“Compare and contrast the squire with the youth of today”

The Squire is a fictional character in Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. He is the son of the
knight and is the narrator of The Squire's Tale. The physical description of the Squire illustrates
him as if he was a Roman statue. The author shows Squire's youth "as fresh as is the month of
May." The dress of the squire is colorful, embroidered with flowers, short with large sleeves. He
is very talented. Chaucer dedicates some lines in the poem to the squire's skills - horsemanship,
jousting, sketching, dancing, song and verse writing. The author tells us in his poem that the
young character is "a lovere and a lusty bacheler", who loves so severely that he sleeps at night
"namoore than dooth a nyghtyngale". The strange thing about Squire's sexuality and his character
as a whole is its neutrality. He is shown as powerful and real young knight. It seems however
that he is unconscious, like a stone. The squire's physical characteristics strongly hit the reader's
mind, yet not much is understood about Squire. Chaucer even depicts him in a honestly impartial
way; he leaves the judgment of the squire to the reader. The squire is a victim of Chaucer's bias
portraits, where some characters get full sign while others get brief, basic treatment. The Squire's
role in the General Prologue is probably to represent both youthfulness and femininity. The
squire's character is ironically a wonderful example of young men who in the middle ages
devoted their lives to become powerful knights. They were supposed to be "the finests" as many
policemen are called today. However, it seems that Chaucer also wanted to illustrate the
character's another side of personality. This side is the squire's sexuality and attitudes to women.
As a candidate for a knight, the squire should show his tendency to think about becoming
someone very important and honored. The main character, on the other hand, seems to be
interested more in things like song writing and sexuality that don't belong in the battle field.