In The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer a physical journey occurs. The physical journey plays a central role and is a crucial element in the story. The pilgrimage adds meaning to the story as a whole and is significant to the story. The Canterbury Tales is centered around the concept of a frame story, where each pilgrims is able to tell their own story. The reason why the tales are told is because the host makes the suggestion of having a storytelling contest to pass the time during their passage. Without the physical journey the stories would have never been told nor would they have had a way to connect them. “The Miller’s Tale” and ‘The Franklin’s Tale” would have never been put in the same piece of literature if there was no way to join them in a cohesive manner. The journey itself is the set up for the pilgrim’s tales and is one of the reasons that the …show more content…
On the pilgrimage the characters are meeting each for the first time, this would lead to the narrator making assumptions. These assumptions may not be accurate and would be misleading for the reader. The narrator describes the skipper as a good buy, but in reality the skipper lies, steals, and kills to get what he wants. This descriptions of the skipper would be confusing for the reader and some may take the narrator’s words as the truth. The journey would allow the narrator to have this false belief because he is only telling us his first impression of the other pilgrims. This physical journey permits for the Chaucer to have an unreliable narrator in his story.
The physical journey in The Canterbury Tales is an important element of the story.It adds deeper meaning by setting up the frame story, putting people together who come from different walks of life, and allowing for an unreliable narrator to be present. The physical played a central role in the telling of The Canterbury