Canterbury Tales

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Recommended: Problems in English society in the Canterbury tales

Canterbury Tales

Chaucer wrote about many personalities and their triumphs and inadequacies.The Knight is portrayed as an ideal persona. He is a part of the Feudal system. The impression that I get is one of am older weathered soldier. He is modest of his cultural status. I think that after the wars and battles that he fought he might not want to talk about them and he may even be guilty of them. He wore older clothes. They were not as fancy as he could have worn. He portrays the chivalry element of the bunch. He is religious and also courageous:Who from the day on which he first began / To ride abroad had followed chivalry,Truth, honour, generousness, and courtesy. (44-46)
He traveled many places over great distances to fight at almost all of the important battles. Chaucer calls him a perfect Knight: “He was a true, a perfect gentle-knight”(68). He owned fine horses that were a symbol of wealth at that time, but he did not show this wealth outwardly in his clothing or adornments.

The Knight’s son is somewhat his opposite. He dresses more fancily and shows off. He is a squire training to be a knight like his father. I don’t think that he is very serious about this because he enjoys the pleasures of life and not much of his training. Chaucer’s thoughts of his appearance were:
He was some twenty years of age, I guessed. In stature he was of moderate length,With wonderful agility and strength. (78-80) He stayed up mall night and partied so he did not get much sleep.

The Oxford Cleric was an odd scholar. He had a skinny horse and he looks hollow. His clothes were worn thin because he spent all his money on learning. He took money from his friends and spent it on more knowledge: Whatever money from his friends he took / He spent on learning or another book (303-304) The only thing he cared about in his life was studying.

The Franklin wanted the best of everything and lived for happiness to every extent. He had the finest food and wine and was obsessed with them. He was not religious. He was so obsessed with food that he had to have the finest there was and if he sis not he blamed the cook.

The wife of bath was deaf. She made long scarves and traveled. In church she did not like anyone to go in front of her in church.

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