canterbury tales?

Question

Why did Chaucer choose Canterbury Cathedral as the goal of his pilgrims?

Answer 1

The answers above are correct, however, it gave Chaucer a chance to "fill out" his characters.

Chaucer orginally planned on 2 stories for each piligrim: two on the way to Canterbury and two on the return journey. That would have given him somewhere in the region of 120 short stories.

This "frame" on which he hung his stories was not that different from Boccacio's "Decameron" or "1001 Nights."

Answer 2

Because Canterbury was the major pilgrimage site in England at the time the Tales were written, and to have a caravan of pilgrims visiting there enabled Chaucer to introduce numerous characters, as would have been the case in real life. The Cathedral contained the remains of Thomas a Becket who had been murdered in the Cathedral in 1170 by 3 knights who thought they were acting on the instructions of the King, Henry II - see http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/becket.htm, and who was later canonised. His tomb was reputably magnificent and people thought they could be healed of disease by visiting, or touching the Saint's remains. This tomb was destroyed at the time of the dissolution.

Answer 3

maybe to compare/contrast the different values and ideals of each of his characters: each character had the same purpose, (christianity) but each character had a different value setting