Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer,

¶ … Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer, is remarkable because it is written in Middle English. The story is a little reminiscent of "situation" stories such as the movie Hotel, where people come together by chance and then get to know each other. Chaucer, on a pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral, comes upon a group of pilgrims traveling together, and decides to join them. As they travel, they tell stories. Each story reflects the teller's unique personality and contains some kind of lesson for the listener.

Chaucer gives rich and detailed descriptions of the characters, and does so in a way that suits the type of person they are. Because of that, the reader sees the characters as real people, not idealized stereotypes of the various members of society reflected in the story. For instance, when Chaucer describes the Knight, he characterizes him as brave and as having just returned from a Crusade, he also gives us telling details, such as the fact that his shirt bears marks from the coat of mail he wore in battle. These give the characters depth and believability.

While the setting and premise for the collection, the stories can be complex. One of the most well-known is "The Wife of Bath," who has had five husbands, manipulated them all shamelessly and was not ashamed to say so. Her story is of a knight who has been sentenced to death for raping a woman, which reminds the reader again that Chaucer has no intention of simply telling a lot of lectures thinly veiled as fiction; the dark side of each type of person is visible in Chaucer's tales.

In "The Wife's Tale," the queen agrees to spare the knight's life if he can answer one question: what do women want? The Wife's goal in marriage, apparently, has to be the one in charge, and the Knight says the same thing to the Queen. Of course a Queen would expect to be in charge, but the story serves to support the Wife's rather bad behavior in four of her five marriages. She ends her story by suggesting that every woman should have a young and attractive husband who has the sense to obey his wife. The views of the Wife of Bath must have been startling or even shocking for its day.