THE CANTERBURY TALES
These lay characters can be
INTRODUCTION
PROLOGUE
 The prologue of The Canterbury Tales
has 858 lines.
 The narrator opens the General Prologue
with a description of the return of
spring. Around this time of year, the
narrator says, people begin to feel the
desire to go on a pilgrimage. Many
devout English pilgrims set off to visit
shrines in distant holy lands, but even
more choose to travel to Canterbury to
visit the relics of Saint Thomas Becket
in Canterbury Cathedral.
 The narrator tells us that as he prepared
to go on such a pilgrimage, staying at a
tavern in Southwark called the Tabard
Inn, a great company of twenty-nine
travelers entered. The travelers were a
diverse group who, like the narrator,
were on their way to Canterbury. Before
continuing the tale, the narrator declares
his intent to list and describe each of the
members of the group.
 Pilgrims traveled to visit the remains of
Saint Thomas Becket, archbishop of
Canterbury, who was murdered in 1170
by knights of King Henry II. Son after
his death, he became the most popular
saint in England.
CHARACTERS OF THE CANTERBURY
TALES
 The pilgrims represent a diverse cross
section of fourteenth-century English
society. Medieval social theory divided
society into three broad classes, called
“estates”: the military, the clergy, and
the laity.
1. The Knight and Squire represent
the military estate.
2. The clergy is represented by the
Prioress (and her nun and three
priests), the Monk, the Friar,
and the Parson.
3.
further subdivided into
landowners (the Franklin),
professionals (the Clerk, the
Man of Law, the Guildsmen, the
Physician, and the Shipman),
 Laborers (the Cook and the Plowman),
stewards (the Miller, the Manciple, and
the Reeve), and church officers (the
Summoner and the Pardoner As we will
see, Chaucer’s descriptions of the
various characters and their social roles
reveal the influence of the medieval
genre of estates satire.
THE KNIGHT’S TALE
Long ago in Ancient Greece, a great conqueror
and duke named Theseus ruled the city of
Athens. Creon, the lord of Thebes, has
dishonored them by refusing to bury or cremate
their bodies. Rather than kill them, he mercifully
heals the Theban soldiers’ injuries, but
condemns them to a life of imprisonment in an
Athenian tower. The prisoners, named Palamon
and Arcite, are cousins and sworn brothers. Fair-
haired Emelye, Theseus’s sister-inlaw,making
flower garlands. One day, a duke named
Perotheus, friend both to Theseus and Arcite,
petitions for Arcite’s freedom. Arcite realizes
that he could enter the city disguised and not be
recognized. He does so and takes on a job as a
page in Emelye’s chamber under the pseudonym
Philostrate.
THE MILLER’S TALE
The Miller begins his story: there was once an
Oxford student named Nicholas, who studied
astrology and was well acquainted with the art
of love. Nicholas boarded with a wealthy but
ignorant old carpenter named John, who was
jealous and highly possessive of his sexy
eighteenyear-old wife, Alisoun. A merry, vain
parish clerk named Absolon also fancies
Alisoun. He serenades her every night, buys her
gifts, and gives her money, Nicholas tells John
he has had a vision from God and offers to tell
John about it. He explains that he has foreseen a
terrible event. Nicholas and Alisoun climb
down, run back to the house, and sleep together
in the carpenter’s bed. Absolon passes by.
Hoping to stop in for a kiss, or perhaps more,
from Alisoun, Absolon sidles up to the window
and calls to her. She harshly replies that she
loves another. Absolon persists, and Alisoun
offers him one quick kiss in the dark. The
townspeople laugh that all have received their
dues, and the Miller merrily asks that God save
the company.
poverty lies in covetousness, and real riches lie
in having little and wanting nothing. She offers
the knight a choice: either he can have her be
ugly but loyal and good, or he can have her
young and fair but also coquettish and
unfaithful. The two have a long, happy marriage,
and the woman becomes completely obedient to
her husband.

THE WIFE OF BATH’S TALE

The Wife of Bath begins the Prologue to her tale

by establishing herself as an authority on
marriage, due to her extensive personal
experience with the institution. After all, great
Old Testament figures, like Abraham, Jacob, and
Solomon, enjoyed multiple wives at once. Her
gift is her sexual power. When she first met this
fifth husband, Jankyn, she was still married to
her fourth. While walking with him one day, she
told him that she would marry him if she were
widowed. Her tale of her marriages finished, the
Wife announces that she will tell her story,
eliciting laughter from the Friar, who exclaims,
“This is a long preamble of a tale!” (831). The
Summoner tells him to shut up, and they
exchange some angry words. The Host quiets
everybody down and allows the Wife of Bath to
begin her story. In the days of King Arthur, the
Wife of Bath begins, the isle of Britain was full
of fairies and elves. In Arthur’s court, however,
a young, lusty knight comes across a beautiful
young maiden one day. The queen presents the
knight with the following challenge: if, within
one year, he can discover what women want
most in the world and report his findings back to
the court, he will keep his life. If he cannot find
the answer to the queen’s question, or if his
answer is wrong, he will lose his head. Some
claim that women love money best, some honor,
some jolliness, some looks, some sex, some
remarriage, some flattery, and some say that
women most want to be free to do as they wish.
The woman tells the knight that he must pledge
himself to her in return for her help, and the
knight, having no options left, gladly consents.
She then guarantees that his life will be saved.
Throughout the entire ordeal, the knight remains
miserable. Her family may be poor, but real