The Canterbury Tales: General

Prologue & Frame Story Summary

The action begins at a tavern just outside
of London, circa 1390, where a group of
pilgrims have gathered in preparation for
their journey to visit the shrine of St.
Thomas Becket in Canterbury. The
narrator, Chaucer, encounters them there
and becomes one of their company.
Chaucer describes all of the pilgrims in
delightful, and often grotesque, detail.
The pilgrims go to dinner, during which
the owner of the tavern, or Host, makes a
proposal to the group: on the way to
Canterbury, says the Host, each pilgrim
will tell two tales, followed by two on the
way back. The Host will accompany the
group and serve as a judge of their tales.
The pilgrim who tells the best tale wins a
free dinner at the tavern at the journey's
end. Should anyone question the Host's
judgment, moreover, he has to foot the bill
for the entire pilgrimage. The pilgrims,
eager to have fun on their journey, quickly
agree to the Host's proposal and swear
oaths to abide by the rules of the game.
After a bit of shut-eye, they ride out of
Canterbury the next morning and the taletelling begins.
Almost immediately, a pilgrim challenges
the Host's authority. After the first tale, the
Host asks the Monk to tell a tale, but the
drunken Miller interrupts him and
announces that he will speak next or leave
the company. It's certainly not the last
time the Host's orderly vision for the game
is challenged: drunken pilgrims,
mysterious strangers, and, most
importantly, the conflicts between some of
the members of the company threaten to
derail the game at many points in the
course of the journey.
The pilgrims tell lots of different kinds of
tales on their journey: comedies and
tragedies, romances and dirty stories, and
sermons and saints' lives, to name a few.
Some pilgrims tell stories where a
character with another pilgrim's
occupation is humiliated in the course of

the tale, which leads to trouble. The Miller,

for example, tells a tale about a carpenter
whose wife not only commits adultery with
a clerk, but humiliates him in front of the
whole town. The real carpenter among the
pilgrims takes this very personally, and
proceeds to tell a tale where a miller
suffers humiliation at the hands of some
students. A similar rivalry occurs between
the Friar and the Summoner. All the while,
the Host alternates between trying to
make peace between the pilgrims and
creating more conflict with his gentle and
not-so-gentle teasing of members of the
party.
The Canterbury Tales end after only 24
tales, a far cry short of the planned 120.
We never get to see the pilgrims reach
Canterbury, nor do we learn who wins the
competition. It's likely that Chaucer ran
out of time or energy. He may have
planned to revise the beginning of the
frame story so that the 24 tales would
seem complete. In any case, The
Canterbury Tales as we know them end
with the Parson's sermon on sin and
repentance, followed by Chaucer's
retraction.
The Canterbury Tales: General Prologue &
Frame Story Plot Analysis
Most good stories start with a fundamental
list of ingredients: the initial situation,
conflict, complication, climax, suspense,
denouement, and conclusion. Great
writers sometimes shake up the recipe
and add some spice.
Initial Situation
A group of pilgrims have gathered in
a tavern just outside of London in
preparation for their journey to
Canterbury. There, our narrator
Chaucer meets them and becomes
one of their fellowship.
This is the situation that leads to all the
rest of the action. Were the pilgrims not
gathered here, there would be no group
pilgrimage, no need for entertainment and
hence tale-telling, and no Canterbury
Tales. Were Chaucer not to happen upon

them at the tavern, there would be no

occasion for him to narrate the Tales.
Conflict
The Host proposes a tale-telling game
to entertain the pilgrims on their way
to Canterbury. The goal? To "be
merry," or, have fun, on what could
otherwise be a boring road trip. Also,
to win the game (and the free dinner
at the end) by telling the best tale.
This very obviously creates conflict
between the pilgrims because each one
wants to win the contest. It also creates a
conflict between the Host's goals of an
orderly and fun contest, and the natural
proclivities of the pilgrims. This is the
conflict that will turn out to be most
important in the action that follows.
Complication
The Miller gets drunk and decides he
wants to go after the Knight. The
Reeve takes offense at the Miller's
tale. The Friar and the Summoner
don't like one another. A mysterious
stranger appears in the distance.
These are just a few examples.
Really, anything that threatens the
orderly telling of tales could qualify
as a complication.
All of these situations the Miller's
drunken obstinance, the Reeve's reaction
to the Miller's tale, the Friar and the
Summoner's dislike of one another, the
appearance of a mysterious stranger in
the distance complicate the Host's plan
to have the tale-tellers tell stories in an
orderly fashion, and to have fun, because
they have the potential to create
interruptions and fights.

Climax
The first when the drunken Miller
interrupts the order of tale-telling the
Host proposes. The next, when the
Reeve takes offense at the Miller's
tale and takes the opportunity to tell
a mean story about millers. Same
thing happens with the Friar and the
Summoner. Oh, and the Canon and
Canon's Yeoman also interrupt the
pilgrims mid-way through their
journey.
The things that seemed likely to happen in
the complication stage actually happen.
Suspense
Again, many possibilities here: the
Miller threatens to leave the
pilgrimage if he doesn't get to follow
the Knight. The Reeve asks to be
allowed only one thing: to tell his tale
next. The Host asks the Friar to quit
insulting the Summoner and tell his
tale, already. The Summoner tells a
crude story about Friars in the Devil's
anus. The Host asks the Canon's
Yeoman if his master is capable of
telling a good tale.
All of these moments represent times
when things are about to get very, very
bad for the Host's stated goals of having
fun and telling tales. If the Miller were to
leave in anger, he would definitely not be
having fun and the harmony of the group
would be further disrupted. The same deal
would happen if the Host were to refuse to
let the Reeve tell his tale. And what if the
Friar took so much offense at the
Summoner's story, he decked the
Summoner, rather than allowing him to
tell his tale? You get the idea.
Denouement
The Host allows the Miller to tell his
tale. The same happens with the
Reeve. The Friar quits insulting the
Summoner and tells his tale. The
Friar doesn't deck the Summoner,
who goes on to tell his tale. The
Canon's Yeoman turns out to be a
nice guy who tells an interesting tale
about alchemy.
Here, the conflicts that were getting in the
way of the tale-telling and fun are

resolved, if not entirely to everyone's

would conclude the action that's set in

satisfaction, then at least enough that the

tale-telling can continue.

motion in the conflict stage. We would find

out not only who wins the contest, but

Conclusion

whether the Host's plan for everybody to

tell tales and have fun was successful.

There really is no conclusion, since

we never see the Pilgrims conclude
their journey, nor do we learn who
wins the tale-telling contest.
The end of the journey and the
announcement of a winner to the contest