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But first, what is allegory? Well, put simply, it's a story that can be understood on both a literal and symbolic level. The Canterbury Tales itself is an allegory for the journey of life itself, and within this are several parables that serve as more specific moral allegories. In short, the Pardoner's Tale is the allegory of how the sinful soul ignores God's revelation and rejects the opportunity for eternal life in favor of a mortal life centered on pleasure and material things. The text of the Wife of Bath's Prologue is based in the medieval genre of allegorical “confession.” In a morality play, a personified vice such as Gluttony or Lust “confesses” his or her sins to the audience in a life story. The Canterbury Tales characters are allegorical because they give the reader insight into the hypocrisy that is part of everyday life. Chaucer uses characters from a variety of different backgrounds to criticize a variety of different social institutions, with only a few characters being spared.
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