The Pilgrimage Narrative and the 'Canterbury Tales'

Author / Editor
Reiss, Edmund.

Title
The Pilgrimage Narrative and the 'Canterbury Tales'

Published
Studies in Philology 67 (1970): 295-305.

Description
Considers CT among other medieval pilgrimage narratives, distinguishing them from other journey narratives and emphasizing what makes CT unusual: "concretization, fragmentation, and emphasis on the human." Comments on pilgrimage as the "dynamic principle" of CT, the tale-tellers as "true and false seekers," the reading audience as pilgrims, the fittingness of ParsT as a conclusion, and the importance of the number twenty-nine in GP and ParsP as "approaching most closely to 30," a sign of spiritual perfection.

Chaucer Subjects
Canterbury Tales--General
General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales
Parson and His Tale
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations