Geoffrey Chaucer's Use of Characterization
by Barry Wright
Essay: Geoffrey Chaucer's Use of Characterization
Pages: 10
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Characterization has been the cornerstone of literature for centuries. Character presentation can attain any work
fame or shame. Geoffrey Chaucer, a pioneer of English Literature’s works carried mass appeal. His best known
works appealed to those of all walks of life. Chaucer’s work resulted in mass appeal because it used many forms of
characterization to present the characters to the reader. In Geoffrey Chaucer’s Prologue to the Canterbury Tales,
Chaucer uses thoughts and actions, his word, and satire to characterize The Squire and The Wife of Bath.
Geoffrey Chaucer is well known for his use of characterization in his works. A notable work of Chaucer was
Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. This piece was notable because it appealed to a diverse base of readers. It
appealed to a wide range of readers because of Chaucer’s characterization. Characterization is the process an
author uses to develop the characters of a story.
Characters can be developed in many ways. Thus there are many forms of characterization for an author to choose
from. Chaucer used many forms of characterization in his work, Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. Examples of
forms of characterization used included the character’s thoughts and actions, author’s word, and satire. Character’s
thoughts and actions can be described as how the character thinks as well as acts. Author’s word can be described
as how the author directly describes the character within the text. Satire can be commonly described as writing to
expose the shortcomings of individuals as well as society as a whole to mockery.
These three forms of characterization were used to develop many characters within Prologue to the Canterbury
Tales. Examples of these three forms of character development ca...
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