He wears a sword and buckler, and loves to joke around and tell dirty stories. He steals from his customers, and plays the bagpipes. The Manciple stocks an Inn of Court school of law with provisions. Uneducated though he is, this manciple is smarter than most of the lawyers he serves. The spindly, angry Reeve has hair so short that he reminds the narrator of a priest.
The Reeve is also a good carpenter, and he always rides behind everybody else. The Summoner arraigns those accused of violating Church law.
When drunk, he ostentatiously spouts the few Latin phrases he knows. His face is bright red from an unspecified disease. He uses his power corruptly for his own gain.
He is extremely lecherous, and uses his position to dominate the young women in his jurisdiction. In exchange for a quart of wine, he would let another man sleep with his girlfriend for a year and then pardon the man completely. The Pardoner, who had just been in the court of Rome, rides with the Summoner. He sings with his companion, and has long, flowing, yellow hair. The narrator mentions that the Pardoner thinks he rides very fashionably, with nothing covering his head.
He has brought back many souvenirs from his trip to Rome. The narrator mocks the Pardoner for his disrespectful manipulation of the poor for his own material gain. In charge of selling papal indulgences, he is despised by the Church and most churchgoers for counterfeiting pardons and pocketing the money.
The Pardoner is a good preacher, storyteller, and singer, the narrator admits, although he argues it is only because he cheats people of their money in that way.
Again, the narrator describes many of the characters as though he had actually witnessed them doing things he has only heard them talk about. Other portraits, such as that of the Miller, are clearly shaped by class stereotypes.
The Franklin and the five Guildsmen share with the Merchant and the Man of Law a devotion to material wealth, and the narrator praises them in terms of their possessions. The descriptions of the Shipman and the Physician are both barbed with keenly satiric turns of phrase implying dishonesty and avarice. But, at the same time, Chaucer portrays the Wife of Bath in such realistic and humane detail that it is hard to see her simply as a satire of an awful woman. Minor facets of her description, such as the gap between her teeth and her deafness, are expanded upon in the long prologue to her tale.
Coming after a catalog of very worldly characters, these two brothers stand out as rare examples of Christian ideals. The Parson has a more complicated role than the Plowman, and a more sophisticated awareness of his importance.
The Miller, the Manciple, and the Reeve are all stewards, in the sense that other people entrust them with their property. The hypocritical Pardoner has repulsive physical features. His sparse waxy yellow hair hangs limply by the sides like strands of flax. His glaring hare like eyes, small goat like voice and absence of facial hair indicates that he is a eunuch. He wears a vernicle on his cap to indicate his official authority. His special skill lies in singing at the offertory to extract maximum money from the people.
Chaucer is the author of "The Canterbury Tales" and also appears as one of the pilgrims throughout the entire book. He tells the tales of Sir Topas and Melibee during the course of the journey.
He finally identifies himself as the poet at the end in "Retracciouns". The reader first meets him in the "General Prologue" where he describes the pilgrims that he encounters at the Tabard inn. Chaucer, the observer and recorder of events as one of the pilgrims, frequently pronounces his judgement as the poet. He openly condemns the corrupt Summoner and the evil Pardoner. Rather it helps the story to achieve immediacy.
The Host, named Harry Bailey, is not included among the twenty-nine pilgrims who gathered at the Tabard Inn. He is introduced at the end of the "General Prologue". The character of the Host is not fully developed. He appears to be a friendly, agreeable and sensible man. His genial warmth is his most outstanding characteristic. He is frank and forthright in his speech. The Host proposes the story telling competition for the long journey to Canterbury and says that each pilgrim is to tell two tales on the way to Canterbury and two tales on the way back.
The others will reward the pilgrim who tells the best tale by a supper at the Tabard Inn. The Host then proposes to join the group of pilgrims himself. 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. SparkTeach Teacher's Handbook. Why are the characters in The Canterbury Tales going on a pilgrimage to Canterbury? What language is The Canterbury Tales written in?
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