The Characters At the suggestion of their host, the travelers are invited to take part in a storytelling contest on the road. Chaucer, as a participant narrator, comments throughout the text, keeping the reader abreast of who is speaking at any given time.
Why are the characters traveling to Canterbury?
Many devout English pilgrims set off to visit shrines in distant holy lands, but even more choose to travel to Canterbury to visit the relics of Saint Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral, where they thank the martyr for having helped them when they were in need.
Who is narrating The Canterbury Tales?
Chaucer
The Canterbury Tales uses the first-person point of view in the General Prologue and the frame narrative; Chaucer, the narrator, speaks from his own perspective on the events of the story contest and the pilgrims who tell the tales.
Where were the characters Travelling to in The Canterbury Tales?
The tales (mostly written in verse, although some are in prose) are presented as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together from London to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral.
What does the narrator in Canterbury Tales one from the other Travellers?
What does the narrator want from the other travelers? He wants them to tell him stories.
Why does the host decide to travel with the pilgrims to Canterbury?
Whomever the Host decides has told the most meaningful and comforting stories will receive a meal paid for by the rest of the pilgrims upon their return. The Host also declares that he will ride with the pilgrims and serve as their guide at his own cost.
Why is the knight going on the pilgrimage in The Canterbury Tales?
On the pilgrimage, he’s the peacemaker of the group, calling for reconciliation between the Host and the Pardoner when the Host takes offense at the Pardoner’s attempt to sell fake relics to the pilgrims.
Is the host the narrator in Canterbury Tales?
A cheerful, friendly person, the Host focuses the pilgrims and keeps the storytelling contest from devolving into chaos. Although Chaucer narrates the events of the frame story, the Host takes charge of the contest and creates structure.
Who is narrating the story and providing the description of the pilgrims?
Chaucer himself becomes a character, and at the same time, the narrator in this masterpiece, and along with twenty-nine other people, he sets out on the quest to Canterbury. In “The General Prologue,” Chaucer presents short descriptions of each of the pilgrims.
Who narrates the first tale in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales?
The Knight
The first pilgrim Chaucer describes in the General Prologue, and the teller of the first tale. The Knight represents the ideal of a medieval Christian man-at-arms. He has participated in no less than fifteen of the great crusades of his era. Brave, experienced, and prudent, the narrator greatly admires him.
Where did Geoffrey Chaucer travel during his life?
After this, Chaucer’s life is uncertain, but he seems to have travelled in France, Spain, and Flanders, possibly as a messenger and perhaps even going on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. Around 1366, Chaucer married Philippa (de) Roet.
Why do the travelers agree to tell stories during their journey?
Why do pilgrims agree to tell tales during the journey? To pass time and win a contest.
How many pilgrims are traveling together in The Canterbury Tales?
Written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the 14th century, The Canterbury Tales tells the story of a group of 31 pilgrims who meet while travelling from the Tabard Inn in Southwark to the shrine of St Thomas Becket in Canterbury.
Where are the narrator and the pilgrims going and for what reason?
They are making a pilgrimage to Canterbury, to give thanks to Thomas Becket for rescuing them from sickness and escaping the Black Death.
Why are the pilgrims traveling to Canterbury quizlet?
Why are the travelers going to Canterbury? They are on a pilgrimage to see the relics of St. Thomas Becket.
What does the host narrator propose to do as they go on a pilgrimage?
The host proposes that each pilgrim tell two tales on the way to Canterbury, and two on the way back. Whoever tells the best tale as judged by the Host wins a free dinner when they arrive back at his tavern. Whoever expresses disagreement with the Host’s judgment has to pay for the entire cost of the pilgrimage.
What is the purpose of the pilgrims in their journey?
Pilgrimages frequently involve a journey or search of moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person’s beliefs and faith, although sometimes it can be a metaphorical journey into someone’s own beliefs.
What was the purpose of the pilgrims trip?
Its passengers were in search of a new life – some seeking religious freedom, others a fresh start in a different land. They would go on to be known as the Pilgrims and influence the future of the United States of America in ways they could never have imagined.
Why was pilgrimage so important in Chaucer’s time?
The most important aspect of real-life pilgrimage used by Chaucer in the Canterbury Tales is the fact that a wide variety of people, of different classes and different places might be found together on a pilgrimage.
Why does the Miller go on the pilgrimage?
If most of the pilgrims are going to Canterbury for religious reasons, the Miller is probably going to benefit from the curative powers which were heralded. He is an awesome fellow, and, like the Summoner, a person one would not want to meet in the dark.
Geoffrey Chaucer is both the author AND the narrator! Who did Chaucer write The Canterbury Tales for?