The Use of Physiognomy in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales is rich with literary devices that allow a reader to draw conclusions about its pilgrims and their characters. Physical descriptions were very important to the portrayal of a character which can be seen in Chaucer’s extensive use of the science of physiognomy. Physiognomy was a kind of science that allowed the reader to judge moral character and temperament of a person …showed first 75 words of 1074 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1074 total…Miller’s portrait, along with other examples from the General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales serve to tell us just how important physiognomy was to Chaucer in depicting his characters. Such physical descriptions allowed Chaucer to paint negative or positive pictures of the pilgrims, and to subtly reveal a characters morality. In medieval times, certain elements of a person's appearance intrinsically suggested something, if not everything of their character, and Chaucer does this extremely effectively.