Chaucer and The Canterbury Tales

A Yeoman - servant of the knight

A farmer and wood crafter

Explains how the Miller cheats those who buy grain from him; he pressed on the scale with his thumb to increase the weight of the grain (line 581)

"A thumb of gold, by God, to gauge an oat!"

The doctor - In cahoots with the druggist to swindle people out of money

"All his apothecaries in a tribe / Were ready with the drugs he would prescribe, / And each made money from the other's guile"

The Pardoner - offers fake religious relics to the desperate for a price.

"And by his flatteries and prevarication / Made monkeys of the priest and congregation."

The Wife of Bath - she defies the stereotype for women of the time by claiming to be an expert in romance because women were expected to be meek caretakers and house keepers

"And knew the remedy for love's mischances, / An art in which she knew the oldest dances."

The Cook - hired to travel with the Guildsmen

"But what a pity -- so it seems to me, / That he should have an ulcer on his knee"

The Oxford Cleric - prefers knowledge to worldly things

"By his bed / He preferred having twenty books in red / And black, of Aristotle's philosophy, / To having fine clothes, fiddle or psaltery."

The Summoner - hideous-looking; face covered with sores; ignores wrong doings of others for a price

"For in his purse the punishment should be."

Chaucer's satire about the doctor.

"Gold stimulates the heart, or so we're told, / He therefore had a special love of gold."

Serjeant at Law - knowledgable lawyer; particular about his work

"He could dictate defences or draft deeds; / No one could pinch a comma from his screeds."

The Parson - the only true man of God of the religious sect of pilgrims; a true example of a country priest

"He found sufficiency in little things"

The Reeve - manages estates; consumers are afraid he will blackmail them

"He knew their dodges, knew their every trick; / Feared like the plague he was, by those beneath."

The Monk - worldly; not a true man of God

"He let go by the things of yesterday / And took the modern world's more spacious way."

The Franklin - his house "positively snowed with meat and drink"

"He lived for pleasure and had always done, / For he was Epicurus very son, / In whose opinion sensual delight / Was the one true felicity in sight."

The Squire; a lover, not a fighter yet; a knight-in-training.

"He loved so hotly that til dawn grew pale / He slept as little as a nightingale."

The Knight - a true gentleman

"He never yet a boorish thing had said / In all his life to any, come what might"

The Parson - Chaucer is perhaps contrasting him here with the Friar, whose motives are only for profit

"He was a shephard and no mercenary."

The Merchant

"He was an expert at currency exchange"

The Parson - motives are pure

"His business was to show a fair behavious / And draw men thus to Heaven and their Saviour."

The Miller - a stout, filthy-mouthed man who cheats his customers

"His mighty mouth was like a furnace door. / A wrangler and buffoon, he had a store / Of tavern stories, filthy in the main."

Chaucer vows to repeat the tales of the pilgrims exactly as they told them, whether it be nice or nasty, and whether it reveals their character as good or bad.

"However rudely spoken or unfit, / Or else the tale he tells will be untrue"

The Wife of Bath - jealous of other women; been married five times

"In all the parish not a dame dared stir / Towards the altar steps in front of her, / And if indeed they did, so wrath was she / As to be quite put out of charity."

The Pardoner - he doesn't preach or sing out of sincerity but rather for show and to make profit

"In church he was a noble ecclesiast. / How well he read a lesson or told a story! / But best of all he sang an Offertory, / For well he knew that when that song was sung / He'd have to preach and tune his honey-tongue."

Chaucer uses satire to explain why the Friar doesn't go among the poor and lowly of society. He thinks he's too good.

"It was not fitting with the dignity / Of his position, dealing with a scum / Of wretched lepers; nothing good can come / Of dealings with the slum-and-gutter dwellers, / But only with the rich and victual-sellers."

The Plowman - a lowly, Christian farmer

"Living in peace and perfect charity, / And, as the gospel bade him, so did he."

The Skipper - he's a thief (stole wine while the trader slept)

"Many a draught of vintage, red and yellow, / He'd drawn at Bordeaux, while the trader snored"

The Nun - very squeamish; almost "too" nice

"She used to weep if she but saw a mouse / Caught in a trap..."

The Nun

"She was all sentiment and tender heart."

Chaucer's satirical way of describing the Nun as being large

"She was by no means undergrown."

Chaucer's satirical description of the Friar

"Sweetly he heard his penitents at shrift / With pleasant absolution, for a gift. / He was an easy man in penance-giving Where he could hope to make a decent living;"

The Skipper - a sailor who had no mercy on those he captured

"The nicer rules of conscience he ignored. / If, then he fought, the enemy vessel sank, / He sent his prisoners hoome; they walked the plank."

Chaucer's satire of the Pardoner

"There was no pardoner of equal grace."

Ironic description of the Friar.

"This worthy's name was Hubert, it appeared."

The Summoner - Bribes people for his silence

"Thus, as he pleased, the man could bring duress / On any young felllow in the diocese, / He knew their secrets, they did what he said."

The Oxford Cleric - he's poor but rich in spirit and humility

"Whatever money from his friends he took / He spent on learning or another book / And prayed for them most earnestly, returning / Thanks to them thus for paying for his learning."

The Parson - willing to travel far and wide, rain or shine, to help whoever needed him

"Wide was his parish, with houses far asunder, / Yet he neglected not in rain or thunder, / In sickness or in grief, to pay a call / On the remotest, whether great or small, / Upon his feet, and in his hand a stave."

The doctor - he made money off of people's diseases

"Yet he was rather close as to expenses / And kept the gold he won in pestilences"

metapor for the Pardoner being a sweet talker

"honey-tongue"

The Guildsmen - they are worldly tradesmen who aspire to be middle-class.

Haberdasher, Dyer, Carpenter, Weaver, Carpet-maker

the host and guide of the pilgrimage and owner of the Tabard; comes up with the idea of telling tales to pass the time on the journey (lines 812-815)

Harry Bailey

He puts the choice in her hands.

How does the knight choose between having the old women stay the way she is or be young and lovely?

He is angry; begs her not to make him do it; criticizes her for being old, ugly, and poor.

How does the knight react to marrying the old woman?

a thief

How is Death referred to in the Pardoner's Tale?

Twelve months and a day

How long does the knight have to give his answer?

Answer the question of what it is women most desire

How must the knight save his life?

The Parson's brother

The Plowman

Springtime symbolizes renewal and new life, indicating the pilgrims are looking for spiritual renewal.

What is significant about the time of year the pilgrimage takes place?

Women desire power over their husbands and lovers.

What is the answer to what it is that women desire?

To give the personal and social background of each of the pilgrims.

What is the purpose of the prologue?

Spring

When the pilgrimage takes place

Becket's tomb

Where the pilgrims are bound

Guinevere

Who decides the knight's fate?

He was satirizing people from all walks of life, so he had to be sure he was doing it gently and without personal insult.

Why did Chaucer have to be careful how he wrote the Canterbury Tales?

He is going to tell about each one according to his/her station in life. The knight is first because he is of nobility.

Why does Chaucer begin with the knight?

Because he gave her what all women want from their men: power.

Why does the old woman change into a young and lovely one?

He is not a worthy minister at all. He takes money from people in exchange for penance and is too good to go among the poor and sick.

Why is ironic that Chaucer calls the Friar "worthy?"

Because she claims to know the answer to all of love's problems, and the answer (according to the tale) is to give women power over men.

Why is the Wife of Bath's tale appropriate for her character?

He rapes and takes the virginity of a young maiden.

Why is the knight condemned to die?

raise children and tend to house and farm

expectations of medieval women

story in which other narratives are told

frame story

visible forms of the feudal system

knights and chivalry

a person who journeys, especially a long distance, to some sacred place as an act of religious devotion

pilgrim

origin means "foreigner" or "from abroad"

pilgrim

journey to a sacred place, usually religious in nature

pilgrimage

none

political rights of women

a work that makes fun of something or someone

satire

lower class, middle class, upper-middle class

the three city classes

She makes him promise that he will give her whatever she asked for in return.

What does the old woman ask in exchange for the answer she gives the knight?

Marry her

What does the old woman require the knight to do?

He was captured by the French, but King Edward III paid 16 pounds for his release, a hefty sum at the time.

What happened to Chaucer during the Hundred Years' War?

Feudal system

A social, caste, property, and military system based on hierarchy.

Chivalry

A system of ideals and social codes governing the behavior of knights and gentlewomen

He was a soldier, member of Parliament, Justice of the Peace, ambassador, and served under the different kings: Edward III, Richard II, and Henry IV.

Being born of average birth, how did Chaucer know so much about nobility?

spread by the fleas of infested rats

Black Death or bubonic plague

The love of money is the root of evil; Or if you look for Death, you will find it.

What is a good theme for the Pardoner's tale?

English Poetry

Chaucer is often called the "Father" of this.

narrator and poet-pilgrim

Chaucer's role in the Canterbury Tales

Very old, hideously ugly, poor

Describe the old woman who gives the knight the answer he seeks.

King Arthur

During what time period is the Wife of Bath's tale set?

Chaucer was the first to popularize this

English language

one who seeks the finer things in life - Chaucer refers to the Franklin as one

Epicurean

The one who goes into town, poisons the wine. When he returns, the other two kill him, drink the wine, and then die themselves.

Explain how the three men in the Pardoner's tale die.

If she stays old and ugly, she will always be faith and he won't have to worry about her chastity toward him. But if she is beautiful, he will always wonder if she desire someone else and if others are admiring her.

Explain what the old woman tells the knight about the difference in having her the way she is or being young and beautiful.

29

Number of pilgrims on the journey

Four - two on the way to Canterbury and two on the way back

Number of tales each pilgrim will tell

Chaucer was the first to be buried here

Poet's Corner at Westminster Abbey

kill Death

What do the three rioters set out to do when the leave the tavern?

Elvis Presley's birthplace, Vietnam War Memorial, Woodstock

Types of secular pilgrimages

tell them where Death is

What do the three rioters demand of the Old Man?

gold

What do the three rioters find at the base of the oak tree?