The Canterbury Tales: Chaucer's Stereotypes and The Pardoner's Tale

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Literature and Language
08 November 2017
The Canterbury Tales: Chaucer’s Stereotypes and The Pardoner’s Tale
The story of The Canterbury Tale is about pilgrims that journey towards Canterbury and they start telling stories to each other so they will not notice the time. Aside from knowing how all of the 24 characters interact each other, all of the tales they have can be found in the book. It is observed that Chaucer let readers know about his stereotypes because they are in the context and part of the stories. In addition, the stereotypes are mostly linked to negativity, and it will be discussed here if the ones by Chaucer are acceptable.
Generally, The Canterbury Tales have characters that are stereotypes, mostly the ones taking part in the clergy. It is known that any kind of institution has corruption and this does not exempt the medieval church from it. Chaucer highlights how even the ecclesiastical participants have the tendency to commit sin, but he describes them in an observational tone. This leaves room for the reader to come up with their own judgment while he gives the details. According to Kimmick, A comparison is also done by Chaucer which is emphasized because of the stories and he is able to use the general prologue, story prologues and interjections because of the dynamics of the stories (2014).
Chaucer talks about stereotypes as if it naturally existed even during his time; the tales give an impression that sometimes they are correct and mostly used t...