Beast Fables In Canterbury Tales

In the “Canterbury Tales,” there are originally three priest traveling, yet Chaucer abandons two of the priests so that “The Nun’s Priest Tale” can be told by the third priest traveling alongside the prioress. “The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories told by a group of pilgrims on a journey to the shrine of Thomas Becket in Canterbury. (Strohm)” This particular story takes place at a cottage that belongs to an old widow. In “The Nun’s Priest Tale”, Chaucer is able to fully exploit the nature of human weaknesses and behaviors in his tale by using the traditional, implicit, and literary element of beast fables.
“The Nun’s Priest Tale” is a beast fable. A beast fable can be defined as a story where animals are able to talk, giving them human qualities. The tradition of beast fables can be dated back all the way to the Medieval Period, also known as the Middle Ages, which was from the 5th century to to the 15th century. In beast fables, the characters of the story are used to mock human like characteristics to reveal a lesson to readers at the end.
In “The Nun’s Priest Tale,” Geoffrey Chaucer uses the idea of beast fables as a literary device. Through this, Chaucer reveals his true feelings concerning people implicitly. By implicitly, one may say that the things that he writes about are hinted at but they are not clearly stated or expressed. Because of this, Chaucer can say what he wants without offending whoever this was supposed to represent or target. Hence, Chaucer