THE CANTERBURY TALES 3.

These lay characters can be

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

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