Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales takes place in the early 14th century. The main story is about “The narrator” who is on a journey, and while on this journey he meets up with a group of pilgrims. As you begin to read The Canterbury Tales the reader is almost forced to assume that they are going to be reading a romance story because of the way he speaks about springtime and how the flowers are blossoming, and lovers go on pilgrimages. We see this when he says “It brings forth the engendering of the flower” and “(So Nature pricks them in each little heart), On pilgrimage then folks desire to start.” The style of writing Chaucer uses is similar to rhythmic poems. As the reader you notice that every two lines or so rhyme with each other.
There are a host of characters in this story, 24 to be exact. The Characters are called Pilgrims, they include; The Narrator, The Host (the owner of the inn), The Knight, The Miller, The Reeve, The Cook, The Man of Law, The Wife of Bath, The Friar, the Summoner, The Clerk, The Merchant, The Squire, The Franklin, The Doctor, The Pardoner, The Shipman, The Prioress, The Monk, The Nuns Priest, the Second Nun, The Canons Yeoman, The Manciple, and The Parson. The pilgrims are making a journey to a religious shrine. They stop at an Inn and while waiting were giving the opportunity to tell tales and be judged on to tells the best one. All the stories are told in a third person point of view, giving the reader not only the thoughts but also the actions of each character.
Its not all that clear if there were actually protagonist in the story, the point of telling the stories was to have the best “tale” but no one was the “leading or main” character. Each individual story had protagonist in it though. The struggles between characters, developed between tales, this was because most of the pilgrims were different class of people, various preferences, and the
competition on whose profession was best. There are also differences of opinions between the sexes. After your read the first twenty-three tales , you notice that the Parson is (what we call) preaching, and Chaucer ( the author) asks to be forgiven for his sins and asked to be forgiven for writing the Canterbury Tales.
The way to give a physical appearance to the pilgrims Chaucer used their clothing as a symbol of the personality traits of the wearer. The Wife of Baths red hose symbolized her lustful nature, and her hat exemplifies her love of fashion and luxury. Some characters, like the Merchant or the Pardoner, reveal their concern with the latest fashions in other ways. Most often, how fancy or simple the pilgrims clothing are symbolizes their possession or lack of money. Throughout “The Canterbury Tales” one of the recurrent subjects in the tellers’ tales is love. Not all of the tellers agree about what love is, however, nor how it should be