Chaucer wrote his Canterbury Tales stories between the years 1387 and c1400. The book comprises a collection of stories about a group of pilgrims, of very different statuses and backgrounds, who travelled from Southwark to Canterbury on a religious pilgrimage to visit the shrine of St Thomas Becket.
Although the tales were unfinished on Chaucer’s death, the work is still important to anyone studying the medieval period, as it gives an idea of the various trades and occupations in medieval England, as well as information about the social make-up of society in the Middle Ages and attitudes towards different social groups.
The Characters in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales stories begins when a group of pilgrims stop at an inn and the patron proposes each of them tells a story to pass the time. The pilgrims agree to tell four stories each; two on the way to Canterbury and two on the return journey. Only 22 stories were completed, although if the work had been finished, there would have been more than 120 tales in the collection.
More than eight medieval versions of The Canterbury Tales are still in existence, which is testament to the book’s popularity during the Middle Ages. Chaucer never finalised an order for the various stories, so different versions have put the stories in different orders.
The stories and parts of stories which were completed are as follows: knight, miller, reeve, cook, man of law, wife, friar, summoner, clerk, merchant, squire, franklin, physician, pardoner, shipman, prioress, Sir Thopas, melibee, monk, nun’s priest, second nun, canon, yeoman, manciple, parson.
The Themes of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
In choosing such a wide variety of characters, Chaucer was able to explore a large number of themes, using the different statuses and occupations of his fictional characters. The themes of romance, courtly love, greed, treachery and religious corruption are all explored through the eyes of the different pilgrims.
The knight, who tells the first tale, represents the medieval ideal of chivalry. He has undertaken fifteen separate crusades and is presented as a man to be admired. The pardoner, on the other hand, is one of the representatives of religious corruption, a theme which occurs in several of the tales. He is a fraudster who uses the trust of others to sell fake religious indulgences, using false relics to gain money. Chaucer’s monk is a similar character; a man devoted to earthly pleasures rather than the prayerful and simple life of an ideal monk.
Although the tales were uncompleted, the stories which do exist, depict a broad range of medieval society, presented in an entertaining and humorous way. Chaucer’s value as an author can be seen through the fact that his books are still available in the 21st century.
Sources
Chaucer, Geoffrey The Canterbury Tales [Penguin Classics, 2003]
Cooper, Helen Oxford Guides to Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales [Oxford University Press, 1996]
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