The characters and stories from the canterbury tales probably seem vastly different from those you are familiar with in your own life. but are they? don't most people tell stories when they are with other people? when you get home from an outing, you probably tell someone about it—where you went, who you saw, and what happened. these are the fundamentals of storytelling.

think about the kinds of stories you have heard from other people. how do stories indicate who people are, what they value, what scares them?