Towards the Typology of Character Portraits in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales
Keywords:
verbal portrait, medieval literature, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, portrait typologyAbstract
DOI: 10.55804/jtsu2346-8149.2025.09.04
The verbal portrait, viewed as the textual depiction of a fictional character, represents one of the most complex yet relatively underexplored aspects of literary art from a linguistic perspective.
This paper investigates the role of verbal portraiture in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, with particular emphasis on the general prologue. Methodologically, it employs a qualitative framework that integrates typological, stylistic, semantic, and literary approaches. Three influential models—Gabel’s minimalist versus extended portraits (1964), Bazilova and Suleimanova’s concentrated versus deconcentrated portraits (2012), and Bespalov’s sketchy, evaluative, situational, and descriptive portraits (2001)—are analysed in comparison. The analysis uses linguo-stylistics and semantics to trace how lexical and structural choices shape meaning, while framing theory and narratology clarify how cognitive and cultural stereotypes influence interpretation. Seven representative figures—the Prioress, the Clerk, the Merchant, the Friar, the Parson, the Miller, and the Wife of Bath—are examined in depth.
The findings demonstrate that Chaucer’s portraits are rarely confined to a single type but instead exhibit hybrid, layered strategies that combine evaluative, symbolic, and situational functions. This hybridity illustrates how verbal portraiture in the General Prologue individualises characters, critiques medieval society, and enhances the text's realism and satirical effect.
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