The General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer -- Analysis

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THEMES/MOTIFS/REMARKS
Taxonomy and classification- very important in the Middle Ages, the way people defined the world was according to their standing in society, which was determined by birth, association with nobility and ranking in the Church.

Descriptions of nature open the Prologue. There is also talk of crops.
"April with his showres soote… bathed every veine in sweich licuor"
"The tender croppes"
Hierarchy and order (classification/taxonomy)
The introduction to the list of people:
"Me thinketh it accordant to resoun
To telle you al the condicioun
Of eech of hem, so as it seemed me
And whiche they were, and of what degree[MS1] 
And eek in what array that they were inne


Characters described in terms of riding skills and horses

Characters described in terms of manners

Characters described in terms of clothing

Criticism of the operation of Christian institutions

Astrology

The humors (components of the physical body) corresponding to elements of the world, also used to describe people

Materialism

The doctor: a play on words. Gold has medicinal properties but also the doctor likes cash
"For gold in physik is a cordial,
Therefore he loved gold in special"


Characters described in terms of physical appearance- the lower down the hierarchy, the more prevalent are physical descriptions (as a general, not absolute rule- the yeoman is described as fat. But lower down the hierarchy it gets more nitty gritty-

about the miller:
 "A wart, and thereof a tuft of hairs,
red as the bristles of a sow's ears,
his nostrils black were and wide"


Reference to Christ and Plato as promoters of the telling of truth.

 [MS1]Their class standing


Geoffrey Chaucer

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