Detailed Analysis Of Major Characters In Prologue

THE CANTERBURY TALES

Geoffrey Chaucer

Analysis Of Major Characters

The Knight

The Knight rides at the front of the procession described in the General Prologue, and his story is the first in the sequence. The Host clearly admires the Knight, as does the narrator. The narrator seems to remember four main qualities of the Knight. The first is the Knight’s love of ideals—“chivalrie” (prowess), “trouthe” (fidelity), “honour” (reputation), “fredom” (generosity), and “curteisie” (refinement) (General Prologue, 45–46). The second is the Knight’s impressive military career. The Knight has fought in the Crusades, wars in which Europeans traveled by sea to non-Christian lands and attempted to convert whole cultures by the force of their swords. By Chaucer’s time, the spirit for conducting these wars was dying out, and they were no longer undertaken as frequently. The Knight has battled the Muslims in Egypt, Spain, and Turkey, and the Russian Orthodox in Lithuania and Russia. He has also fought in formal duels. The third quality the narrator remembers about the Knight is his meek, gentle, manner. And the fourth is his “array,” or dress. The Knight wears a tunic made of coarse cloth, and his coat of mail is rust-stained, because he has recently returned from an expedition.

The Knight’s interaction with other characters tells us a few additional facts about him. In the Prologue to the Nun’s Priest’s Tale, he calls out to hear something more lighthearted, saying that it deeply upsets him to hear stories about tragic falls. He would rather hear about “joye and greet solas,” about men who start off in poverty climbing in fortune and attaining wealth (Nun’s Priest’s Prologue, 2774). The Host agrees with him, which is not surprising, since the Host has mentioned that whoever tells the tale of “best sentence and moost solaas” will win the storytelling contest (General Prologue, 798). And, at the end of the Pardoner’s Tale, the Knight breaks in to stop the squabbling between the Host and the Pardoner, ordering them to kiss and make up. Ironically, though a soldier, the romantic, idealistic Knight clearly has an aversion to conflict or unhappiness of any sort.

The Pardoner

The Pardoner rides in the very back of the party in the General Prologue and is fittingly the most marginalized character in the company. His profession is somewhat dubious—pardoners offered indulgences, or previously written pardons for particular sins, to people who repented of the sin they had committed. Along with receiving the indulgence, the penitent would make a donation to the Church by giving money to the pardoner. Eventually, this “charitable” donation became a necessary part of receiving an indulgence. Paid by the Church to offer these indulgences, the Pardoner was not supposed to pocket the penitents’ charitable donations. That said, the practice of offering indulgences came under critique by quite a few churchmen, since once the charitable donation became a practice allied to receiving an indulgence, it began to look like one could cleanse oneself of sin by simply paying off the Church. Additionally, widespread suspicion held that pardoners counterfeited the pope’s signature on illegitimate indulgences and pocketed the “charitable donations” themselves.

Chaucer’s Pardoner is a highly untrustworthy character. He sings a ballad—“Com hider, love, to me!” (General Prologue, 672)—with the hypocritical Summoner, undermining the already challenged virtue of his profession as one who works for the Church. He presents himself as someone of ambiguous gender and sexual orientation, further challenging social norms. The narrator is not sure whether the Pardoner is an effeminate homosexual or a eunuch (castrated male). Like the other pilgrims, the Pardoner carries with him to Canterbury the tools of his trade—in his case, freshly signed papal indulgences and a sack of false relics, including a brass cross filled with stones to make it seem as heavy as gold and a glass jar full of pig’s bones, which he passes off as saints’ relics. Since visiting relics on pilgrimage had become a tourist industry, the Pardoner wants to cash in on religion in any way he can, and he does this by selling tangible, material objects—whether slips of paper that promise forgiveness of sins or animal bones that people can string around their necks as charms against the devil. After telling the group how he gulls people into indulging his own avarice through a sermon he preaches on greed, the Pardoner tells of a tale that exemplifies the vice decried in his sermon. Furthermore, he attempts to sell pardons to the group—in effect plying his trade in clear violation of the rules outlined by the host.

The Wife of Bath

One of two female storytellers (the other is the Prioress), the Wife has a lot of experience under her belt. She has traveled all over the world on pilgrimages, so Canterbury is a jaunt compared to other perilous journeys she has endured. Not only has she seen many lands, she has lived with five husbands. She is worldly in both senses of the word: she has seen the world and has experience in the ways of the world, that is, in love and sex.

Rich and tasteful, the Wife’s clothes veer a bit toward extravagance: her face is wreathed in heavy cloth, her stockings are a fine scarlet color, and the leather on her shoes is soft, fresh, and brand new—all of which demonstrate how wealthy she has become. Scarlet was a particularly costly dye, since it was made from individual red beetles found only in some parts of the world. The fact that she hails from Bath, a major English cloth-making town in the Middle Ages, is reflected in both her talent as a seamstress and her stylish garments. Bath at this time was fighting for a place among the great European exporters of cloth, which were mostly in the Netherlands and Belgium. So the fact that the Wife’s sewing surpasses that of the cloth makers of “Ipres and of Gaunt” (Ypres and Ghent) speaks well of Bath’s (and England’s) attempt to outdo its overseas competitors.

Although she is argumentative and enjoys talking, the Wife is intelligent in a commonsense, rather than intellectual, way. Through her experiences with her husbands, she has learned how to provide for herself in a world where women had little independence or power. The chief manner in which she has gained control over her husbands has been in her control over their use of her body. The Wife uses her body as a bargaining tool, withholding sexual pleasure until her husbands give her what she demands.

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Prologue To The Canterbury Tales As Picture Gallery Of 14th Century

The Prologue as the Picture Gallery Of 14^th Century

Coghill in his book on Chaucer says; “He has painted the real picture of England of the 14^th century “. Another critic Campton Rickett says; “Like Shakespeare, Chaucer makes it his business to paint life as he sees it and paves others to say the morals. Another famous critic Legouis says; “Chaucer’s pilgrims belongs to his own age. They are as they were in reality. They are true to life and form the very background of that history which is the history of 14^th century. From the opinions of famous critics it becomes clear that the prologue is an important social document, a great social chronicle in which Chaucer presents with great fidelity the body and the soul of the society of his own times. It is the full-blooded and full-flooded view of the variegated panorama of the 14^th century. In other words he holds a mirror to his age. It has been rightly said that Prologue evinces the true color and aroma of the 14^th century England. In fact, the twenty nine pilgrims encompass the whole range of the English society of Chaucer’s time excluding of course the highest and the lowest. In the words of Dryden; “There is God’s plenty”. Chaucer’s view is humanistic view. He was writing from a worldly and secular angle which include in its range both the good and the bad because he knows that the warp and woof of life is made up of both the angels and the devils. That is why there is an unprejudiced acceptance of everything. This is what makes him the impartial and objective in his presentation of the life of his age. If we have the noble person like the Poor Parson of the town on the one hand we have also the rogues like the Pardoner and the Friar on the other hand.

Chaucer’s world was the Medieval world. It was the age of chivalry and ecclesiastics. The knight is the symbol of Medieval world of chivalry in the traditional sews. With him his son The Squire who represents the new trends which were making in road in the old system. The knight of Chaucer belongs to that order in which the sword was combined with the cross that is why all the wars in which knight participated were the religious wars or The Crusades fought against the infidels. The prologue began with the knight and the stories also began with the story of the knight. This is the indication that the knight was the most respectable person of the social hierarchy of the Medieval Times.

The second aspect of the 14^th century that’s reflected in the Prologue is that Chaucer’s world was basically the religious world. That is why the ecclesiastical group has such a large representation. Now the ecclesiast in general reflect the wide spread decadence that has come in the religious ranks. Although the majority is irreligious and corrupt and there is all-pervading profligacy yet all wars not lost. There were some noble and really devoted ecclesiast like poor Parson of the town who acted upon the Christian principles in latter and spirit. Chaucer has portrayed the religious characters like the Monk and the Prioress as strongly leaning toward the worldliness. That is why they evince the glamour and glory of this world. in spite of living a religious piety and purity they are indulging in this world’s grandeur and aristocratic showiness by showing courtly manners.

The Prologue also reflects the 14^th century in another way. The very framework of the poem is symptomatic of Chaucer’s age and pilgrims were familiar figures. Thus Chaucer says that he met 29 persons in the Tabard Inn who were going to the shrine of the Saint Thomas A. Backet and “Pilgrims were they all”. In fact people from all walks of life would assemble as we have the modern Haj companionships. Only Chaucer’s caravans were much larger and more kaleidoscopic and thus more socially representatives. The pilgrims were in there holiday moods were relaxed and self-revealing. The journey was undertaken on horses and the pilgrims forgetting all social formalities, distinction, prohibitions and prejudices of daily life.

Thus Chaucer was provided with simple opportunity to peep onto their souls and bring out their true personalities. On the external side Chaucer described their dresses, their manner, their weapons, their jokes and their pleasantries and thus gave a vivid picture of these merry persons. From the knight to the ploughman we have the highest and the lowest position respectively of the Medieval social hierarchy. In this way we have evince the color and temperament of this grand social pageant internally, we have their real thinking and attitudes. For example, the knight is noble and serious, the squire is fresh and youthful, the wife of bath is formally religious but informally lascivious, the friar, the pardoner and the summoner are real rogues under the veneer (disguise) of religion, the Monk and the Prioress are worldly  minded and away from religion though the members of the ecclesiast system. In the poor Parson and his brother Ploughman Chaucer has presented the pristine portraits of true Christianity. Thus the pictures are perfect and complete externally as well as externally. It is the all-ranging variegated vista of the 14^th century. And Dryden’s observation is very opt when he says that “Here is God’s plenty.”

There is another dimension (aspect) from which Chaucer parse the social chronicle of the 14^th century. He presents his characters as types i.e. the type of people as they were found in his century. But he has shown them individuals also. Moreover, he has also pointed out disperse between the ideal and the real because a decadence and disintegration was appearing. Chaucer was realistic and he presented what he saw and observed around him. He was no reformer or preacher. He was a painter, an artist and a social historian. So he could not close his eyes to the great difference between the real and the ideal, the corrupt and the pure. Thus when he presented the profligacy (corruption) of the ecclesiast in the persons of the Monk, the Friar, the Summoner and the Pardoner, along with them he also presents the noble spirituality of the poor Parson of the town who practiced what he preached. He satirizes the corrupt and idealizes the pure. But this satire is not bitter or scathing. It is rather gentle, tolerate, sympathetic and genial. It springs from his love of humanity. It reflects his broad humanitarianism in which angels and devils go together.

Chaucer is also representative poet of his century. His age was Medieval and Modern. Although 14^th century was basically age of transition. The old order was changing giving place to new. The age of chivalry and religion was waning and almost vanishing and the new off shoots of modernity (later on known as Renaissance) were appearing. Thus as an individual’s their humanistic or modern sides are emphasized. Chaucer emphasizes this transitional aspect of his century. In fact the tinge (taint) of the Medieval religiosity is disintegrating and secular outlook is gaining ground. This is epitomized by their worldliness of the Prioress and the Monk who are indulging in every worldly activity which they were not suppo0sed to do religiously. In the words of Campton Rickett; “There was the leaven of the Renaissance, beneath Medievalism.” That is why Chaucer has been righty called as “The Morning Star of Renaissance” and “The Evening Star of the Medievalism.” Thus we find a fine juxtaposition of the old and the new, the Renaissance and the medievalism. Regarding Choker’s position as the representative poet of 14^th century. The final judgment comes “Chaucer symbolizes as no other poet does the Middle Ages"

                                                                     

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