Knight in Shinning Armour in Chaucers The Canterbury Tales Essay examp

The Knight in Shinning Armour in Chaucers The Canterbury Tales Chaucers The Canterbury Tales offers the reader an insight into our past, providing smart glimpses into the 14th centurys social structure, and into the personalities, lives, and ethics of twenty-eight members of that society necktien together to travel on a pilgrimage. The General Prologue to the Tales deals primarily with introducing these people to us, providing physiological descriptions and character outlines of virtually each pilgrim it is a tribute to Chaucers skill that his descriptions (as filtered with the neurotically happy narrator) succeeds in creating such lively characters out of what are, essential, flattened stereotypes from his era. Chaucer manages to create strong characters through multiple means, each pilgrim receiving special feature in various areas. Take, for instance, the first of the pilgrims The Knight. The sawbuck has always been a romantic, heroic meter figure, and i n this group of pilgrims, is the highest placed member on the social stepladder. Chaucer does the sawhorse - and our preconceptions of him - justice, painting an image of a strong, valiant, and noble figure. Oddly enough (or perhaps, wisely), in truth little attention is given to his physical detail, concentrating to a greater extent on the knights activities and demeanour. In fact, the only lines that provide a direct physical description of the knight areBut for tto tellen you of his array,His hors were goode, but he was nat gay.Of fustiaan he wered a gipoun,Al bismottered with his haubergeoun, (73-76) Therefore, we know he has a good horse (a sure compact of wealth), and that he avoids flashy, gaudy clothing (unlike his son the squ... ...ion of which has obviously caused the knight to go on a pilgrimage. Something is obviously bothering the knight, else he would not feel the neediness to atone for his actions. But these small flaws only make him that much more o f a human figure, and can only serve to further draw the reader into the knights coming tale. So, while the knight may be besmirched, and troubled, and no longer gleam, he still, in Chaucers, the narrators, and most readers view, remains the Knight in shinning armour.Works ConsultedGeoffrey Chaucer. Twaynes English Authors Series, Ed. Sylvia Bowman, New York Twayne Publishers, 1964. Modern Critical Views Geoffrey Chaucer, Ed. Harold Bloom. New York Chelsea signaling Publishers, 1985. Pearsall, Derek. The Life of Geoffrey Chaucer. Blackwell Critical Biographies. Ed. Claude Rawson. Oxford Blackwell Publishers, 1992.