Why This Matters
Chaucer's pilgrims aren't just colorful personalities—they're a strategic cross-section of 14th-century English society, and understanding them means understanding how medieval social hierarchies, religious institutions, and emerging economic forces shaped identity and morality. You're being tested on your ability to recognize how each character functions as both an individual and a representative type, embodying the tensions between appearance and reality, idealism and corruption, tradition and change.
Don't just memorize who tells which tale. Know what social critique each pilgrim enables, how their estate (social class) shapes their values, and where Chaucer deploys irony to expose hypocrisy. The exam loves asking you to compare pilgrims who seem similar but reveal different moral truths—or to identify how a character's portrait in the General Prologue sets up (or subverts) expectations for their tale.
These characters represent what medieval society claimed to value—chivalry, scholarship, and spiritual devotion. Chaucer presents them with varying degrees of sincerity, inviting readers to ask whether virtue is genuine or merely performed.
The Knight
- Embodies the chivalric ideal—fought in crusades across Europe and the Mediterranean, always for faith and honor rather than personal gain
- Described as "worthy," "wise," and "meek as a maid"—his modesty contrasts sharply with the self-promotion of other pilgrims
- Tells the first tale by social precedence, establishing a framework of noble romance that later tales will parody and undercut
The Clerk
- A poor Oxford scholar who prioritizes learning over wealth—spends money on books rather than fine clothes, embodying the intellectual ideal
- Speaks only when necessary and "of moral virtue"—his restraint contrasts with the verbosity of characters like the Wife of Bath
- His tale of patient Griselda tests the limits of wifely obedience, creating deliberate tension with the Wife's arguments for female sovereignty
The Parson
- The only genuinely virtuous religious figure among the pilgrims—practices what he preaches and refuses to abandon his parish for profit
- Described as "rich in holy thought and work"—Chaucer uses him as a benchmark against which clerical corruption is measured
- Tells no tale but delivers a prose treatise on penitence, closing the work with a call to genuine spiritual reflection
Compare: The Knight vs. The Clerk—both represent idealized estates (military and scholarly), but the Knight has worldly success while the Clerk embraces poverty. If an FRQ asks about Chaucer's treatment of virtue, these two show that nobility can exist across class lines.
The Corrupt Church: Satire of Religious Hypocrisy
Chaucer reserves his sharpest irony for religious figures who exploit their positions. These portraits critique institutional corruption rather than faith itself—a distinction the exam often tests.
The Pardoner
- Sells fake relics and false pardons for profit—openly admits his preaching is motivated by greed, not salvation
- His tale condemns avarice while he practices it, creating Chaucer's most explicit example of self-aware hypocrisy
- Physically described as effeminate and sexually ambiguous—his body becomes a text for readers to interpret, raising questions about authenticity and nature
The Prioress
- More concerned with courtly manners than spiritual devotion—speaks French, keeps lapdogs, and wears a brooch reading "Love Conquers All"
- Her portrait drips with gentle irony—Chaucer never directly criticizes her, letting details speak for themselves
- Tells an anti-Semitic miracle tale that reveals the dark side of her sentimental piety, complicating reader sympathy
The Friar
- Licensed to hear confessions but uses this power for profit—gives easy penance to those who pay, avoiding the truly poor
- Described as "wanton and merry"—his charm masks spiritual negligence and exploitation of vulnerable women
- Represents the corruption of mendicant orders, who were supposed to embrace poverty but often became wealthy through manipulation
Compare: The Pardoner vs. The Prioress—both represent religious corruption, but the Pardoner is brazenly self-aware while the Prioress seems genuinely blind to her own superficiality. This distinction matters for questions about Chaucer's satirical techniques.
The Rising Middle Class: Commerce and Social Ambition
These characters reflect England's changing economy, where wealth increasingly challenged birth as a marker of status. Their tales often explore anxieties about legitimacy and social climbing.
The Merchant
- A shrewd businessman obsessed with profit and appearances—no one knows he's actually in debt, revealing the gap between image and reality
- His bitter tale of a cuckolded old husband reflects his own unhappy marriage, blurring the line between fiction and confession
- Represents the new mercantile class whose economic power didn't yet translate to social prestige
The Franklin
- A wealthy landowner who enjoys lavish hospitality—his table is always set, and he embodies the epicurean ideal of generous living
- Not noble by birth but lives like nobility—his social anxiety surfaces in his tale's obsession with "gentilesse" (true nobility)
- His tale argues that virtue, not birth, defines honor, a potentially subversive claim that serves his class interests
The Host (Harry Bailey)
- The pragmatic innkeeper who organizes the storytelling contest—his proposal structures the entire work and gives him authority over nobles and clergy alike
- Serves as mediator and judge, interrupting tales he finds boring and managing conflicts between pilgrims
- Represents bourgeois common sense and the growing importance of commerce and hospitality in English society
Compare: The Merchant vs. The Franklin—both are wealthy commoners, but the Merchant is anxious and secretive while the Franklin is generous and socially aspirational. Their tales reflect these temperaments: one bitter, one idealistic.
The "Churls": Subversion Through Vulgarity
The lower-class pilgrims tell fabliaux—bawdy, comic tales that mock social pretension and celebrate bodily pleasures. Chaucer uses them to challenge the authority of "serious" genres.
The Miller
- A massive, crude man who breaks down doors with his head—physically embodies the disruptive energy of his tale
- Drunkenly interrupts to "quite" (match) the Knight's tale, deliberately placing a vulgar fabliau against noble romance
- His tale mocks both the Knight's idealism and clerical hypocrisy, using adultery and farce to level social hierarchies
The Reeve
- A thin, choleric estate manager who takes personal offense at the Miller's tale about a cuckolded carpenter (his former trade)
- Tells a revenge tale where a miller is cheated and his wife and daughter seduced—tit-for-tat narrative aggression
- Represents the petty rivalries that structure the pilgrimage, showing how tales become weapons in social conflict
Compare: The Miller vs. The Reeve—both tell fabliaux, but the Miller's is exuberant and celebratory while the Reeve's is bitter and vindictive. This pairing shows how genre can serve different emotional purposes.
Gender and Authority: The Wife of Bath
The Wife stands alone as Chaucer's most complex exploration of female voice, sexuality, and power—she demands her own category.
The Wife of Bath
- Married five times and openly proud of it—uses her Prologue to argue that experience trumps clerical authority on matters of marriage and sex
- Advocates for female "maistrie" (sovereignty) in relationships, directly challenging patristic teachings about wifely submission
- Her tale transforms an Arthurian romance into a lesson about what women most desire: control over their own lives and husbands
Compare: The Wife of Bath vs. The Clerk—their tales directly respond to each other on the question of marital power. The Clerk's patient Griselda represents total submission; the Wife's old woman demands sovereignty. Chaucer stages this as a debate, not a resolution.
Some characters exist primarily to explore what stories do—how they teach, entertain, and reveal the teller.
The Nun's Priest
- Tells a beast fable about Chauntecleer the rooster—a seemingly simple tale packed with mock-epic rhetoric and philosophical digressions
- Uses comedy to explore serious themes: the nature of dreams, the dangers of pride, and the relationship between fate and free will
- His tale demonstrates Chaucer's range, showing how "low" genres can carry "high" intellectual content
Quick Reference Table
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| Chivalric/Scholarly Ideals | Knight, Clerk, Parson |
| Clerical Corruption | Pardoner, Prioress, Friar |
| Rising Middle Class | Merchant, Franklin, Host |
| Fabliau and Social Subversion | Miller, Reeve |
| Gender and Authority | Wife of Bath, Clerk (as foil) |
| Self-Aware Hypocrisy | Pardoner |
| Appearance vs. Reality | Prioress, Merchant |
| Meta-Narrative Commentary | Nun's Priest, Host |
Self-Check Questions
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Which two pilgrims represent idealized virtue in different social estates, and how does Chaucer distinguish between worldly success and spiritual integrity in their portraits?
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How do the Pardoner and the Prioress both embody religious corruption, and what makes Chaucer's satirical approach different for each character?
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Compare the Miller's and the Reeve's tales: what social function does the fabliau genre serve, and how do the tellers' personalities shape their narratives?
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In what ways does the Wife of Bath's Prologue challenge medieval authorities on marriage, and how does the Clerk's tale respond to her arguments?
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If an FRQ asked you to discuss how Chaucer uses the Canterbury pilgrimage to critique social hierarchy, which three characters would you choose and why?