Examines how Geoffrey Chaucer describes the bodies of his “Canterbury Tales”
In the middle ages, three virtues, the vital, natural, and animal were believed to control the body. To realize the exact extent of Chaucer’s achievement in the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, we must look at the descriptions he used to describe the bodies of these tales. This paper will take a look at several of Chaucer’s bodies and the way in which he unfolds their persona.