Geoffrey Chaucers The Canterbury Tales depicts the journey of a group of individuals on a religious pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint Thomas Beckett. Chaucer uses a frame narrative in his satirical poem to convey his stories through the pilgrims. The outer frame begins with all his characters meeting at the Tabard Inn in Southwark to gather before they depart. The group amounts to thirty pilgrims, including Chaucers mouthpiece within the story, Chaucer the Pilgrim, who represent a cross section of fourteenth century England. Each socioeconomic class is represented apart from royalty and serfs. Here, they meet the Host, Harry Bailly, who prompts the crowd with a story-telling contest to keep the travelers entertained throughout their journey. Bailly suggests that the person who can tell the most moral yet most entertaining story within the duration of their pilgrimage will win the con
test. Bailly will serve as the judge, and the teller of whichever tale he chooses will earn a meal bought by all his fellow travelers upon their return to the Tabard Inn at the conclusion of their excursion. Precisely, each individual must tell two tales on the journey to and from Canterbury. With this challenge in mind, the pilgrims set out on their adventure to the shrine. Throughout the trip, each tale creates the inner frame of the story. While four stories from each of the thirty pilgrims would have amassed 20 total tales, Chaucer only wrote a total of twenty-four tales, two of which are fragments. Of the twenty-four existing tales, the Pardoners is one of the most intriguing. While he himself is an entirely immoral character, he tells an entertaining and very moral tale. The Pardoners moral tale, while he is immoral, is a true example of Chaucers ability to match tale to teller.