The Canterbury Tales is one of the landmarks of the English literature, perhaps the greatest work produced in Middle English and certainly among the most ambitious. In the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer introduces the pilgrims to his readers. His choice of words is so visual that the reader is given the clear imagination of each pilgrim, since Chaucer focused not only on the facial features of the pilgrims, but he described also their clothes, eating habits, or the work they do. As a result of this, there were many illustrations of these pilgrims created, so that the reader has a chance to compare them with the descriptions in the text.
Concerning the character of Squire, his illustration on The Geoffrey Chaucer Page resembles the original description of the character in a certain extent, since there can be several inaccuracies found as well. The facial features of Squire are portrayed truthfully; his young age, curly hair and moderate length made him look like a lusty bachelor (83). The expression of his face is mild, which supports the author’s description “He was fressh as is the month of May” (83). However, his physical strength is not completely visible. According to Chaucer, he was “wonderly delivere and of greet strengthe” (83), but his portrait does not completely demonstrate this statement, since he is depicted in rather a “sweet” way. The illustration of his clothes does not match either. According to Chaucer, he wears a short gown (83) however, the length of the gown on the portrait is rather long.
Although Squire’s illustration on the website does not completely match Chaucer’s description in his text, his portrait is quite truthfully, since his facial features and the expression of his face perfectly corespondents with the author’s idea.