What use does Chaucer make of the device of pilgrimage ? [British Poetry (2018-19) Assignment 1]

In "The Canterbury Tales," Geoffrey Chaucer utilizes the device of pilgrimage to create a framing device for the collection of stories. The framing story is a pilgrimage to the shrine of Thomas Becket in Canterbury, Kent, which serves as the setting for the various tales. This allows for a diverse group of characters from different social classes to come together and interact with one another in ways that they might not have been able to outside of the pilgrimage.

Through the device of pilgrimage, Chaucer is able to indirectly comment on the nature of religion in human society. He shows that people may play the part of pilgrims, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they live spiritually upstanding lives. Chaucer characterizes some of the pilgrims as carrying "scrippes bret-ful of lesinges," or wallets full of lies, and this theme is echoed in other works of medieval literature, such as Langland's "Piers Plowman."

The pilgrimage serves primarily as a framing device for the collection of tales, allowing Chaucer to frame the stories told by individual characters. The narrator, who is portrayed as naive and observant, plans to give an account of all the characters' words and dealings, using their very phrases as they fell. This allows Chaucer to provide insight into the thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors of the different characters, as well as to satirize various aspects of medieval society.