of Chaucer’s most vivid and enigmatic creations. Lately I have revisited her Prologue and Tale, her character, circumstances, and use of astrology alongside and of the commentary from the previous century. Holding in mind one scholar’s interpretation of the astrology behind the Wife of Bath, I want to present her astrology that reflects more of her character and circumstances. Her depiction and the story she tells seem to stand up well to contemporary feminist and neo-Marxist criticism, diverging from the moralizing tendency we see with older critics. Yet she remains a disturbing character who defies ideology,
How is Certyn dressed?
She is well dressed, overdressed with kerchiefs wrapped around her, broad skirts and a good pair of new shoes; her red stockings red seem to match her ruddy complexion. Continuing this hint of Mars, if someone else tried to be the first at offering during the church ceremony “…certyn so wroth was she,/That she was out of alle charitee.” Her dress and discourse are all extravagant, perhaps audacious. As we’ll see when she speaks for herself, she would not strike one as pious in a conventional sense, even if she has been on pilgrimages to Jerusalem and important pilgrimage sites in Europe.
What might one make of Saturn at the Midheaven?
What might one make of Saturn at the Midheaven? The Wife of Bath justifiably feels cheated by the world, by male institutional authority that keeps women in a subordinate position, where the world does not make good use of this women’s many gifts. Mars in the First is applying to a dignified Saturn, and Saturn itself is in the sign of Mars’ exaltation. The Wife of Bath is a powerful and assertive woman but also bitter.
Is the wife of Bath attractive?
Perhaps it’s a matter of taste, but to me the Wife of Bath is more attractive than in Curry’s accounts. In the General Prologue (line 460). Chaucer depicts her appearance thus: “Bold was hir face and fair and reed of hewe” (my italics). The men on the pilgrimage seem to like her, and she did attract five different men to marry her! Although she eagerly admits using sexuality to assert a power relationship between her and the men she married, she also wants to love and be loved for its own sake. To me this is a strong Venus but one not afflicted by a malefic. If we consider Venus, the ruler of her Taurus Ascendant, instead to be in good condition, we are left with a dialectic between Venus and Mars that works well to reveal her character and her conflicting attitudes toward life, especially men.
Who influenced the astronomy and astrology of Chaucer’s era?
In a move that would excite the modern astrologer, the Wife of Bath twice cites Ptolemy who influenced the astronomy and astrology of Chaucer’s era (lines 182-3, 323-328). She hails him as an authority yet incorrectly cites his Almagest, a very difficult work of astronomy, unreadable to almost everybody but specialists. Aside from being incorrect, this seems an example of scholarly name-dropping to give her voice a patina of authority.
Who is the narrator of Canterbury Tales?
The Narrator. The narrator is none other than the poet, Geoffrey Chaucer, himself. Still, he has kept himself away from including his personal biased opinions. His expertise in carving the characters is projected in presenting the characters as they were. In ‘Canterbury Tales’, he too is a pilgrim who is on his way to Canterbury.
What is the yeoman in Chaucer's story?
The Yeoman. In addition to the Squire, the knight has brought only this yeoman. He, with his dressing, expresses his free will. Looking at his adornments, the dagger, Bow, Arrows, and Dress, Chaucer makes a guess that he could a forester than the regular owner of the estate.
What does Chaucer say about the pardoner?
Chaucer gives a complex picture of the Pardoner. He speaks about his ability to make a profit using his intelligence, which is not a call of a clergy ma. At the same time, he claims that he can read, sing songs, and preach a good sermon.
What does Chaucer's character represent?
Chaucer gives a detailed picture of the characters he has used in ‘The Canterbury Tales’ in his ‘ General Prologue .’. His characters, the Thirty Pilgrims including the Host belong to diverse ranks and professions, represent a wide range of society. They represent chivalry, Learned and Liberal professions, Commercial Community, Agriculture, ...
What were the guildsmen?
The Guildsmen. The company of Guildsmen included a haberdasher, a carpenter, a weaver, a dyer, and a tapestry-maker. They were enjoying the growing richness as a result of England becoming a commercially important place.
What is the significance of Hubert the Friar?
Hubert, the Friar. The friar bears witness to the growing corruption and worldliness among the clergy. He is a squanderer, given to gossip and slander, yet esteemed as a worthy representative of his order. A friar ought to be living in poverty but he loves money.
What does the merchant represent in Chaucer's time?
The merchant represents the rising middle class of Chaucer’s time. He is shrewd and intelligent to strike a good bargain.
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer 's precise birth date is unknown, but records indicate that he was born around 1345 somewhere in London. He worked as a civil servant throughout his life, serving as a soldier in the King's Army, a member of Parliament, and a diplomat. Because of his jobs, Chaucer had the opportunity to travel throughout Europe.
Chaucer's "General Prologue" of The Canterbury Tales
Chaucer's "General Prologue" of The Canterbury Tales provides the author with the opportunity to introduce each of the pilgrims that will accompany him on his journey to the shrine of St. Thomas Becket in Canterbury.
The Canterbury Tales Characters
Most of the characters in The Canterbury Tales are described in vivid and often humorous detail in the "General Prologue." However, a few characters are mentioned only casually with little to no individual description. Descriptions of the characters follow.