We have discussed how the individual tales we have read from The Canterbury Tales, with their similarities and differences, serve to comment on each other and so sharpen our sense of each tale via comparison to the others. Choose one of the pairs of characters below as the focus of an essay that explores how the portrayal of each character serves to the particular purpose of the tale in which he/she appears. The pairs have been constructed such that both members have a similar place within the structure of their tales. For example, Emelye and Dorigen are booth loved by two men; Palamon and Absolon are both men with rivals in love. But the treatment or portrayal of each character is very different, as are the issues explored in each tale. Give a contrast of the portrayals of your chosen pair, with the object being to explain how these different portrayals fit into the larger contexts of the two different tales. You will be discussing how the portrayals further both the tellers' purposes in constructing a particular perspective or view of the world (as we have called it), as well as Chaucer's purpose as he constructs multiple perspectives via the collection of tales.
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