It's still the high middle ages:

Comparisons to Dante:

• Everyone goes on a religious journey
• All are pilgrims, going to Canterbury
• To worship at the shrine of St. Thomas a Becket, now marked only by a candle.
• A sense of comprehensiveness
• People as types
• Hierarchal view of the world
• Attacks on the clergy

• The genre is Estates Satire, but the characters are mixed; they are not only types.
• There's a sense of humor, and different voices. The voice of Geoffrey is tentative, and what the poet thinks has to be inferred. -- Compare to Beowulf and Dante.

It was a very popular book.

• "he loved chivalrye, / Trouthe and honour, fredom and curteisye" (45-46, p. 16)
• "At mortal batailles hadde he been fiftene" (62, p. 16)
• "Ageyn another hethen in Turkye" (66, p. 16)
• "He never yet no vileinye ne sayde / In al his lyfe, unto no maner wight" (70-71, p. 18)
• "Of fustian he wered a gipoun / Al bismotered with his habergeoun" (75-76, p. 18)

The Squire

• He is a lover and a fighter.

  "And he had been sometime in chivachye,
  In Flaundres, in Artoys, and Picardye,
  And born him wel, as of so litel space,
  In hope to stonden in his lady grace."  (lines 85-88, p. 18)

• He's physically attractive.
• He honors his father & probably will grow up to be like him.

The Yeoman
He takes care of equipment and is defined by equipment.

The Prioress.

• Her probable background, aristocratic and romantic qualities.
• The nature of her conscience

The Monk

• His job as "out-rydere"
• His difference from the stereotypical monk -- the joke about the chapel bells (line 170, p.22). See the list of canonical hours.
• His defensiveness. -- The Rule of St. Augustine, The Rule of St. Benedict

The Friar

Link to Ellesmere image.

Link to page on monastic orders

• "A limitour, a ful solempne man" (line 209, p. 24)
• The "post" joke
• His defensiveness (line 244, p. 26)
• "Curteys he was, and lowly of servyse" (line 250, top of p. 28) [The Knight (line 46, p. 17), the Squire (line 99, p. 18), and the Prioress (lines 139-140, pp. 20-22) are also courteous.]
• His name

The Merchant
Donald Trump type

The Clerk

• Books v. horse
• "no benefyce" (line 293, p. 30)

The Sergeant of the Law
Many things in common with a modern lawyer

The Franklin

• What his designation means
• "Epicurus owne sone" (line 338, p. 32)
• "His table dormant in his halle alway / Stood redy covered al the longe day." (lines 355-356, p. 32)

The Craftsmen & their Cook

Images: Blancmanger & Mormal

• Their new wealth
• "in o liveree" (line 364, p. 34)
• their pride
• the Cook's ulcer & chicken stew

The Shipman

• long-haul trucker
• "his ship was called the Magdalen" (line 412, p. 37)

The Doctor of Medicine

• "be it hot or cold or moist or dry" (line 422, p. 37)
• "for each helped the other to profit" (line 429)
• the list of authorities
• the expensive & tasteful clothes
• the quip at the end (lines 445-446, page 39)

The Wife of Bath

Both womanly & tomboy; the single most famous character in Chaucer.

The Parson

• "He was also a learned man, a clerk" (line 482, page 41)
• "rather give / his poor parishoners thereabouts / part of his own offerings and property" (lines 489-491, page 41)
• "And shame it is, if preest take keep, / A shiten shepherde and clene sheep" (lines 505-506, p. 40)
• satire of corruptions -- lines 510 ff.
• "But if any person were obstinate" (line 523, page 43) -- similar to the knight in combination of humility/courtesy & strength

• His importance to the life of the community
• His swinish appearance
• "he had a thumb of gold" (line 565, page 45)

The Pardoner

• Like the Friar, technically a beggar -- the theory of pardons
• His historical importance -- Martin Luther
• His vanity
• His showmanship
• "But in the end, to do him justice" (line 709, p. 53)