Human Nature and the Canterbury TalesWhen Geoffrey Chaucer set out to write The Canterbury Tales, he had a long road ahead of him. He intended to tell two stories from each of the thirty pilgrims on their way to Canterbury, and then two more from each pilgrim on their return from Canterbury. Of these, he only completed twenty-four. However, in these tales, Chaucer depicts both the pilgrims and their stories with striking realism. In "The Nun's Priest's Tale", "The Canon's Yeoman's Tale", "The Friar's Tale", "The Reeve's Tale", and "The Cleric's Tale", Chaucer demonstrates his remarkable insight into human nature. By comparing and contrasting these accounts, one can see the universality of human nature as shown by Chaucer. One human trait apparent in these selections is greed. Greed animates the hearts of many men, whether a simple miller, a summoner, or a so-called religious canon, and Chaucer was aware of this. In the tales that contain these three characters, Chaucer depicts the greed of these characters. The prefect tells his fellow pilgrims the story of a miller who “was a thief... of corn and flour, and a sneaky one at that; his habit was to steal” (Chaucer 125). The summoner in "The Friar's Tale" "has profited greatly from it", and as the devil observes in this tale, "You are seeking wealth, acquired any way" (Chaucer 312, 315) . The canon of the first part of "The Canon's Yeoman's Tale", as well as the Yeoman himself, had been motivated by the goal of converting base metals into gold, and "although we never realized the conclusion desired, we still continued to delirious in our illusion. " (Chaucer 478). The second canon the Yeoman speaks of is far worse than his own canon and master, using h...... middle of paper ....... Works CitedBalliet, Gay L. "The Wife in Chaucer's Reeves's Tale: Mermaid of Sweet Vengeance." English Language Notes 28.1 (1990): 1-5. Baylor, Jeffrey. "The Failure of Intellect in Chaucer's Reeve's Tale." English Language Notes 28.1 ( 1990): 17-19. The Canterbury Tales. , Inc., 1994. Edden, Valerie. “Sacred and Secular in the Clerk's Tale.” The Chaucer Review 26.4 (1992): 369-376. “A Yeerd Enclosed Al About”: Literature and History. in The Nun's Priest's Tale. The Chaucer Review 29.2 (1994): 134-148. A Reading of the Canterbury Tales Cambridge: Cambridge University Press., 1970.