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The General Prologue
Canterbury Tales is a pageant of 14th Century life, because every class variation is represented except the highest and the lowest. No nobility and no serfs make the pilgrimage, but the pilgrims span the whole range of the unofficial middle class. These people act their parts in a way that reveals their private lives and habits, their moods and dispositions, their goo 525g64f d and bad qualities.
April Sweet Showers
As April
comes, in the period of rain and rebirth of nature, while Zephyrus brings nature
back to life and birds are making melodies, twenty-nine people make a
pilgrimage toward
The Knight
The pilgrims are listed in relative order of status, thus the first character is the Knight. Chaucer describes the knight as a worthy man who had fought in the Crusades (page A50) to serve his king well. The Knight is a perfect and gentle man who loved truth, freedom, chivalry and honour, as we can read in line 3 and 4. In fact he experienced mortal battles, jousts and being in the lists. Chaucer describes his appearance pointing out his clothes and his horse, that is a part of his equipment. Despite his glorious deeds, the Knight never boasted nor bored his travelling companions with stories of his great deeds. The Knight is a positive character, he's a model who embodies chivalry values, and he's linked to the feudal world.
The Prioress
There is also a Prioress, shy and polite. She is prim and proper, sympathetic and well mannered. The Prioress, called Madame Eglantine, was a well-educated, gentle lady who could speak French. She tried to imitate the Court with her great courtesy and exceptional manners, especially at meat. She is described with an ironical vein, because, in this way, Chaucer emphasise her negative aspects. In fact, she doesn't respect the monastic rules, because se leaves uncovered her forehead and she wears a rosary with a golden brooch, instead of a cross. Through the description of her jewels, Chaucer points out the riches of the clergy and his anticlerical point of view (page A45). She is a negative character and her description points out Chaucer critical attitude and her hypocrisy. The description of the Prioress is overtly flattering yet masquerades a sharp criticism of her foolish sentimentality and oppressive attention to manners. Although she strives to be polite and refined, she spoke French after the school of Stratford-at-Bow, the vulgar rural pronunciation compared to Parisian French. Furthermore, she weeps at the mere sight of a dead mouse, a gross overreaction to a small tragedy.
Prologue to the Merchant's Tale
The Merchant (page A51) is a member of the rich and powerful rising middle class; he's a shrewd and knowledgeable businessman, few know of his deep debts. He claims that he knows nothing of long-suffering wives. If his wife were to marry the devil, she would overmatch him. The Merchant has been married two months and has loathed every minute of it. The travellers tell tales that conform to their personal experiences or attitudes, such as the Merchant, whose awful marriage is the occasion for his tale about a difficult wife.
The Merchant's Tale
The Merchant
tells a tale of a prosperous knight
from
The Merchant's Tale deals with love from different points of view and it's also an exploration between youth and old age. In fact, January represents also a month of Winter, that is symbol of old age, while May, a spring month, stands for beauty and youth.
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