Compare and contrast the presentation of three pilgrims from Chaucer's General Prologue' and show how their descriptions add to our understanding of his society

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Compare and contrast the presentation of three pilgrims from Chaucer’s General Prologue’ and show how their descriptions add to our understanding of his society

 ‘The Canterbury Tales’ is a group of tales written by Geoffrey Chaucer in about 1387. Chaucer planned to write 24 tales but died before he could complete them, so, The Canterbury Tales consist of 22 verse tales and two long prose tales. The ‘General Prologue’ gives a brief but vivid description of each pilgrim journeying to Canterbury before the pilgrims actually begin telling their tales. Most literature written in the medieval period was written in either French or Latin, especially poems or Holy Scriptures, so when Chaucer wrote ‘The Canterbury Tales’ in Middle English he was making a statement. Chaucer wanted to promote the vernacular language of England and so wrote ‘The Canterbury Tales’ in Middle English. Three of the best portraits of the pilgrims in the ‘General Prologue’ are of the Knight, the Wife of Bath and the Monk who all tell us a great deal about Chaucer’s society.

 The Knight is a “verray, parfit, gentil knyght”, who earns his living by fighting for his faith and his king. He has high status in the feudal system and “Ful worthy was he in his lordes werre”. He is as meeke as a mayde”, and he is also worthy and humble.

 The way in which Chaucer writes ‘The Knight’ and the language he uses reinforces the point that the Knight is virtuous. The alliteration in “he were worthy, he was wys” draws attention to the praise that Chaucer is giving him. Also triple negatives are used to reinforce the point that he has no vices; “he nevere yet no vileynye ne sayde”.

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  The Knight is humble and not materialistic where the text reads;

“His hors were goode, but he was nat gay

Of fustian he wered a gypon

Al bismotered with his habergeon”

 

There is also an ironic simile in the verse about the Knight where the text says, “as meeke as a mayde” this describes him as calm and gentle whereas we expect a Knight to be violent and proud of himself. Finally, the rhyming couplets at the end of each line draw even more attention to his good qualities for example

“…. prys”

“…. wys”

 He ...

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