Line #96 Characters/TheCanterburyTales


1	With the cast going on pilgrimage with Chaucer, it's only natural that there has to be a character list for Literature/TheCanterburyTales.
2
3	!!Chaucer:
4	* AuthorAvatar
5	* InnocentInaccurate: Here, he is a naive, guileless rube who gushes admiration on his fellow pilgrims, but in a way that the reader can figure out what's going on. For example, Chaucer the narrator speaks of the Monk admirably, but his description of things like the Monk's "love knot" lets the reader know that the Monk is an unchaste libertine.
6	* StylisticSuck / SelfDeprecation: Chaucer assigns himself a pair of awful stories, the first of which is so bad it's [[CutShort forcibly halted]] by Harry Bailey, who orders him to tell a better tale.
7	* UnreliableNarrator: Everyone has had their moments, but Chaucer takes the cake.
8
9	!!Harry Bailey, the Host:
10	* AwfulWeddedLife: If the Merchant has little faith in the HappilyMarried trope, Harry Bailey has none due to living with a shrewish wife.
11	* BoisterousBruiser
12	* HenpeckedHusband: See AwfulWeddedLife above.
13
14	!!The Knight:
15	* ButIDigress: Does this all the time. Naturally, everybody else mocks him for it.
16	* DadTheVeteran: The Squire is noted to be his son.
17	* KnightInShiningArmor: He fits this personality-wise but actually has rather dirty, worn-out armor because he's an experienced horseman who has got a lot of use out of it.
18	* NiceToTheWaiter: He has ''never'' spoken rudely to anyone.
19	* TheParagon: One of the only pilgrims who is not a hypocrite or a subversion of an ideal.
20	* ReturningWarVet: Just returned from campaign to go upon the pilgrimage. Moreover, he's been on campaign for seventeen years at least [[note]]the earliest battle listed was in the 1340s, while the latest was in 1367[[/note]].
21
22	!!Robin, the Miller:
23	* BoisterousBruiser: He loves to wrestle.
24	* FieryRedhead: He is described as having a red beard.
25	* ToiletHumor: Uses this extensively in his tale. First, a man farts in another man's face, and then, the second man burns the first man's butt with a red-hot poker.
26
27	!!Oswald, the Reeve:
28
29	!!Roger, the Cook:
30	* StylisticSuck: His tale was CutShort, perhaps intentionally, because it was too bawdy.
31	* SupremeChef: Zig-zagged. While Chaucer regards him as a SupremeChef, he (Chaucer) is PutOffTheirFood when he sees a nasty running sore on the Cook's knee. In addition, Harry Bailey accuses Roger of various dishonest cooking practices, including draining gravy from his stews, selling old meat pies, giving pilgrims food poisoning, and keeping an unclean kitchen. Roger then claims that Harry speaks the truth.
32
33	!!The Man of Law:
34
35	!!The Shipman:
36
37	!!Madame Eglantine, the Prioress:
38	* FlowerMotifs: Her name is Madame Eglantine, referring to a kind of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_rubiginosa rose]], also known as a sweetbrier. Having a name that means "rose" is right in line with her sentimentality and bracelet reading "Love Conquers All."
39	* GoshDangItToHeck: "Her greatest oath was but 'By Saint Loy!'"
40	* {{Hypocrite}}: The Prioress, who after all is a nun, wears a necklace of beads with the motto "amor vincit omnia" ("love conquers all"). She also makes a great show of getting upset when a mouse is caught in a trap, yet she feeds her dogs raw meat on a regular basis.
41	* MoralMyopia: She cares more for dogs than she does for the Jews.
42	* OldMaid: She is clearly middle-aged but still concerned about her appearance.
43	* TenderTears: She is said to weep whenever one of her little dogs gets injured, due to MoralMyopia.
44	* TreatedWorseThanThePet: Some scholars have noted that it was common when writing of virtuous characters to start with good manners and love of animals and then move into their charity toward the poor. Chaucer makes you expect that he'll start talking about her charity, but he doesn't -- it's pretty clear she's nicer to animals than people.
45
46	!!The Monk:
47	* BoisterousBruiser: The Monk much prefers hunting and sports over sticking to his monastic vows.
48	* BreakTheHaughty: The theme of his tale. It's not just one story, he picks a famous great figure, then tells about how he failed and died, then moves onto another one, over and over again. He says he has a hundred, but the Knight [[CutShort cuts him off after seventeen]].
49	* TheHedonist: He loves to hunt and play sports, dresses well for himself, and is definitely not celibate.
50	* {{Hypocrite}}: He's definitely not the chaste monk he's supposed to be.
51	* TheLadysFavour: An unorthodox example, as the Monk basically acts like a typical nobleman in spite of his religious profession. He is described wearing a gold pin with a "love knot" (a lock of his sweetheart's/mistress's hair) inside it.
52	* SexyPriest: Given the "love knot" he wears.
53	* StylisticSuck: The Monk has his tale booed down by the other pilgrims because everyone expected him to tell a light, bawdy story, but instead he chose to recite a list of the tragic ends of various powerful people from ancient times to the present. Part of Terry Jones's reinterpretation of the Knight is to dispute whether the Monk's Tale was bad, but in any case, it's been traditionally accepted that it's intentionally bad.
54
55	!!The Nun's Priest:
56	* SexyPriest: The Host alleges the Nun's Priest is one of these (see UnwantedHarem below), but the Nun's Priest denies it. Most of the other examples are more along the lines of "lecherous priest" than necessarily "good-looking priest", and the Nun's Priest is probably the only example who isn't a slimy bastard.
57	* UnwantedHarem: There's an interesting subtext to his tale. His story is a beast fable whose protagonist is a rooster with a number of hen-wives. There is an implied parallel to the Nun's Priest himself who is a confessor for a group of nuns (possibly NaughtyNuns). He asserts that he is chaste though and might be telling the truth. That being said, an alternate interpretation is that the Nun is the rooster, with the "wives" being the priests who work for her. Note the rooster's vanity and stupidity.
58
59	!!The Physician:
60
61	!!The Pardoner:
62	* AmbiguouslyGay: Due to his [[CampGay effeminate]] looks, the Pardoner's sexuality has been much debated.
63	* BlatantLies: He is particularly wrong about the Bible.
64	* CardCarryingVillain
65	* CluelessAesop: In-universe example: he gives a story teaching the evils of greed, but he himself is incredibly greedy. [[LampshadeHanging He even mentions how ironic this is]].
66	* FauxAffablyEvil: He may act soft-spoken and polite, but it is clear to everyone that he is a corrupt hypocrite, [[CardCarryingVillain and proud of it]].
67	* GratuitousLatin: His (hypocritical) motto is, "Radix malorum est cupiditas" (greed is the root of all evil).
68	* {{Hypocrite}}: Perhaps the worst example of all the hypocritical churchmen in this collection.
69	* ItsAllAboutMe
70	* PrettyBoy: Subverted. He's rather androgynous, but this is meant to make him creepy rather than attractive. That and it's subtly implied that he's a eunuch.
71	* RefugeInAudacity: He begins his tale by bragging about his hypocrisy and all the fake relics he sells. At the end of his tale, an effective moral tale, he offers the same relics to the other pilgrims.
72	* SexyPriest / GirlfriendInCanada: He says he would like to keep a wench in every town.
73	* SnakeOilSalesman
74	* StrawHypocrite: He constantly preaches against greed and covetousness (referring to it as "the root of all evil"), yet [[LampshadeHanging freely admits]] that he himself is motivated entirely by it, preaching, selling salvation, and peddling phony miracle cures to make a swift profit. He takes it a step further by claiming that ''all'' forms of preaching are done for evil or selfish reasons.
75
76	!!The Wife of Bath:
77	* AllWomenAreLustful: Invoked, but also subverted, lampshaded, and deconstructed.
78	* ButLiquorIsQuicker: The extremely candid Wife of Bath admits that she gets really slutty when she's drunk on wine.
79	* CountryMatters: She uses the word "queynte".
80	* DirtyOldWoman
81	* GoodBadGirl: Thanks to her multiple marriages, she may well be the UrExample.
82	* ICallHimMrHappy: When the Wife of Bath isn't simply referring to her private parts as "[[CountryMatters queynte]]", she is calling it her bele chose (French for "beautiful thing") or quoniam (that's Latin).
83	* NoAccountingForTaste: The Wife of Bath's fifth husband used to [[DomesticAbuse verbally berate her, beat her until she appeared dead, and is the reason she's half-deaf]]. He's also the husband she loved the most.
84	* NoGuyWantsToBeChased: Inverted, interestingly enough; the Wife of Bath is a firm believer in the idea that this is true of ''women''.
85	* ReallyGetsAround: The Wife of Bath talks about how she liked to bonk all over town, especially with her first three husbands, while intimidating them into silence by falsely accusing them of infidelity.
86	* ToothyIssue: Has a gap between her two front teeth.
87	* WeaknessTurnsHerOn: She is particularly fond of submissive men who will do whatever she says and let her completely dominate them in bed. Though it's revealed that this is mostly just because she can trick them into giving her money.
88
89	!!Hubert, the Friar:
90	* SexyPriest: He loves associating with the fairer sex, and is kind enough to perform [[ShotgunWedding marriages which he has made necessary]].
91
92	!!The Summoner:
93	* AmbiguouslyGay: He may well be the Pardoner's MachoCamp companion.
94
95	!!The Oxford Clerk:
96	* SmartPeopleWearGlasses: He is an UrExample of this trope; despite not actually wearing glasses in the text, he is mentioned as having terrible eyesight due to the long nights he's spent studying by candlelight. This hints that the trope might actually [[EvolvingTrope be descended from]] [[ForgottenTrope an older "Smart People Have Bad Eyesight" trope]].
97	* StarvingStudent: Whenever he gets paid, he tends to spend his money on new books rather than food. He lives mostly by borrowing from his friends.
98
99	!!The Merchant:
100	* AwfulWeddedLife: After all of two months of experiencing it, the Merchant is dissatisfied with his marriage and has little faith in the HappilyMarried trope.
101	* TheCobblersChildrenHaveNoShoes / HypocriticalHumor: It's commented in the Prologue that while the Merchant is always giving financial advice, he is actually flat broke. He's also telling his tale with the intent to show that marriage is terrible and women are lying liars who lie, which is kind of hilarious considering that he's drawing this from all of two months' experience in the realm of marriage.
102	* HenpeckedHusband: The Merchant claims he has a nagging wife.
103	* MorallyBankruptBanker: He's also ''literally'' bankrupt.
104
105	!!The Squire:
106	* PrettyBoy: He is noted to have long, curly blond hair, falling in line with his association with the tradition of courtly love.
107
108	!!The Franklin:
109	* TheAlcoholic: He is described as being fond of wine.
110	* BoisterousBruiser
111
112	!!The Second Nun:
113
114	!!The Canon's Yeoman:
115
116	!!The Manciple:
117
118	!!The Parson:
119	* GoodShepherd / TokenGoodTeammate: He's just about the only religious character who isn't corrupt. In fact, Chaucer uses the former metaphor, comparing the parson to a shepherd guarding his sheep, and noting how bad a "shiten" shepherd is for his flock.

Context Characters / TheCanterburyTales