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1-Page Summary of The Canterbury Tales

Overview

The Canterbury Tales begins with a description of the pilgrims and their reasons for traveling to Canterbury. These include the Knight, his son the Squire, a Prioress, a Second Nun, a Monk, a Friar, an unnamed Merchant (later identified as Chaucer), one of three Clerks who speak in rhyme (Chaucer), two Franklin’s (a Man of Law and another named Absolon), Weaver John (John O’Nolan) and his wife Alisoun (Alice Healy-O’Nolan), Dyer Thomas(Thomas Jefferson), Carpenter Hugh(Hugh Jackman), Tapestry-Maker Nicholas(Nicholas Cage), Haberdasher Alan(Alan Rickman), Cook Robin Hood/Rob Schneider, Shipman Noah(Noah Wyle ), Physician Galen/Dr. Evil from Austin Powers series, Parson William Wallace from Braveheart movie franchise, Miller Indiana Jones / Han Solo from Star Wars movies series / Batman character Bruce Wayne / Dave Chappelle’s Tyrone Biggums character. The Hosts asks each pilgrim to tell two stories on the way to Canterbury and two on their return trip. The Host decides which story is best by giving it points for meaningfulness and fun.

A tale about two knights who are prisoners of war in Athens. They both fall in love with Emelye, the sister of a queen. The queen is Hippolyta and the king is Theseus. Both knights escape from prison separately: Arcite escapes thanks to a friend while Palamon escapes on his own. When they meet again, they fight over Emelye but their battle is stopped by King Theseus. He sets up rules for them to duel each other for Emelye’s affection one year later at an appointed time and place; meanwhile he raises armies for them both so that they can prepare themselves better before fighting each other again. Before the battle, Arcite prays to Mars (the god of war), asking him for victory in battle while Emelye prays to Diana (the goddess of hunting) that she may marry happily as well as Palamon who prays to Venus (goddess of love) so that he may have her hand in marriage instead; all three gods hear their prayers and argue amongst themselves whose prayer should be answered first—but Saturn decides which prayer will get precedence when it comes down to it during the final day of fighting between Arcite and Palamon. On this day, however, Arcite dies just after being crowned victor over Palamon—before dying though he reconciles with his rival telling him that he deserves happiness more than anyone else does including himself because even though there were many times where he was jealous or angry towards others throughout his life…he realized how lucky he really was compared with most people out there today who would kill just for something as simple as water or food if given half a chance! After hearing these words from him, Palamon marries Princess Emelie and lives happily ever after…

After the Knight finishes his story, everyone is happy with its honorable qualities. However, the Miller insists that he will tell another tale. The Miller’s Tale tells of a student named Nicholas who lives with John the carpenter and his much younger wife Alison. He falls in love with her, but so does another man named Absolon who also wants to sleep with her. Nicholas tricks John into staying in a tub on top of their house during an impending flood by telling him that they would be safer up there than below ground because Noah’s Flood was coming soon and they wouldn’t survive it if they were underground. While John remained in this tub on top of their house, Nicholas and Alison left to have sex while Absolon sang outside her bedroom window for a kiss from Alison before she went inside for the night; however, she pulled down her pants instead so he could kiss her arse (which he did). This humiliated Absolon even more when he returned later that night with hot iron from a blacksmith and asked for forgiveness after which Nicholas tried to do the same thing as before only this time it backfired on him since Absolon branded his backside instead (after which both men ran around town yelling “water” since water was what people thought you needed during floods at this time). When all three men ended up crashing through the floor together due to flooding caused by heavy rains outside (caused by God), everyone realized that there wasn’t really any danger of Noah’s Flood happening anytime soon after all!