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The
Canterbury
Tales
• Written by Geoffrey Chaucer
between 1387 and 1400.
• Story: a group of thirty people are traveling to
Canterbury to pray (on a pilgrimage - a religious
The Canterbury Tales is considered a
FRAME STORY
Prologue
Background
journey)
• tell stories to each other to kill time and
compete for a free dinner
• Chaucer died before he finished writing this
The outer part of the frame story
is about the pilgrims meeting and
travelling to Canterbury.
• Lists all the characters
• Main goal is to introduce the characters and
describe them
• Chaucer uses direct and indirect
characterization
The Inner Frame Story would be
all the stories told by the
assembled pilgrims along their
journey to and from Canterbury.
direct characterization – stating direct adjectives about a
character’s personality
indirect characterization – revealing the personality of a
character through details of appearance, thoughts, speech,
and/or action
What is a frame story?
Definition:
Frame Story – a story within a story
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Wife of Bath
• “Bold was her face, handsome, and red in hue.
/ A worthy woman all her life, what’s more /
• She’d had five husbands, all at the church door
/ And she had been thrice to Jerusalem, / Seen
many strange rivers and passed over them; /
She’d been to Rome and also to Boulogne”
-she has been married several times
Cook
• “They had a Cook with them who stood alone /
For boiling chicken with a marrow-bone, / Sharp
flavoring-powder and a spice for savor…Make a
good thick soup and bake a tasty pie. / But what a
pity – so it seemed to me, / That he should have
an ulcer on his knee. / As for blancmange (creamy
chicken), he made it with the best.”
– Has a large oozing sore on his leg and his
best dish is just boiling chicken which implies
the Cook is not a very good cook
Knight
• “There was a Knight, a most
distinguished man, / Who from the
day on which he first began / To ride
abroad had followed chivalry, / Truth,
honor, generousness, and courtesy.”
Direct characterization – “truth, honor,
generousness, and courtesy” “most distinguished
man” “followed chivalry”
Indirect characterization – “he first began to ride
abroad
Chaucer’s Opinions of Characters
• Sometimes Chaucer makes it sound like the character is good, but he is
really judging the character and pointing out that he or she is not
honest or in some way a bad person
– i.e. most of the members of the church are corrupt:
• Monk should be in a monastery praying all day but spends his
time hunting. He “rode the country; hunting was his sport”
• The Nun is too worried about her manners; she “counterfeits a
courtly kind of grace” and wears a golden broach.
• The Friar knew all the innkeepers and barmaids , but not the
people who need help. He “knew the taverns well in every
town / and every innkeeper and barmaid too / Better than
lepers, beggars and that crew”
• The Summoner “was as hot and lecherous as a sparrow / Black
scabby brows he had, and a thin beard / Children were afraid
when he appeared”
• The only truly holy and honest member of the church is the Parson:
– “The Parson who “was rich in holy thought and work. / He also was
a learned man, a clerk, / who truly knew Christ’s gospel and would
preach it / Devoutly to parishioners, and teach it”
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The Pardoner’s Tale
The Pardoner’s Tale - Plot
• Talks about himself first and says, “For
my exclusive purpose is to win / And
not at all to castigate their sin. / Once
dead what matters how their souls my fare? /
They can go blackberrying for all I care!”
– He wants his parishioners to give him lots of
money and doesn’t care about their souls
• It is ironic and the Pardoner is a hypocrite
because he preaches against greed is
especially greedy
• The rioters, who are greedy, arrogant, and
drunks, go looking for Death because they plan to
avenge the deaths of their friends
• They are rude to an Old Man who tells them
Death is under a tree
• They find gold under the tree
• The youngest is sent to town for food and drink
and decides to poison his friends
• The two left with the treasure decide to murder
the youngest when he returns
• All the rioters meet Death
Literary Analysis
• Death is both the price of wickedness and an
actual person (the Old Man = personification)
• The character trait of greed leads to the
downfall of the three rioters
• The rioters murdering each other after
abandoning their search for Death is called…
Irony
• Lesson: Greed is a source of evil
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