Geoffrey Chaucer was the greatest English poet of his time. Besides William Shakespeare no other writer has surpassed Chaucer’s achievements. One of his best unfinished writing, “The Canterbury Tales” rankes as one of the world’s best work of literature. In “The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales” Chaucer presents a cross-section of Medieval Society through his discriptions of people representing the court, the church and the common people. In Medieval Society, just like in modern day society, there were people of different moralities. The knight the Parson and the Plowmen are examples of good eople who possessed honorable characteristics.
The Knight in this pilgrimage is a representative from the Court class which was at the top of Medeval Society. He was wealthly but he didn’t want to impress anybody. He truly had all the charactoristics of an ideal knight. As a Christian, he loved thruth and as gentlemen, he believed in chivalry and honor. With so many dishonest people going to Canterbury,or must have been very irritating to deal with them. But “He never yet a barrish thing had said. In all his life to any , come what might ; He was a true, a perfect gentle-knight. He was true to his king and was generous, and courteous.
He didn’t wear flashy clothes. All he wore was a coarse cloth shirt of cotton and linen. His shirt was stained with dark smudges where his amar had left it’s marks . The Knight’s motivation to go on this pilgramage is to give thanks to God, because he had survived all of the wars and battles he had fought in. Another honerable pilgrim on this trip was the Parson who is representative of church society. Un like the other religious people on the pilgrimage who claimed lots of earthly posessions, the Parson was a very poor priest. However he was a noble example to the people of his church.
He was an honest priest who didn’t cheat people out of their money. Although he was poor in money and possessions, he was vary rich in the Christian spirit. He would practice what he preached and would rather give then recive and “who truly knew christ’s gospel and would preach it, Devoutly to parishioners,and teach it”. When parishioners gave him money he would not accept it. As a follower of Christ he was willing to help his fellow man. The reason he is gtoing on this trip was to pay respect to the valiant and holy martyr St. Thomas a Becket. Just as Jesus Christ was willing to give up his life for what he believed.
The leart that the Parson could do was to bear any suffering in carrying out of his priestly duties. He would visit the houses far away in his own parish when it would rain or thunder or even in sickness or in grief. He himself would keep the church clean and he would not ask or pay some one else to clean the church for him. The Parson lived a simple life, for God, the church,and th people. Another honerable person on the journey to Becket’s Tomb was a Plowman. The Plowman or farmer was in the class of the common people. He was not rich nor was poor.
The farmer made his living off his own farm and from the sweat of his brow. He was an honest hard-working farmer who loved God best and would do anything to help his neighbors. He was a good samaritan. He loved God with all his heart, mind and body. He would never accept money when helping others. He was truthful to his neighbors and when he owed them some money he would always pay them back in full. Also he would gladly help the church by tithing in full just at Christ had commanded. Geoffy Chaucer, in his time and even ours, was an extraordinary poet who wrote The Canterbury Tales”“.
This poem is ont of the best works that he made. In this story he discribes the Medieval Society through his point of view of pwople representing the court, the church and the commers. One can get a good idea of that society by the type of characters that Chucer chose to hp on this polhrimage. Not all pilgrims on this journwy were good moral charactor. However, among the rotten apples ther were some good ones. The knight the Pason, and the Plowman are good examples. Itis a relief to know that there will always be good pwople around in any time in history.