Morality In The Canterbury Tales

In The Canterbury Tales, a quite diverse group of people gather together in the Tabard Inn, waiting to embark on a journey to Canterbury. Each pilgrim has a unique personality and aura, which the reader discovers in the prologue of the story. The journey to Canterbury is fairly lengthy, ergo the Host decides to ask the pilgrims to play a game. The game consists of each pilgrim telling four stories: two on the voyage to Canterbury, and two on the way back. The Host also determines two categories upon which the stories would be judged: “good morality and general pleasure.” Two of the tales, “The Knight’s Tale,” and “The Pardoner’s Tale,” were very prominent. They share some commonalities, but they are mostly dissimilar. “The Knight’s Tale” is told by the Knight, who is described as an honorable, noble man; he is very trustworthy and respected. His personality is clearly reflected …show more content…
As mentioned before, all of the characters in “The Knight’s Tale” are truly morally sound. “The Knight’s Tale” meets, and even surpasses, the Host’s requirements of the tale being of good moral value and being pleasurable to the audience. The reader is captivated by the characters in the story, and develops a connection to the characters as …show more content…
The characters are moral and very well developed; each character, no matter his conflict, still chose to do the right thing and act justly. In contrast, the characters in “The Pardoner’s Tale” were very unfeeling, and emotionally distant. Even though their horrible actions taught the reader a lesson, the story did not have as great an impact as “The Knight’s Tale” did. If a reader were to compare these two tales to each other, and judge them by the criteria that the Host gave, “The Knight’s Tale” would be regarded as the superior