# The Canterbury Tales — Character guide

> Key figures in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.

- [Chaucer](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/chaucer.md): Chaucer presents himself as a sociable traveler who chats with every pilgrim at the Tabard and is welcomed into their fellowship before dawn. His self-deprecating, observant narration frames the entire journey, letting e
- [Palamon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/palamon.md): Palamon is a Theban knight condemned to perpetual imprisonment in Theseus's tower, sharing his cell with his sworn cousin Arcite. When he sees Emily gathering flowers in the garden below, he cries out as though struck th
- [Arcite](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/arcite.md): Arcite shares Palamon's Theban blood and his chains in Theseus's tower, offering stoic comfort about fortune and fate. But the same window that wounds Palamon wounds him, and the cousins' bond fractures into a bitter con
- [Emily](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/emily.md): Emily is the sister of Hippolyta, wife of Duke Theseus, and lives within the walls of Athens where Palamon and Arcite are imprisoned. She appears first as a figure of May itself—yellow hair braided, gathering white and r
- [Theseus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/theseus.md): Theseus returns from his campaign against Thebes crowned with laurel, having taken Palamon and Arcite prisoner and condemned them to lifelong confinement. As ruler of Athens and husband to Hippolyta, he embodies lawful p
- [Damian](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/damian.md): Damian serves within the household of the aged knight January, who has recently married the beautiful young May. Burning with love for his master's wife, he becomes the instrument through which May's frustration and Janu
- [Meliboeus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/meliboeus.md): Meliboeus is a wealthy lord whose home is broken into by old enemies, his wife beaten and his daughter Sophia left for dead. When he summons a counsel of surgeons, lawyers, flatterers, and feigned friends, his heart burn
- [Griseldis](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/griseldis.md): Griseldis is a low-born maiden whose virtue and humility lift her to marriage with the Marquis Walter, ruler of Saluzzo. Walter tests her with escalating torments — taking her children, seeming to annul their marriage, s
- [Aurelius](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/aurelius.md): Aurelius is a young squire in the Franklin's Tale who loves the married lady Dorigen with a devotion that shades into desperation. When she jokingly sets him an impossible condition — clear the black rocks from Brittany'
- [Dame Constance](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/dame_constance.md): Dame Constance is the daughter of the Emperor of Rome, famed through every land for her prudence and bounty. A false judge named Appius, inflamed by her beauty, conspires with the clerk Claudius to claim her as a stolen 
- [Dame Prudence](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/dame_prudence.md): Dame Prudence is the wife of the wealthy Meliboeus, whose home has been violated and daughter wounded by his old enemies. While he rages and calls for war, she draws on Seneca, Ovid, and Scripture to argue that outrageou
- [Nicholas](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/nicholas.md): Nicholas is a poor but learned clerk lodging with the old carpenter John, whose beautiful young wife Alisoun he covets. When John grows suspicious, Nicholas concocts an elaborate prophecy of a second Noah's flood, convin
- [Our Host](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/host.md): Harry Bailly, the Tabard Inn's brisk and bossy host, turns a chance company of pilgrims into a storytelling contest with himself as master of ceremonies.
- [The Sompnour](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/sompnour.md): A church summoner whose trade in extortion and bribes has made him shameless, riding toward Canterbury with a devil for a sworn brother.
- [Sir Thopas](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/sir_thopas.md): A knight in Chaucer's own tale, a parody of romance.
- [Chanticleer](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/chanticleer.md): A magnificent rooster whose pride in his crowing and his seven hens is troubled by a dream of a lurking beast in the yard.
- [Walter](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/walter.md): A young marquis of Lombardy who weds a poor village girl, then subjects her to ever harsher trials to test her patience.
- [Absolon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/absolon.md): A fastidious parish clerk with golden curls and a squeamish disdain for vulgarity, hopelessly smitten with the carpenter's young wife.
- [Alla](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/alla.md): Northumberland's king, who takes the exiled Constance to wife and finds his realm entangled in her perilous fortunes.
- [Cecile](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/cecile.md): Cecile belongs to the Second Nun's Tale, a saint's life told to edify the pilgrimage with an example of steadfast faith. Her story pits an unshakeable vow of chastity against a pagan husband and a persecuting prefect, tu
- [Virginius](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/virginius.md): A Roman knight who kills his daughter to preserve her honor.
- [The Franklin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/franklin.md): The Franklin rides among the pilgrims as a wealthy landowner who has served as sheriff and MP, his dagger and purse of silk hanging at his belt. He bristles at the gentility of birth, insisting that true gentleness lies 
- [Dorigen](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/dorigen.md): Dorigen is the faithful wife of Arveragus in the Franklin's Tale, a woman whose grief over the dangerous rocks off Brittany becomes the pivot of the story. When she playfully names an impossible condition to dismiss a pe
- [January](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/january.md): January is the aging knight of the Merchant's Tale who, after a lifetime of lechery, resolves to marry and chooses the fresh young May. He rationalizes his desire with scripture and the counsel of friends, mistaking appe
- [Arviragus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/arviragus.md): Dorigen's husband in the Franklin's Tale.
- [The Reeve](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/reeve.md): Oswald the Reeve rides at the back of the pilgrimage, a wiry, close-shaven Norfolk man whose lord's wealth he manages with cunning and quiet theft. When the Miller tells a story mocking a carpenter, the Reeve takes it pe
- [The Squire](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/squire.md): The Squire is a lusty young bachelor who has already seen cavalry service in Flanders and Artois, hoping to prove himself worthy of his lady. He dresses in embroidered flowers and sings and flutes all day, embodying the 
- [Alison](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/alison.md): In the Miller's Tale, Alison is the much-younger bride of the wealthy old carpenter John, and her youth and beauty make her the object of every man's desire in town. She is drawn into a dangerous flirtation with the lodg
- [Friar](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/friar.md): This limitour roams his circuit with a scrip and tipped staff, cozying up to wealthy households and collecting wheat, cheese, and coin in exchange for prayers he has no intention of delivering. He is locked in a bitter f
- [Simkin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/simkin.md): A proud miller in the Reeve's Tale.
- [Partelote](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/partelote.md): Chanticleer's favorite hen in the Nun's Priest's Tale.
- [The Manciple](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/manciple.md): A shrewd purchaser for a law school who tells a tale.
- [Hippolyta](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/hippolyta.md): Queen of the Amazons, wife of Theseus in the Knight's Tale.
- [The Soudan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/soudan.md): The Sultan of Syria who marries Constance.
- [Sir Appius](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/appius.md): The corrupt judge in the Physician's Tale.
- [The Shipman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/shipman.md): A rough seafaring pilgrim who tells a tale of a merchant's wife.
- [The Pardoner](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/pardoner.md): He rides with the pilgrims carrying a bag of pig's bones and a pillowcase he calls Our Lady's veil, and he cheerfully admits that his sermons are designed to fleece the faithful. His tale about three rioters who destroy 
- [The Wife of Bath](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/wife_of_bath.md): Bold, gap-toothed, and dressed in scarlet, she dominates the pilgrimage with her confessional prologue about the husbands she has managed and the one who finally let her have her way. Her tale of a knight who must discov
- [The Knight](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/knight.md): He has fought in Prussia, Lithuania, and Granada, and his meek bearing sits oddly with the fifteen mortal battles he has survived. His tale of Palamon and Arcite, two Theban cousins who fall in love with the same woman, 
- [The Miller](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/miller.md): Drunk on the pilgrimage and proud of his strength, he insists on telling the second tale despite the Host's protests, and his story of Alison, Nicholas, and Absolon mocks the Reeve's trade and the Knight's courtly manner
- [The Clerk](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/clerk.md): The Clerk rides last among the pilgrims, lean and hollow-cheeked, spending what little he earns on books and praying for his friends' souls. He speaks little but weighs every word, and when the Host calls on him he deliv
- [The Merchant](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/merchant.md): The Merchant sits high on his horse, dressed in a Flemish beaver hat and daintily buckled boots, forever talking up his gains and hiding his debts. He claims he could never describe the misery of his own marriage, yet he
- [The Man of Law](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/man_of_law.md): The Man of Law is one of the busiest buyers of land in England, yet he seems busier than he is, and no one can find a flaw in his legal papers. He tells the tale of Constance, a Christian princess cast adrift and slander
- [The Prioress](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/prioress.md): Madame Eglentine wears a coral rosary with a golden brooch that reads 'Love conquers all,' and she speaks French after the school of Stratford-at-Bow. Her tender heart aches for any small suffering creature, yet she tell
- [The Monk](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/monk.md): The Monk scorns the old rule that monks should stay in cloisters and work with their hands; his pleasure is riding, hunting the hare, and roasting a fat swan. His bridle jingles like a chapel bell, and his boots are supp
- [The Nun's Priest](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/nun_priest.md): The Nun's Priest is a modest, unremarkable cleric in the Prioress's company, but his tale of Chanticleer, Pertelote, and the flattering fox Daun Russell is one of the wittiest in the whole collection. He turns a barnyard
- [The Second Nun](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/second_nun.md): A nun who tells the life of Saint Cecilia.
- [The Canon's Yeoman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/canon_yeoman.md): A servant of a canon who tells a tale of alchemy.
- [The Parson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/parson.md): The Parson is the one pilgrim who rebukes the Host's swearing and refuses to tell a fictional tale, offering instead a long prose treatise on penitence. Where the Monk, Friar, and Pardoner trade in flattery, relics, and 
- [John](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/john_carpenter.md): A jealous old carpenter in the Miller's Tale.
- [Alein](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/alein.md): A poor Cambridge scholar in the Reeve's Tale.
- [May](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/may.md): May is the fresh, marriageable woman whom the aging knight January chooses for his wife, over the objections of his brother Placebo and Justinus. She is expected to be grateful, fertile, and blind to her husband's jealou
- [Janicola](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/janicola.md): Griseldis's poor father in the Clerk's Tale.
- [The Soudaness](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/soudaness.md): The Sultan's mother who plots against Constance.
- [Canace](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/canace.md): A princess with a magic ring in the Squire's Tale.
- [Algarsife](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/algarsife.md): Canace's brother in the Squire's Tale.
- [The Cook](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/cook.md): A pilgrim cook who tells an unfinished tale.
- [Claudius](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/claudius.md): A false churl who accuses Virginia in the Physician's Tale.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters