The Tradesman, Cook, and Knight's Personalities in The Canterbury Tales Essay

The tradesmen and the cook are not really comparable to the knight. They have different contrasting personalities, views and priorities.

The tradesmen also known as the guildsmen appear as a unit or a group in the prologue. They are craftsmen or an organization of workers with comparable occupations joined together to enhance the bargaining power for their unions. All in the livery of one impressive guild-fraternity (371-372). The word livery suggests that the tradesmen are wearing matching clothing that represents what they stand for and believe in. Their identical apparel or livery also shows that they may be protestors that will fight for their establishment and they have the power to decide who may be a member of the union and who may not. Guilds, like some modern labor unions today, were highly restrictive in their membership and included only skilled craftsmen who practiced a particular trade. Their matching livery also represents competition and sacrifice. It represents competition because labor unions are competing for employers by negotiating. And it represents sacrifice because the employer is not authorized to seek out the services of another labor union or hire another competing labor union even when he is not satisfied with the performance of the current labor union. Their wisdom would have justified a plan to make each one of them alderman (381-382). This line is implying that the labor union members are very knowledgeable and their main priority was to establish and protect their members' livelihoods and to always get the best from their employers. The cook represents the strength and also the weakness of the tradesmen. The description of the cook shows the guilds devotion to material wealth, and the narrator praises the guildsmen only in terms of their possession by describing their knives and the cooks lavishing meals and recipes. The cooks ulcer, a disgusting physical defect represents the tradesmen weakness. Labor unions were not always successful in their negotiations with their employers and they sometimes had conflict within their group. They appear as though they are fighting for the needs of working people for economic and legal protection from exploiting employers, but their real intentions are different. It seems like they are conceited and only satisfied with the physical benefits they are receiving because of their guild.

The Knight is very distinctive from the five tradesmen and the cook. He represents the noblest of the pilgrims and he embodies military accomplishment, loyalty, honor, generosity, and good manners. The Knight conducts himself in a polite and mild fashion, always showing courtesy towards others. Chaucers description makes the Knight seem almost perfect and he is also devoted to love. The tradesmen are different from the Knight because they are only devoted to their material possession and they have a bourgeois mentality. Theyre more concerned with material things and to be leaders of their guild than with spiritual, intellectual or cultural values. The tradesmen believe that physical well being and worldly belongings constitute the greatest good and highest value in life. They are selfish because they are only concerned with improving their life style and making themselves look good. But the knight is compassionate about peoples problem and he dose not like tragic endings or conflict. Not only is the knight a worthy warrior but he is prudent in the image of himself that he projects, he is not pretending to be someone he is not and his character is not questionable.

Even though the knight is a great warrior, he dose not walk around with pride showing off his accomplishments, he is humble. The tradesmen pride is their cook, they feel important or luxurious because they have a cook that makes delightful meals. But unlike the knight the cook has a physical defect, an ulcer on the knee. This ulcer represents the tradesmans imperfections, but the knight doses not have any imperfections.