CANTERBURRY TALE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.

Q.NO1. HOW OUTWARD APPEARANCES REFLECTS THEIR PERSONALITIES?

ANS: Chaucer uses a great many details throughout his General Prologue. He uses the outer appearance
and behaviors of his characters to reflect on their inner selves. Due to the Chaucer Pilgrim trying to find
the best in each traveler, the clothing and appearance of each traveler were necessary to tell who each
one truly was. These descriptions drew both positive and negative pictures of the characters in
the General Prologue, including members of the lower and middle classes. The same does not appear to
be the same, however of the noble estate. While he uses this with all of his fully developed characters,
Chaucer’s descriptions of those characters of a lower estate tended to receive more attention to detail
than those of the upper estates. This can also be said for his description of the satirical characters versus
the characters that are to be thought of as ideal. While the color of the Knight’s hair is not even
mention, the reader knows details down to the “Gat-tothed” appearance of the Wife of Bath. He seems
to need these physical attributes to use to his satirical tales, while those of details are unnecessary for
the nobility for the very fact that they are nobility.

THE MONK:

The Monk A man who tends the property of the monastery. He is fat and happy, loves good food and
wine, and finds the taverns more to his liking than the cold, severe monastery.

He is told to be a very handsome and virile man. Though a monk’s concerns should be on the needs of
the people of his parish, through the detailing of his clothes, the reader is immediately made aware of
where the concerns of this particular monk lie. His clothing is described as very lush, including

“his sleves purfiled at the hond

With grys, and that the fyneste of a long” (26, l. 193-4).

He also had an elaborately made gold pin to fasten his hood sitting just below his face that looks as if it
has been rubbed with oil. The reader can also gather this from the narrator describing him as being

“a lord ful fat” (l. 196-200).

This description by the Chaucer Pilgrim also includes a description of the Monk’s horse to show what
kind of man the Monk is. The reader is told that the Monk has many a fine horse and that the one he is
riding has fine adornments.

“And whan he rood, men myghte his brydel heere

Gynglen in a whistlynge wynd als cleere

And eek as loude as dooth the chapel belle” (l. 169-71).

He is using this, it seems, to draw more attention to himself and the hobby he has chosen to fill the time
he is supposed to be studying, learning and helping those around him. Though the monk is unable to
make time for the callings of his order and occupation such as

“the reule of Seint Maure or of Seint Beneit” (l. 173), he somehow managed to find plenty of time
caring for himself and the horses of his stable.
The Monk

Social Status: clergy (wealthy) Dress: wealthy, fine fur-trimmed robe, gold brooch.

Physical Characteristics: bald, fat

Personality Traits: Hunter has greyhounds, and hunting shoes with spurs, personable he eats well he
likes to eat.

What is his/her reason in going on this pilgrimage?

He is a priest but his mission is probably more self-indulgent than spiritual .

Does Chaucer approve of this character, or does he indicate that he had failed his faith?

His wealthy clothes do not match his humble vocation.

What faults might this character have according to Chaucer?

Instead of devoting his life to work and prayer like most monks of the Middle Ages, he spends his time
hunting and eating.

CHARACTER ANALYSIS
The Monk

When one thinks of a monk, he may imagine someone who studies, prays, and performs manual labor.
The Monk, one of the thirty pilgrims travelling on a pilgrimage to Canterbury in The Canterbury Tales, is
nothing like the usual monk many people imagine. He is rebellious, ignores rules, and lives and controls
his own life. Chaucer, the narrator and author of The Canterbury Tales, shows these characteristics in
the way the Monk looks, the things he says and does, and in the things the host, a character in "The
Monk's Prologue," and Chaucer say about him.

The Monk is nothing like the usual monk many people imagine. He hunts hares and rides horses instead
of studying, praying, and working. He does not follow the rules of the monastery which say that monks
should not hunt, be reckless, nor leave the monastery. Instead, they should study and perform manual
labor. The Monk ignores these rules. Chaucer shows that the Monk does not care about the rules when
he says,

"He yaf nought of that text a pulled hen"(Norton, p.85) and when he says,

"Of priking and of hunting for the hare was al his lust,

for no cost wolde he spare"(191-192).

The Monk will never follow the rules because they are against what he loves to do. He may want to have
the title of "monk" but does not want to do what it takes to be a monk, which is to quit riding and
hunting and start studying, praying, and performing manual labor. He has control over his life since he
does not let the rules dictate what he should or should not do.

The Monk's robe is different from that of other monks. Monks usually wear plain habits with hoods. This
Monk has gray fur on the sleeves of his cope and a gold pin with a love knot at the end of the hood. This
indicates that he is not religious because instead of the gold pin, he should have a rosary. He is in good
shape unlike other monks who are thin because they fast often. He is bald and has a shiny head and
face.

He probably did not want to become a monk but decided to be one anyway because the monastery
provides a cloistered environment, away from the betrayal of people and of women. In "The Monk's
Tale," he talks about different men who died because they were betrayed by their loved ones. Hercules,
for example, died after being poisoned by a shirt his girlfriend gave him, and Samson killed himself
because his wife gave his secret away to his enemies, who, in turn, tortured him. Since women betrayed
these men, the Monk does not trust them.

The host, who appears in "The Monk's Prologue" as well as other Canterbury Tales and in "The General
Prologue," notices that the Monk does not belong in the monastery and says, "God confound him, I
pray, whoever first led you to take up monastic life, you'd have been a rare cock with the hens" (Wright,
p.177). The host also reveals a new characteristic of the Monk when he says, "If you had the freedom, as
you have the power, to copulate as much as you desire, a fellow like you would have fathered dozens!"
(Wright, p. 177). This indicates that the Monk is lustful. Since monks are not supposed to think about
women, he is committing a sin.

Chaucer likes the Monk and seems to agree with his way of life. He says, in "The General Prologue", that
the monk is "fair for the maistrye, an outridere...a manly man, to been an abbot worthy" (Norton,p. 85).
He probably says this because the Monk has leadership skills since he dictates his life by ignoring the
rules of the monastery.

Chaucer shows the Monk's characteristics in the way he looks, the things he says and does, and in the
things the host and Chaucer say about him. Chaucer says that the Monk's lust is for riding and hunting
while the host says it is for women. The Monk is honest with himself. He is very modern since he ignores
the rules of the monastery and wears his robe with gray fur lining at the sleeves. He also seems like he is
more of a regular person than a monk.

**************************************************

The Prioress

Madame Eglantine, or The Prioress, is a central character in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury
Tales. Madame Eglantine's character serves as a sort of satire for the day, in that she is a nun who lives a
secular lifestyle. It is implied that she uses her religious lifestyle as a means of social advancement.
Madame Eglantine is beautiful, graceful, well-mannered and kind, praying with "the elegance of a
blissful queen."

However, her mispronounced French and strange mannerisms suggest that she was once lower-class.
Her story tells of a Christian child slain by Jews and resurrected in a sense by the Virgin Mary, and the
story's anti-Semitism has gained much criticism.

It is expected that the men and women of the Church will live in poverty and not have worldly
possessions. Precedent said that owns small dogs, which is strictly prohibited in the monastery, to treat
them exceptionally well and be very attached to them. By ostracizing these dogs, she broke the vow of
poverty, but the most obvious element she possesses is the golden brooch, which makes the reader
believe that she was not fully dedicated to the church. Chaucer spent a lot of time explaining how
obsessed she was with her etiquette, telling the reader that she was more likely to be loved by his wife
than a nun. In Chaucer’s time, women used excellent etiquette to attract and retain lovers. This
indicates that the present is not entirely true to its vow of chastity, but rather a woman of promiscuity.

The primary vow of obedience is probably the strangest vow of four since he never mentions it. While
Chaucer describes Priority, he never mentions how she serves God or something like that. This makes
the reader wonder if he is serving God well or not, but it is obvious that she did not fulfill the other vows
and that this is not an exception. The nun must pray, learn, serve and live a limited life free from
temptation, but the real one has already broken the first three vows and must obey in order to fulfill the
vow of obedience successfully.

Social Status: clergy (wealthy) – she is a nun

Dress: veil, graceful cloak, jewely (prayer bracelet) that indicates wealth and worldiness

Physical Characteristics: not undergrown, elegant nose, gray eyes, small, red mouth, wide forehead,

Personality Traits: Simple and coy (shy), neat, clean, clingy, helpless Charitable, sympathetic,
sentimental, tender-hearted (too much so)

What is his/her reason in going on this pilgrimage?

She is a nun so a spiritual trip seems likely

Does Chaucer approve of this character, or does he indicate that he had failed his faith?

“He suggests that her daintiness is too extreme (“her upper lip so clean” being reduced to tears when
seeing a mouse in a trap…)

What faults might this character have according to Chaucer?

She is too delicate

The Knight Socially the most prominent person on the pilgrimage, epitomizing chivalry, truth, and
honor. He stands apart from the other pilgrims because of his dignity and status.

The Chaucer Pilgrim does not always use this technique to describe the negative aspects of his
companions’ personalities. The first character described in The General Prologue is the Knight. Though
the narrator refers to nearly all of the other travelers as “worthy,” the description he gives of the Knight
proves that he truly is a worthy and noble man. The Chaucer Pilgrim does give a physical description of
the knight, but he does speak on things such as his demeanor which was:

“as meeke as is a mayde” (24, l. 69).

His duty as a knight was to obey the orders of his king and protect the people of his country, and his
meekness speaks to the fact that he truly cared for his status in life and understood what was expected
of him. His clothes, while sufficient, were not equal to those of the Monk. There is no listing of different
types of furs or jewelry that adorned the Knight’s apparel as there was for the Monk.

The Knight’s clothes were made of a coarse fabric and stained with rust from his chain mail (l. 75-6).

His manner of dress speaks to the fact that while he was a good and noble man, and that he served
well. Rather than look to his appearance, he came directly from a crusade to the holy pilgrimage he
joined the others on. The Chaucer Pilgrim, once again, uses the description of the traveler’s horse to
speak on the person’s character. Unlike the Monk’s horse, the Knight’s

“hors were goode, but he was nat gay” (l. 74).

It was not covered with ornaments that would draw attention to him, but was all that his rank called for
and all that was necessary for his travels. The adornments of the Monk’s horse served no purpose other
than to draw attention which was unnecessary for the Knight was his very personality drew attention to
him. He was a good man who served and worshiped nobly and to the best of his ability. Throughout The
Canterbury Tales: General Prologue, Chaucer’s use of the characters’ clothing, to symbolize what lies
beneath the surface of each personality is significant. Chaucer strongly uses the Knight, the Squire and
the Prioress’s clothing to symbolize how their personalities are reflected through The Canterbury Tales.
The Knight’s true character is portrayed through his modest apparel. His character is displayed by the
way he chooses to show himself in public, which is a noble knight, that is why he wears dirty clothes and
chooses to come on the pilgrimage straight from battle. The Knight’s armor is stained from battle,
indicating that he not only talks the talk, he walks the walk.

“A Knight there was and that a worthy man,

That from time that he first began.

To riden out, he loved chivalry.

Truth and honor, freedom and courtesy,” (43-46).

This quote shows how his humbleness is not warranted because he has the highest social standing out
of the other members of the pilgrimage. It clearly demonstrates his morals which are truth, honor,
freedom and courtesy. In the Prologue, humbled by his life experiences, the Knight dresses plainly.
Garbed in a stained coarse cotton tunic, the Knight sits upon his horse. His armor left dark smudges on
his tunic. Seen in a different setting, the Knight's attire would say little about his life as an honorable
man. By humbling oneself, a true hero lends credence to the fact that flash is not always needed.
Humbling experiences cause people to step back and analyze the fortune they have; they learn that they
do not have to wear flashy clothes to have their achievements acknowledged. Sometimes people boast
of their success through fine clothing unlike the Knight.

“Ne never yet no villainy he said,” (70).

This quote shows the Knight is not only humble but is also never rude to anyone.
Social Status: Ruling class: highest among the pilgrims.

Dress: “he possessed fine horses but was not gaily dressed” wore a dark, Fustian tunic (coarse cloth)
that had armor stains

Physical Characteristics: He is strong because he has endured many battles He is middle aged because
he has a 20 year old son, the squire

Personality Traits: wise, modest, distinguished, chivalrous, truthful, honorable, generous, courteous,
brave loves action and adventure, believes in the ideals of chivalry, he must be an excellent fighter to
have survived so many battles all over Europe.

Does Chaucer approve of this character, or does he indicate that he had failed his faith? Yes, “ever
honored for his noble graces”

What faults might this character have according to Chaucer?

None- he is the ideal of chivalry, honor, and bravery – “the sovereign value in all eyes” “a true, perfect,
gentle knight”.

Q.NO.10: Why Chaucer is called the father of English poetry?

Or
What solid contribution did he make to English poetry, drama and novel?
Or
“Chaucer is the earliest of the great moderns.” -Discuss.
Answer: Chaucer symbolizes, as no other writer does, the Middle Ages. He stands in much the same
relation to the life of his time as Alexander Pope does to the 18th century, and Tennyson to the
Victorian era. And Chaucer’s place in English literature is even more important than theirs, for he is the
first great English writer—the first man to use “naked words” in English, the first to make our composite
language a thing compact and vital.

According to John Dryden, Chaucer is the father of English poetry. Dryden venerates Chaucer as highly
as the Greeks venerated Homer and the Romans venerated Virgil. “Chaucer”, says Dryden, “is a
perpetual foundation of good sense. He is learned in all sciences and therefore speaks properly on all
subjects. As he knew what to say, so he knew also when to leave off.”

Chaucer is regarded as the first great modern. In those dark days when the light of modernism had not
yet been visible on the horizon, Chaucer anticipated the modern taste and the ‘modern mind’. In his
poetry, he introduced qualities for advanced of his time.

With Chaucer, the English language and English literature grew at a bound to full maturity. No other
Middle English writer has his skill, his range, his complexity, and his large humane outlook.

The First great National Poet

Chaucer was the first great national poet giving full expression to the new hopes and aspirations of the
people of his times. In the picture of The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer makes it his business like
Shakespeare to paint life as he sees it and leaves others to draw the moral. The foundation of Chaucer’s
art lies in English life and English character.

Chaucer’s Narrative Art: Description of men, Manners and Places:

Chaucer stands triumphantly in his power of description. His description and narrative gifts truly possess
rare qualities. He, in fact, remains the first great English story-teller in verse. The employment of verse,
as a vehicle of story-telling is certainly Chaucer’s most notable contribution and the modern age of
English literature is greatly indebted to him in this respect.

Chaucer’s best descriptions of men, manners and places are of the first rank in their beauty,
impressiveness and humour. His power of describing his fellowmen, the common people with all their
merits and demerits, their tastes and temperaments was unique. His The Prologue to the Canterbury
Tales is a picture gallery bringing in its scope all classes of people ranging from the Knight to Miller and
the Cook. In fact, he is the supreme story-teller. In his stories the narration, inspite of certain digression
and philosophical reflections is straight forward and unhampered, he introduces humour in his narration
and makes his stories life like and living.

Chaucer’s greatness as a poet is strongly founded, besides other qualities mainly on his matchless
narrative skill. Pre-eminently his fame rests on his power as a narrator, the power to tell on interesting
story supremely well. He is one of the world’s three or four story tellers. The Canterbury Tales is a
collection of excellently narrated stories. The various tales are narrated so skilfully that they engage and
entertain us very well.

Chaucer’s Art of Characterization

Chaucer is the first great painter of character in English literature. In fact, next to Shakespeare, he is the
greatest master in this field. In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer takes to the study of contemporary
English society and employs poetry with tolerant curiosity to the study of men and manner. He presents
his characters in a masterly manner. His characters are both individuals and types. They are timeless
creations on a time determined stage. William Blake points out that the characters of Chaucer’s Pilgrims
are the characters which compose all ages and nations. His characters like those of Shakespeare are life
like and we cannot forget them. The Knight, the Friar, the Pardoner, the Wife of Bath, the Doctor of
Physic, the Squire, the Yeoman, the Prioress, the Monk, the Merchant, a Good Wife, a Shipman, a Cook,
a Parson, a ploughman, a Reeve, a Miller, a Summoner, etc. are living characters and have eternal
freshness about them. Their traits are universal, i.e. the lineaments of universal human life, beyond
which Nature never steps. In fact Chaucer presents the 14th century life and characters as vividly and
clearly as Tennyson did later in the Victorian Age. His characters form a picture gallery of the 14th
century life.

Humour, Satire, Irony & Pathos

One of the qualities that give to Chaucer’s characters their amazing life and realism is its humour. He
may be regarded as the first great English humourist. No English literary work before him reveals
humour in the modern sense. He possesses all the characteristics of a great humorist. He has catholicity
and tolerance of spirit to save it from slipping into satire. He is in the grand tradition of the great
humorists and while his humour may have the peculiar English tinge and flavor it has also the essence of
all true humour. This places him in the very first line of humorists — Shakespeare, Cervants, Rabelais,
Molier and Dickens.
Chaucer’s humour is always sympathetic. His understanding sympathy with the seamy side of life, his
keen sense of the ludicrous, made him alive to any incongruity or absurdity.

Chaucer’s humour is accompanied by exquisite and unlabored pathos. Chaucer’s pathos is not
sentimental. He exhibits sympathy for inevitable sorrow. This distinguishes him from Boccaccio and
makes him the precursor of Hamlet and Othello. In fact Chaucer’s humour is natural and spontaneous.
His humour is all pervading and all pervasive like Shakespeare. It is characterized by restraint.
Shakespeare observes that “brevity is the soul of wit.” and of course brevity is the soul of Chaucer’s
humour. After all, Chaucer was essentially the poet of man and he had large humanity and good
humored tolerance. His humour is modern and it is essentially human. Therefore it is based on
characteristically Renaissance concept. The underlying spirit of his humour is that of the Renaissance, it
is not medieval.

Realism of Chaucer
Modern Poetry is characterized by realism. The modern poet is a keen observer of the various
tendencies of his times which are being put by him in poetry. This modern note of realism had been
sounded by Chaucer long ago in the 14th century. He was a great observer of men and had an extra-
ordinary insight into human nature. He made a thorough study of his time. The Prologue displays his
profound interest in the world and its temporal activities and his human and humane outlook.

His Humanistic Outlook

His descriptions of his fellow men reveal his wide humanity and prepare the way for Shakespeare. His
wide sympathy and gentle humanity make him adorable and lovable among the English poets. He is not
repelled. He takes interest in his fellowmen. He has no disdain for the fools and no disgust for rascals.
He is the poet of humanity.

Dramatic elements in Chaucer’s Poetry

Chaucer is essentially a dramatist. His characters are not puppets, but men and women of flesh and
blood. His characters are full of vitality. They are life-like, not shadowy. They are not on y types but also
individuals. Every character has his own individuality and distinct personality. The
dramatic presentation is superbly used by Chaucer in The Canterbury Tales. His method of narration is
dramatic. All his characters talk in a dramatic manner.In fact the dramatic quality of Chaucer’s work
distinguishes him from his predecessors and contemporaries in the field of narration.

As a forerunner of the English Novel

Chaucer has been called the father of English poetry. But he is also the grandfather of the English Novel.
In his Troilus and Criseyda and The Canterbury Tales, we have the seeds of the novel which was
cultivated by others later. The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales is a prologue to modern fiction. It
possesses all the fundamental characteristics of a novel. It is indeed a novel in miniature. He had the
sweetness of Goldsmith, the compassionate realism and humour of Fielding and the high chivalrous
tone of Sir Walter Scott.

We may summarize Chaucer’s achievement by saying that he is the earliest of the great moderns. In
comparison with the poets of his own time and with those of the succeeding century the advance he
makes is almost startling. All the Chaucerian features help to create the modern atmosphere for the
later poets, the shrewd and placidly humorous observation of the wide humanity, the quick aptness of
the phrase, the dexterous touch upon the meter and above all the fresh and formative spirit—the
genius turning gross into gold. Dr Johnson has rightly said that he had found it brick and left it marble.
So Chaucer is rightly called the father of English poetry. There is nothing primitive about Chaucer. His
work at its best is polished, cultivated and masterly. He was heir to the great European tradition of
literature and philosophy. Chaucer is, indeed a genius. He stands alone, and for nearly two hundred
years on one dare claim equally with him. With Chaucer the English language and English literature grew
at a bound to full maturity.