Chaucer's Canterbury Tales Quiz

The Summoner and The Pardoner

• The Summoner is portrayed as corrupt and hypocritical, extorting money from people accused of minor offenses.
• He is also depicted as lecherous and immoral, engaging in inappropriate behavior with women.
• The Pardoner is described as manipulative and deceitful, using his position to exploit people's fear of damnation for financial gain.
• He sells fake relics and indulgences to unsuspecting believers, showing his moral corruption.

The Canterbury Tales

• The central idea of The Canterbury Tales is to expose human failings, particularly among those on a spiritual journey.
• Chaucer highlights the pilgrims' preoccupation with worldly endeavors, such as gender relations and sexual immorality within the English society at that time.

The Pilgrims

The Knight

• He is a noble man who fought crusades in defense of Christendom.
• He is the highest-ranked person among the pilgrims and is honored for his worthiness and courtesy.

The Squire

• He is the son of the Knight and is a twenty-year-old bachelor.
• He is romantic, lustrous, and fond of literature, singing, fluting, and dancing.

The Yeoman

• He is a freeborn servant who travels with the Knight and the Squire.
• He wears a green coat and hood with an image of St. Christopher on his chest, and carries various weapons.

The Prioress

• She is called Madame Eglantine and has excellent table manners.
• She is charitable, tender, and anxious, and weeps at the sight of suffering.

The Monk and The Friar

• The Monk is a manly man and an agent of the monastery, who loves hunting and dresses luxuriously.
• The Friar, named Huberd, is joyful and merry, but is only friendly with rich people and skilled in talking money out of people.

Other Pilgrims

• The Merchant is a successful businessman who dresses in colorful clothes and is knowledgeable about trades and foreign currency.
• The Clerk is a poor student of Oxford who is fond of learning, particularly Aristotle's philosophy, and spends his money on buying books.
• The Man of Law is a wise and cautious man who has a good reputation, but is also depicted as somewhat dishonest and cunning.
• The Physician is a doctor who knows the cause of every illness and its cure, but is overly concerned about money.
• The Wife of Bath is a skilled cloth-maker who is adept at love and wears elaborate clothing.
• The Parson is a good religious man who is humble, charitable, and genuinely concerned for the well-being of his parishioners.
• The Miller is a loud, boisterous, and crude man who always wins the prize in wrestling matches.