The answer to this question can be found in lines 19-27 of the opening prologue. The narrator explains to his readers that he is at the Tabard in Southwark ready to begin his pilgrimage to Canterbury with "devout courage." The narrator immediately follows that comment up with the information that by nighttime, the inn was filled with 29 other people who were also looking to make the exact same pilgrimage. The narrator then shows readers that he is quite the friendly and talkative type of person, because he explains to readers that he met and talked to every one of the travelers that same night. The narrator then gives readers a brief description of the characters in order to set the stage for tales that will be told by each of them.
The narrator of The Canterbury Tales, also known as Chaucer the Pilgrim, meets all of his fellow travelers at the Tabard Inn, as this is the starting point of their pilgrimage to Canterbury.
Among the most famous characters in this vast cast are the Knight and the Wife of Bath. The Knight begins the storytelling activities by spinning an epic tale about chivalric love, while the Wife of Bath embarks on a famous feminist manifesto about the rights of women. What is most interesting about the characters in Chaucer's poem is that they represent all walks of life, including commoners, the merchant class, the clergy, and even the nobility. As such, Chaucer the poet truly provides us with a diverse cross-section of his world, showing us the many ways of thinking and living through the art of poetry.
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