Something More That Matters

As we read and experience any literature we tend to favor or identify better with certain characters better than others. In the telling of a story, in a film, a novel, we pick individuals who are depicted in the text and see them in a different light than the other characters. Chaucer’s General Prologue gives us a prim opportunity to select characters we prefer because of the vast amount he places before us. In the story the group is on a pilgrimage to Canterbury and the characters will each take a turn to tell a story that will present a certain moral. While reading this text three individuals easily stand out in a way separate from the others, they are those who do not seek the worldly things this their life could offer them, they are the Prioress, the Oxford Cleric, and the Parson. Each of these characters see themselves as being able to offer more to the world and they understand that there are more important things in this life then personal gain, they represent kindness, knowledge, and religion and live their lives in such a way that they are seeking for those virtues and not for material things.

The Prioress is the first character introduced in the Prologue who will be searching to better others and not just herself. Many people wish it was in their nature to be kind and to be sensitive but it is not a trait most are born with, it takes work and constant practice. The Prioress, in the sense of kindness and charity, is the type of person we often which we could be. “And to seem dignified in all her dealings. As for her sympathies and tender feelings, she was so charitably solicitous she used to weep if she but saw a mouse caught in a trap, if it were dead or bleeding. And she had little dogs she would be feeding with ro...

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... given, once we learn these we will begin to evaluate the character and decide our opinion of them. Chaucer’s General Prologue offers a great opportunity for us to critique so many different forms of the human being. The Prioress, Oxford Cleric, and the Parson all express traits that are much better then those of the other individuals, they represent things that many people do not see as very important yet to those who really wish to be good people they are the most important. The traits of kindness, knowledge, and religion each find a way to be expressed in Chaucer’s General Prologue and if we look closely we will identify how important those qualities are. It is interesting to study different works or literature to to see the type of characters each of us tend to gravitate toward, whether those characters are similar to ourselves or the people we wish we could be.