Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is a story of nine and twenty pilgrims traveling to Canterbury, England in order to visit the shrine of St. Thomas A. Becket. The General Prologue starts by describing the beauty of nature and of happy times, and then Chaucer begins to introduce the pilgrims. Most of Chaucer's pilgrims are not the honorable pilgrims a reader would expect from the beautiful opening of the prologue, and instead they are pilgrims that illustrate moral lessons. In the descriptions of the pilgrims, Chaucer's language and wit helps to show the reader how timeless these character are. Chaucer describes his pilgrims in a very kind way, and he is not judgmental. Each of these pilgrims has a trade, and in most cases, the pilgrims use their trade in any possible way to benefit themselves. By using our notion of stereotypes, and counter stereotypes, Chaucer teaches us many moral lessons about religion and money.

Chaucer's moral lessons start while he is introducing the pilgrims. These pilgrims are not from the same social stations in life, and instead they range anywhere from a rich lady from Bath to a drunken miller. It is nice to think twenty nine people with differe

In the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer creates timeless characters that we can still learn from today. The General Prologue starts with the idea of springtime and flowers blooming, and this may be Chaucer's way of saying these characters, despite their moral afflictions, might be born again over the pilgrimage. It is ironic how all of these morally corrupt people go on a religious pilgrimage, yet they do not seem to incorporate God in their everyday lives. Chaucer's style of writing, his use of stereotypes and counter stereotypes really helps the reader to think and learn the moral lessons the characters have not quite mastered. There are many lessons learned here just by the description of the characters, and most of the moral lessons and wit stems from the pilgrim's taking advantage of their trades whether it is a housewife or a pardoner.

The Prioress, also known as Mme.Eglantine, is the mother superior at her nunnery. By saying she is the superior at her nunnery, the impression is that she must be a devout lady who loves God, however, this is not the case. She is a very proper lady who sings through her nose, loves her lap dogs and eats with impeccable manners. As Chaucer describes, "She was so charitable and so pitous," she even cried when she saw a dead mouse (p. 218). She had an impressive forehead and a gold broach which said "Amor vincit omnia," which means love conquers all (p. 219). Her engraved broach seems to speaks more of secular love than of Godly love, (Godly love in Latin is Amour Dei) (class discussion). This prioress is much more concerned with manners and demonstrating her demureness than showing her love for God. Her broach demonstrates what she thinks is most important. Chaucer ends with this, and the reader realizes that her love for God should be what is most important to her. The next character we learn from also holds a position in the Church, the Monk. This religious servant, like the nun, also loves something before God; this man loves the outdoors and hunting. In this case, the reader usually pictures a monk as someone who really loves God and devout in his religious studies, but the monk is a very different case. Studying inside the cloister or working with his hands was out of the question; riding is much more his style. He has the finest horses with decorated saddles, and he also uses the church's money for racing greyhounds. He has spared no expense for his clothes or his meals. Chaucer elegantly shows how materialistic this monk is; it seems he cares more for hunting and racing than he does for God.

The Franklin has a red face

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1753
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)