The Canterbury Tales

THE CANTERBURY TALES

What does Chaucer’s representation of various characters from
The Canterbury Tales illustrate about the context of his time and his values?

In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer reflects his views on society and the values he holds through his representation of his characters in the general prologue and in each of their tales. Chaucer held the values of poverty, chastity, obedience, chivalry and true love. He uses three distinct social classes to display how misconstrued and ignored these values can be. These classes are the clergy and religious followers, the learned professionals and women.

Chaucer’s view on poverty and the way in which it is perverted is clearly apparent in his representation of the Monk and the Friar. Poverty was a sworn oath by people of the church. The Monk does not particularly want to commit to a life of poverty; it is not in his nature. ‘Ful many a deyntee hors hadde he in stable’, by this Chaucer is saying the Monk owned man...