According to Literature Suppressed on Social Grounds, Chaucer uses the characters in his tales to reveal all different class

levels of the English society during the fourteenth century. Each faces Chaucers critical examination of the human condition and exposes that members of the religious hierarchy [are] corrupt, women are lusty, and the dark underbelly of society is exposed (75).

The article says that Chaucer uses the characters in the Canterbury Tales to represent the absurdities and inequalities that are present on all levels of society. The pilgrims making this journey to Canterbury all come from different places and have different backgrounds, but each of their tales reveals the corruption in all of their lives.

The characters in the Canterbury Tales are meant to illustrate absurdities and inadequacies in each level of society that they represent. Such as the pardoner, who is seen as dishonorable by his selling of indulgences; or the Wife of Bath who is promiscuous and adventurous, too characteristics that are not appreciated in a women of this time. The characters within the poem are representative of everything that is wrong with the social classes and are used to expose the dark underbelly of society (Pilkey).