Theme Of Pilgrimage In Canterbury Tales

Geoffrey Chaucer, in The Canterbury Tales, uses both a frame narrative and satire to describe the pilgrimage of thirty pilgrims. The purpose of Chaucer’s use of the frame narrative is to display to the reader the stories within. These pilgrims, as described in the outer frame of the work, embark on a great journey to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket in Canterbury, England. Chaucer created a character from most of the classes to ensure that his work has the characteristics of verisimilitude, yet excluded from the motley crew pilgrims of the highest and the lowest of the social ranks, royalty and serfs, respectively. The twenty-nine pilgrims, including Chaucer the Pilgrim, enter the journey, with Harry Bailly, their Host at the Tabard

In accordance with the information he gives in the General Prologue, he tells a Tale that focuses on the downfall of humankind, money and subsequent greed, during at the time of the Black Death, which took the lives of many, both young and old. The three young men in the story want to find Death before they are killed by the all-too-common Black Death. These young men, who decided to kill Death, symbolize the average person and his or her own fears of the deadly diseases of the time. Although they all said, “You know that you can trust me as a brother;” (Chaucer, PardT 254) there is no true trust between them. They encounter an Old Man, who gives them directions to find Death. Then, they travel in search of Death to a tree, under which treasure is buried. Geoffrey Chaucer never discloses the identity of the elderly man, but many critics have speculated who he really is. Critic E. Talbot Donaldson believes that the elderly man is so knowledgeable about Death’s location because he himself is quickly approaching his end. This statement is substantiated in the Pardoner 's Tale when the Old Man says, “To find Death, turn up that crooked way / Towards that grove, I left him there today” (Chaucer, PardT 252). The elderly man is meant to act as a warning to the young men (97). Yet, little do the three revelers realize that instead of escaping Death’s claws, they are walking directly into his grasp. In finding gold, each one of the men plots to kill the other in order to keep the gold to himself. The youngest of the three goes and buys poison with the intention of killing the other two men and keeping the money all for himself. Yet, as soon as the youngest man returns, the two other men murder him and in celebration, they drink the wine of the now dead man. Unfortunately, both men die due to the poison placed in the glasses by the