The Challenges Of Chivalry In Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales

Imagine having the opportunity to be the judge of 24 stories and having to pick the very best one. In Chaucer's, The Canterbury Tales, there are 29 pilgrimes in which they are making a pilgrimage to Canterbury. Each pilgrim is to tell at least a tale to and from Canterbury, resulting in 120 tales in which Chaucer was only able to record 24 tales. Within the telling of these stories, there is a contest in which the pilgrim, the Host, chooses the best Tale. In selecting the winning tale the story must meet the criteria of being morally sound as well as entertaining to the Host and the rest of the pilgrims.The winner of the storytelling contest receives a job well done and better yet, a free dinner. When comparing “The Physician's tale” and “The Second Nun's Tale”, “The Second Nun's Tale” would win due to it being more entertaining, and morally sound than that of “The Physician's Tale”. A short summary of “The Physician's Tale” begins …show more content…
Chivalry is a code of honor followed by knights in the medieval time period. In “The Physician's Tale” Virginus, the knight, beheads his daughter, which is against the code of honor when being a knight because it is considered murder. One may argue that it is to save his daughter, however, the comes off as hostile when needing to cut of his daughters head to save her giving the Host a bad taste. The Host shows this distaste in what the story betrays by saying, “Well, my dear sir, if I may speak sincere,/ Your tale as truly pitiful to hear,” (240). “The Physician's Tale” also gives us a weak moral to think about in which the Host says, “The Handsome gifts that fate and nature lend us/ Are often those that least befriend us,”(240). What the Host means is that Virginia's beauty caused her her death which is ridiculous. Because of the lack of a solid moral from this tale, it is not going to win the storytelling contest when compared to “The Second Nun’s