English The Canterbury Tales: Prior to the actual tales, however, Chaucer offers the reader a glimpse of fourteenth century life by way of what he refers to as a General Prologue.
Summary Analysis The General Prologue opens with a description of April showers and the return of spring. The first sentence of the General Prologue, is one of the most important 18 lines of poetry in English.
The second tale in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales is a fabliau told by the Miller. In his tale, he tells of a carpenter named John, John’s wife Allison, and their story of courtship and deceit. In the tale, Allison is a young bride who is sought after by two other men, Nicholas and Absolon. From the Wife of Bath to the Knight to the Pardoner, The Canterbury Tales gives us characters from all walks of medieval life. Learn more about each with eNotes' study guide to the characters of. The Knight is one of the few characters whom Chaucer praises wholeheartedly: he is a genuine example of the highest order of chivalry. The Knight Quotes in The Canterbury Tales The The Canterbury Tales quotes below are all either spoken by The Knight or refer to The Knight.
The combination of the awakening physical landscape with the desire to go on pilgrimage mixes bodily lust with religious zeal. The pilgrims seek help from the martyr St. Active Themes Chaucer, the narrator, who is preparing to go on pilgrimage, is staying at the Tabard Inn, a tavern in Southwark.
A diverse company of twenty-nine other pilgrims enter the inn, and the narrator joins their group. The diversity of the company traveling to Canterbury emphasizes that people from all levels of medieval society take the same journey.
Active Themes The narrator and the other pilgrims drink, and they decide they will start their journey together the next morning. But before they begin, the narrator pauses the story to introduce the reader to the array of travelers in the company, saying that he will describe how each one of them seemed to him.
Not only does the narrator of the story become one of the characters in it, he also makes the reader aware of his presence as an author: Active Themes The narrator begins by describing the Knight, a noble man who loves chivalry and fights for truth and honor.
The knight has travelled through Christian and heathen territories——Alexandria, Prussia, Russia, Lithuania, Granada, Morocco, Turkey——and has been victorious everywhere and universally praised for his valor.
But his exploits are always conducted for love of Christ, not love of glory. The narrator is sincere in his description of the Knight as a noble, chivalrous man, determined to fight for the glory of God and always victorious. In addition to being worthy and brave, says the narrator, the Knight is modest and meek as a maid.
He never speaks ill of anyone.
He wears modest clothes, and his mail is stained with rust. The Squire has curled hair and, though only of moderate height, is marvelously agile. He has taken part in chivalric expeditions in Flanders and northern France. The Squire is not yet as noble and experienced as his father: Active Themes The Squire, says the narrator, wants to find favor with his lady.
His tunic is embroidered with flowers, as if he had gathered a meadow and sewn it to his clothes, and his gown is short with wide sleeves.
The Squire is constantly singing and playing the flute. He can also joust, dance, draw, and write well. The Squire is so passionately in love that he sleeps no more than a nightingale. He is always courteous, humble, and modest. Unlike the Knight, who dresses modestly so as not to show off, the young Squire wears elaborately decorated clothing that reveals him as a lusty youth as well as a fighter.From the Wife of Bath to the Knight to the Pardoner, The Canterbury Tales gives us characters from all walks of medieval life.
Learn more about each with eNotes' study guide to the characters of. The Canterbury Tales: Character Analysis Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, written in approximately , is a collection of twenty-four stories ostensibly told by various people who are going on a religious pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral from London, England.
The Knight - The first pilgrim Chaucer describes in the General Prologue, and the teller of the first tale. The Knight represents the ideal of a medieval Christian man-at-arms.
The Knight represents the ideal of a medieval Christian man-at-arms. The second tale in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales is a fabliau told by the Miller.
In his tale, he tells of a carpenter named John, John’s wife Allison, and their story of courtship and deceit. In the tale, Allison is a young bride who is sought after by two other men, Nicholas and Absolon.
The Knight is one of the few characters whom Chaucer praises wholeheartedly: he is a genuine example of the highest order of chivalry.
The Knight Quotes in The Canterbury Tales The The Canterbury Tales quotes below are all either spoken by The Knight or refer to The Knight. The The Canterbury Tales quotes below are all either spoken by Chaucer or refer to Chaucer. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one.