From the Canterbury Tales

The Prologue

from The Canterbury Tales

Study / Reading Guide

Term(s):

frame story =

characterization =

verbal irony =

idioms =

Tips for Struggling Readers:

At home, reread the piece aloud.
Take notes on every character.
Categorize or classify the pilgrims, using such categories as gender, occupation, style of dress, social class, appearance, attitude toward money, moral character, and personality.
Start a notebook of all the vocabulary words at the bottom of the pages.
Make use of the text aids in the margins.
Use context clues as you read.

Note about religious pilgrimages:

The idea of a religious pilgrimage goes back to ancient times.

The Greeks visited the temple of Apollo at Delphi.
Roman temples attracted visitors who hoped for spiritual or physical cures.

Since the very early days of the Christian Church, pilgrims have visited the shrines of saints. In fact, by the fourteenth century, pilgrims were already making the journey to Jerusalem to follow in the footsteps of their Messiah, Jesus Christ. Although Becket’s splendid shrine is no longer in Canterbury Cathedral, the grooves in the stone steps reveal the countless numbers of people who traveled to Canterbury seeking salvation or a miracle. Today, pilgrims travel to shrines in places like the following, all believed to be sites of miracles:

Lourdes, France
Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina
the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico

Study Guide Topics:

(Monitoring Reading) Lines 1-18 are all one sentence. After two adverbial clauses beginning with when that note the time of year, April, the poet introduces his main point.

What is it?

Why might the urge to go on pilgrimage hit people in spring?

(Breaking Down Difficult Text) Look at the sentence starting on line 19.

Who is at the Inn?
Who arrives?
State the central idea.

(Note) Starting on page 106, the Knight truly is a brave and distinguished man, for the wars in which he fought spanned forty years and fell into three groups:

against the Moors at the west end of the Mediterranean
against the Turks at the Mediterranean’s east end
against Lithuanians and Tartars on the Russian border
(Drawing Conclusions) What qualities does the Knight possess that are different from those you might expect in a veteran soldier who has been fighting for forty years?
(Characterization) When Chaucer directly states qualities of the Knight, as in lines 70-74, he is using direct characterization. On the other hand, lines 76-78 constitute indirect characterization, because clues help reveal the character. What does the Knight’s soiled clothing reveal about him?

(Compare and Contrast) Compare and contrast the Squire and the Knight.
(Note) On page 108, Yeomen once were Knights’ servants. Later, they became landowners and occupied a class just below the gentry.
(Drawing Conclusions) A nun is a woman who lives in a convent and takes vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience; a prioress is in charge of the nuns. As Mother Superior of a convent, a prioress is under oath not to leave her charges. Do you think the Prioress seems to be a conventional nun? Explain.

(Characterization) Starting around line 130, what do these details suggest about the Prioress?
(Making Inferences) Nuns were not supposed to keep pets because the money required for their care was meant for the poor. Based on this information, what can you infer about the Prioress?
(Note) In Chaucer’s time, physical characteristics, such as a gap tooth or a white neck, reveal a person’s character. Chaucer uses such details to illuminate his characters’ inner nature. (See pages 127-128 for more on this subject.) In the case of the Prioress, the revealing detail is her high forehead, considered a sign of intelligence and good breeding. Note, however, that a nine-inch brow would be most unusual. Why do you think Chaucer exaggerates this feature?
(Understatement) What effect is created by saying the Prioress is “by no means undergrown” rather than saying “She is indeed overgrown”?
(Characterization) In Chaucer’s time, coral was considered a defense against worldly temptation, as well as a love charm. Why does he picture the Prioress with a coral trinket on her arm?

(Characterization) On page 110—Like a nun, a monk is a member of a religious order who has taken vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. How do the details of the Monk’s character suggest, without directly saying, that this monk is not serious about his vocation?

(Irony) Because peasants in the Middle Ages did not always have enough to eat, obesity was a sign of success and affluence. Why is it ironic that the Monk is fat?

(Characterization) Unlike monks, who lived in monasteries, friars went into the world, as beggars to preach, help the poor, and cure the sick. One of a friar’s duties was to hear people’s confessions and to absolve or forgive them with a penance, or penalty of prayer, or doing good works. How does Chaucer characterize the Friar starting at line 212?

(Characterization) On line 242, what characteristics might a lily-white neck represent? (See the table of characteristics on page 128).
(Understanding Author’s Attitude) How does the Friar earn a living?
What does his semi-cope reveal about his income? (see text aids for help)
What is the poet’s attitude toward this corruption in the Church?

(Visualizing) Visualize the pilgrims as you read about them. Describe what you see when you visualize the Merchant.

What secret does the Merchant keep hidden?
(Note) See line 287 about the Harwich-Holland ranges. Harwich is a port on the southeastern coast of England. A range can be a sea route or direction line. The Merchant thinks there should be police on the sea lanes between Harwich and Holland.
The Merchant’s Flemish beaver hat suggests that he trades in English wool in Flanders (Belgium), a region known for its fur market; he wishes to protect his own interests.

(Imagery) How is the Oxford Cleric portrayed?

What contemporary stereotype does Chaucer play on?
(Note) In order to enter a medieval university, students had to join a minor religious order of the Church. Once out of school, they were expected to seek secular employment outside the Church. The Cleric’s books would have cost a small fortune, because the printing press had not yet been invented, and books were still copied by hand.

(Characterization) A Sarjeant at the Law was one of a select group of lawyers who served as the king’s legal advisors. What attitude does the narrator have toward the Sarjeant?

What evidence in the narrative supports your answer?

(Note) See page 114. Medieval Britons usually ate only two meals a day: a mid-morning dinner and an early-evening supper. The Franklin, however, also eats sop for breakfast, a mixture of wine, almond milk, ginger, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and the spice mace poured over good bread.

(Characterization) Is Chaucer using direct characterization, explaining who the Franklin is to the reader? Or, is he using indirect characterization, using details to let the reader draw conclusions about the character?
What inferences can you draw about the Franklin?

(Note) Guilds were organizations of trades-people who taught their trade to apprentices, or trainees. The associations such as the Goldsmiths’ Guild or the Fishmonger’s Guild, were a powerful economic force, controlling the quality and price of the goods they produced or sold. During this period, members of guilds often wore a special uniform and were upwardly mobile. What do you think the poet thinks of this group and especially their wives?
(Understatement) Note that Chaucer does not mention the Cook’s open sore until after describing the Cook’s delicious specialties. What is the effect?
(Note) See line 399. Dartmouth, a coastal shipping town on the English Channel, was known for its piracy and for the brutality of its sailors, a fact that Chaucer’s readers would have known.

(Multiple Meanings) See line 408. Nice has multiple meanings. Here, the word means “subtle; requiring discernment.” Why is the use of this meaning ironic, given the Skipper’s treatment of his prisoners of war?

(Note) Doctors in the Middle Ages believed that the twelve signs of the zodiac affected different parts of the body and that the human body contained four kinds of humors, or fluids, also influenced by the stars, that dictated a person’s temperament and physical makeup. This explains, in part, Chaucer’s attention to physical appearance.

(Determining the Author’s Purpose) How does Chaucer’s characterization of the Doctor convey a negative attitude on page 116?

(Characterization) What is the Wife of Bath concerned about when she goes to Church?

What does this suggest about her?
(Making Inferences About Character) Some critics think that the Wife of Bath is based on Chaucer’s paternal grandmother, who had three husbands. Based on the description of the text, what words or phrases would you use to describe the Wife of Bath?

(Hypothesizing) Chaucer describes the Parson as poor. From what you know of Chaucer’s values so far, do you think he will approve or disapprove of the Parson? Why?

(Note) “Cursing to extort a fee” refers to the corrupt practice of threatening people with excommunication and damnation unless they paid a fee.
(Interpreting Metaphors) Two metaphors used here to characterize the Parson. One compares him to a shepherd and his parishioners to sheep. The other asks a hypothetical question comparing corruption in priests and men to corroding gold and rusting iron. Interpret these two metaphors.

(Making Inferences) What kind of priest is the Parson?

(Comparing/Contrasting) Chaucer praises the Plowman, the Parson, and the Cleric. What qualities do these men share?

In what ways do they differ?

(Characterization) On page 119, the Miller is compared to a sow or fox, a spade, a sow’s ear, and a furnace door. What do the comparisons suggest about the Miller’s character?

(Note) Concerning the Miller, Chaucer plays on a medieval saying: “An honest miller has a golden thumb.” This expression implies that most millers overcharge their customers by putting their thumbs on the scale.

(Idioms) “Could wipe their eye” means that the Manciple could make fools of his masters or could defraud them. Here, wipe might mean “to swipe, remove, or erase,” suggesting that the Manciple could “steal their eyes” or outwit them.

(Cultural Connection) See line 605. People in Chaucer’s time believe that four bodily fluids, called humors or moistures, caused disease and negatively influenced a person’s character when their mixture was out of balance. People associated black bile with depression and delusions, and choler, or yellow bile, with unkindness, instability, and pridefulness. Too much phlegm created sloth, obesity, crooked bodies, and hairless skin. Too much blood made a person too lustful, or in older people, caused heart attacks.

(Historical Connection) See page 120. A reeve in the Middle Ages was a manager of an estate, whose job it was to inspect everything and to impose fines on the workers in he found anything wrong.
How well does the Reeve do his job?
What does this information tell you about the Reeve?
(Imagery) In his portrayal of the Summoner, how does Chaucer appeal to the sense of sight?

(Adjusting Reading Rate for Enjoyment) What details on page 120 are humorous?
(Cultural Connection) In Chaucer’s time, sexual relations outside marriage were cause for excommunication, the summoner’s job was to track down offenders and deliver them to the Archdeacon for punishment.
(Characterization) How does the Summoner deal with people who keep a mistress?
(Characterization) How does the phrase “noble varlet” convey Chaucer’s attitude toward the Summoner?

(Historical Connections) See line 685. Medieval inns were identified by holly boughs pinned above their doors or planted and staked in the yard.
(Idioms) "Birds of a feather" is a commonly used expression in English; it refers to people who have quite a bit in common. Predict what the Summoner and the Pardoner have in common.

(Characterization) Long hair was a violation of the rule that men who worked for the Church should wear their hair tonsured (short, with a shaved spot at the top, as a symbol of humility). What other details does Chaucer mention that suggest that the Pardoner is a less-than-savory character?
(Cultural Connections) In religious terms, relics are the remains (bones, hair, garments, and so on) of a holy person. Saying a prayer with the relic in hand was thought to bring about an indulgence, or limited respite from the pains of purgatory after death. Some relics were fake, but believers willingly bought them and provided a steady income to the sellers.
(Characterization) Are lines 730-734 an example of direct or indirect characterization?

(Hypothesizing) What hypothesis can you offer for why the Host (page 123) proposes his plan for the pilgrims’ entertainment?
(Summarizing) Summarize the bargain that the pilgrims have made with the Host.
(Idioms) “Draw for cut” means the same thing as “draw straws.”