Inner Nature In Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

In Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the narrator is on an excursion to Canterbury. The narrator meets up with numerous pilgrims along the way. Each one shares their own personal story based upon their experience of being from a different class. These personal stories give us an insight of their personalities, which connect with Chaucer’s descriptive words to piece together each pilgrims inner nature. The Wife of Bath, The Merchant, and The Miller are three of many pilgrims whose inner natures are revealed through Chaucer’s master descriptions. The Wife of Bath is a woman expresses her inner nature through her bold, lustful sexuality. The narrator describes The Wife of Bath to have a very curvy figure with particularly large hips. A facial feature he makes known is the gap in her teeth, which was considered very attractive during her time period. Chaucer points out her unique choice of clothing, including her frequently worn bright, red stockings. These descriptions …show more content…
This reveals his true inner nature. Much like The Wife of Bath, the Merchant shows his unique taste in wardrobe by wearing rather expensive and fashionable clothing. His clothes are frequently bright in color with numerous patterns. He is often seen wearing a beaver hat and buckled boots. Presented in the tale, it states “There was a merchant with forked beard, and girt In motley gown, and high on horse he sat.” This statement supports the fact that the merchant is high in ranking and has high priced clothing. The merchant’s wardrobe makes him seem rather prosperous, but in reality he is falling behind in debt. In Chaucer’s tale, he states “His wits to work, none knew he was in debt.” Chaucer’s description of The Merchants pricey wardrobe and secret debt shows that he is rather tricky, fooling everyone around him. On the outside, he is a wealthy, successful man, but on the inside he is a penniless