Character #1

The Knight

Chaucer has presented the Knight as an ideal character.  He is a significant

and admirable character, and everyone respects him.  The Knight is also a
nobleman, who struggles, fights for God and truth instead of yearning for
stardom and glory. He is a victorious man with an extended travel history. His
modesty, simplicity, and generosity, makes him a complemented character.
Despite being a victorious warrior, he remains humble. He dresses
moderately, as per that time, and he cares about his duties. He is not
obsessed with worldly standards.

Character #2

The Wife of Bath

The Wife of Bath is another important character of the tales. Chaucer’s

description of her features is sexually suggestive; especially her gap between
teeth foreshadows her sensual and lusty nature. A seamstress by trade, the
Wife of Bath, has gotten married five times. In both, prologue and as well as
the tale, she discusses marriage, virginity and most notably the question of
sovereignty. On account of her marriage experiences, she considers herself
an expert in marriage counseling. When Chaucer states that she goes on
pilgrimage often, it appears that despite her promiscuous nature, she is also a
religious woman and loves traveling.

The Merchant

The Merchant represents the emerging middle class with his fashionable
outfit, forked beard, and English boots. Being highly skilled in English trade
policies, he always refers to his supporters instead of opponents. He is an
expert in borrowing and lending money. Also, he never faces any loss in his
bargains. His excellence in his dealing of financial affairs is surprising as no
one knows that he is in debt. Chaucer considers him a virtuous man having
his own tactics of business and trade.

Character #7

The Clerk
The Clerk is another ideal figure and a serious student of logic. Not only is he
a poor man with his thin horse but also wears ordinary clothing. He prefers to
quench his thirst of knowledge rather than chasing riches and glories of life.
Unlike the philosophers of the Middle Ages who knew the tactics of making
gold by transforming base materials into gold and silver, Chaucer’s clerk is a
simple man with no signs of greed. He is also a passive participant who
speaks only when required.

Character #8

The Sergeant of Law

The Sergeant of Law is a skilled lawyer and a highly reputed person. He often
plays the role of a judge in the assembly. As a professional lawyer, he
charges high fees for his work. He often shows his presence on the porch of
St. Paul’s church to join his fellow lawyers for a consultation. Chaucer has
portrayed him as an expert as no one can find fault in his draft of legal
documentation. He is very wise and vigilant in his conversation and holds a
high opinion about himself. He pretends to be busy all the time to show and
propagate his professionalism.

Knight
Chivalrous and wise, the Knight has achieved great honor for his noble deeds and success in many
battles. He is the ideal knight in every way: courteous in his manners, heroic in battle, and polite and
gentle in speech. Chaucer describes the knight as if he has no flaws. He is not even arrogant or
proud because of his success; rather, he is modest and humble, wearing his stained cloak without
pretensions.

Wife of Bath
The Wife of Bath is a middle-aged woman with a gap between her front teeth, a large hat, and red
stockings. She's no stranger to pilgrimages, having gone on several. She's no stranger to sex,
either, having had five husbands and talking freely about her prowess in bed. As a successful
seamstress with her own business and as a woman who gets what she wants from men, she's used
to being in charge.

The Clerk is an Oxford University student, thin and dressed in threadbare clothes. He

would rather have books than fine clothes or money. Though he is a philosopher, he
has not found the philosopher’s stone: what little money he has, he spends on books.
He takes his studies very seriously, and whenever he speaks, his speech is full of
moral virtue.
The wise and prudent Man of Laws is very well respected and highly sought after for
his legal assistance. He is an excellent buyer of land. The Man of Laws is extremely
busy and pretends to be even busier than he is. No one could ever find a flaw in his
legal documents.
The guildsmen hired a Cook for the journey. The Cook, Roger de Ware, is very
skillful, but the narrator is repulsed by the pus-filled ulcer on his shin.

The slightly deaf Wife of Bath, an excellent seamstress, is always first in line at parish offerings.
If anyone brings alms before her, she becomes extremely angry. On her way to Sunday mass, she
wraps her head in scarves that the narrator says must weigh ten pounds. Her stockings are as
bright red as her face.
The Wife of Bath, one of the few female pilgrims, is one of Chaucer’s most entertaining and
lively characters. She is proud and quick-tempered. Her red face and stockings come from
medieval stereotypes that red is the color of lust.
ACTIVE THEMES

The Wife of Bath has been married five times (not to mention her other “company”) and has
gone on three pilgrimages to Jerusalem; she has also visited Rome, Cologne, and other foreign
pilgrimage sites. She is gap-toothed; sits easily on her horse; and wears a wimple, an overskirt
over her broad hips, and sharp spurs. The Wife of Bath gives excellent advice in matters of love,
having a great deal of expertise.

The narrator and the other pilgrims drink, and they decide they will start their journey together
the next morning. But before they begin, the narrator pauses the story to introduce the reader to
the array of travelers in the company, saying that he will describe how each one of them seemed
to him.
Not only does the narrator of the story become one of the characters in it, he also makes the
reader aware of his presence as an author: these are his individual perceptions and judgments of
appearance.
ACTIVE THEMES

The narrator begins by describing the Knight, a noble man who loves chivalry and fights for
truth and honor. The knight has travelled through Christian and heathen territories––Alexandria,
Prussia, Russia, Lithuania, Granada, Morocco, Turkey––and has been victorious everywhere and
universally praised for his valor. But his exploits are always conducted for love of Christ, not
love of glory.

The only servant the Knight has with him is the Yeoman, who wears a green hood and coat.
The Yeoman takes great care of his bow and sharp, keen peacock arrows. He has closely cropped
hair and tanned skin. On his arm he wears a bright arm guard and carried a sword as well as a
dagger. The Yeoman also wears a badge of St. Christopher. The narrator guesses that, according
to the Yeoman’s dress, he is a forester.
Even though the Knight is noble, he is shown as humble, as befits a good knight, because he only
travels with one servant. The fact that he has a Yeoman also shows that the Knight owns land
because he needs a forester to maintain it.
ACTIVE THEMES

The narrator next describes the Prioress, a nun named Madame Eglentyne. She sings the
liturgy through her nose. She speaks French elegantly, though in an English accent. She has
excellent table manners: she never lets a morsel of meat fall from her mouth onto her breast, nor
does she dip her fingers into the sauce. She wipes her lips so clean that not a speck of grease
remains after a meal. The Prioress takes pains to imitate courtly manners and to remain dignified
at all times.

The Prioress is so charitable and compassionate, the narrator says, that whenever she sees a
mouse caught and bleeding in a trap, she weeps. She keeps small dogs, feeding them roast meat,
milk, and fine white bread, and she weeps if any of them are trampled or if men beat them with a
switch.
The narrator sarcastically portrays the Prioress as a wimp, squealing every time she sees a dead
mouse. In the name of her compassion, she also spoils her little pet dogs.
ACTIVE THEMES

The Prioress wears a wimple draped to show off her well-formed nose, gray eyes, and small red
mouth. The narrator observes that she has a wide forehead and that she is hardly underfed. Her
cloak is very elegant. She wears a coral rosary with green beads, on which there is a gilded A,
for Amor vincit omnia: “Love conquers all.”
The General Prologue opens with a description of April showers and the return of
spring. “Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote / The droghte of March hath perced
to the roote,” he begins, and writes about the burgeoning flowers and singing birds.
The sun has gone through the second half of the zodiacal sign Aires, the “Ram.”
Budding, lust-filled springtime is also the time when people desire to go on
pilgrimage, and travelers from all corners of England make the journey to Canterbury
Cathedral to seek the help of the blessed martyr. Chaucer, the narrator, who is
preparing to go on pilgrimage, is staying at the Tabard Inn, a tavern in Southwark. A
diverse company of twenty-nine other pilgrims enter the inn, and the narrator joins
their group