A Summary of the Canterbury Tales (Book Review Sample)

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The Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales is an assortment of tales by Geoffrey Chaucer; it depicts the story of a certain group of Pilgrims travelling to Canterbury. On their way, they indulge in a story-telling contest as a way of avoiding boredom. From the story, the interaction of the characters is portrayed as well as the 24 tales that the pilgrims narrate to each other.The story develops at a certain Tavern, circa 1390, located in the outskirts of London. The pilgrims are assembled together to make arrangements concerning their journey to the St. Thomas Becket shrine in Canterbury. Chaucer who is the main narrator meets them at the location and joins them in their journey. According to Chaucer, all the pilgrims are anticipating for the journey, and they appear to be delightful as they outline their plans.
As the Pilgrims gather for dinner, the Tavern owner who is also their host makes a proposal to them. He states that on their way to Canterbury, each pilgrim should narrate two tales and other two tales on their way back from Canterbury. The Tavern owner was to accompany the pilgrims so that he would judge their tales. Both parties agreed that the Pilgrim who narrated the most-appealing tale would be awarded a free dinner at the end of the journey in the Tavern. However, if anyone had the audacity to question the Tavern owner verdict, he was to be accountable for the bill of the whole pilgrimage. The pilgrims were enthusiastic to have fun in their journey, and they agreed to the Tavern owner suggestion. They took oaths to put up with the regulations set for the game. After that, they prepare to go to Canterbury the following morning and the tale narration commences.
Nearly, a pilgrim puts to test the Host’s power. After the first story, the Host requests the Monk if he could give a story. The drunk miller disrupts him and states that he would be the next person to speak, if not he would walk away from the company. This is not the first incidence where the Host’s ideas for the game have been put down. In the process of the journey, the game was at the danger of being derailed by members of the company such as the intoxicated pilgrims and mysterious outsiders.
In their journey, the pilgrims give stories of differing genres such as comedies tragedies, epic stories etc. Some pilgrims go in details of a story whereby a certain character has the same role as one of the pilgrims, this spark fire among them. For instance, the Miller gives a story of a carpenter who had a wife that was unfaithful; she was immoral and had an affair with a clerk. The wife humiliates the husband in the entire village. The original carpenter among the pilgrims is offended as he views this story on a personal perspective. He then in turn gives...