How Did Chaucer's Characters Develop

Geoffrey Chaucer was considered a cornerstone of English literature. Born and raised in London, Chaucer started writing 1370 and continued tell his death. Chaucer’s last writing was the Canterbury Tales. He never did fully finish this writing but he got far enough to show us the characters of this work. Characters that he developed in such a way that people still continue to look back and read his work. Characters like the Knight, the Nun, the Parson, and the Pardoner. These characters all very different but share a great characterization that Chaucer gave them. Chaucer created the Knight to be a character that had loyalty and honor, where many of the other characters in this Prologue have very little loyalty and honor. The Knight was a well-rounded

He followed the rules of his religion and lived a truthful practice. “truly knew Christ’s gospel and would preach it / Devoutly to parishioners, and teach it” (Chaucer 157). He took truth in what he read from the bible and felt the need to share it like any good Parson. He had a special sermon that he intended to teach and live by that is “That if gold rust, what then would iron do? / For if a priest be foul in whom we trust / No wonder that a common man should rust” (Chaucer 157). This Parson stood out in this writing because Chaucer wanted to show that not all of the characters were as ironic to be going on a religious journey when they strayed so far from their own religion. The Parson followed the rules and oaths he took to his God the ones that he will live by the rest of his life. Chaucer had to show that not all people of this time period were fakes, but many of them were in deed fake, phonies and frauds. A man who intended to be a fraud and scam the town’s people out of their money was the Pardoner. The Pardoner made money off of the many villagers he found. The Pardoners job was to pardon the sins from the sinners and while he did fulfill these duties he also collected payment for their sins. “and with these relics, any time he found / Some poor up-country parson to astound, / In one short day; in money down, he drew more than the Parson in a month or two” (Chaucer 163). To get the money was the trick, he had to make the people remember their sins. The sins they wanted to confess and ask for forgiveness. It all depended on “How well he read a lesson or told a story!” (chaucer163). For this Pardoner would need people to feel the need to share their sins so he would tell them story’s or lessons that would make the people remember times in their own lives that they sinned or went against the ways of