The Canterbury Tales are essentially a Chaucerian satire; the author sets out to deliberately upset the social order present at the time and proceeds to mock the faults innate in the characters. Chaucer gives a compressed view of characters such as the Knight and the Monk; in their descriptions, a preview of the kind of stories we can expect from these people is given. Take for example the Miller; his physical description alleviates him as a thick brute with a filthy mouth that was `moost of sin and harlotries', sufficed to say that his tale is one of adultery and sinful behaviour. However, Chaucer is not always as straightforward as this in presenting the pilgrims to us. His effective policy in unhinging the social hierarchy involves two fundamental characters: Chaucer the poet and Chaucer the pilgrim; the former needs no introduction whereas the latter is a device which...