In Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, how many people go on the pilgrimage? What characteristcs does Chaucer like and what characteristics...

In Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury
Tales, 32 characters make the trip to Canterbury. 29 of these are mentioned
in line 24 of the “General Prologue.” The narrator joins this group (making 30). The
host, Harry Bailey, makes 31. The Canon’s yeoman, who joins the group later, makes
32.

If one had to make a gross generalization about the
virtues Chaucer commends and the vices he attacks, it would not be wrong to say that he
condemns pride (selfishness and love of self) and that he commends selflessness and love
of God. Pride, in Chaucer’s day and beyond, was considered the root cause of all other
sins. Pride involved placing oneself and one’s own interests before love of others and
especially love of God. By the same token, love of God was considered the most effective
antidote to pride.  Anyone who loved God truly and deeply would almost automatically
love everything else – and everyone else – in the proper
way.

The Knight, for instance, is a perfect instance of a
character who loves God first and foremost and who therefore provides an exemplary model
– a standard by which the other pilgrims can be judged. Little wonder, then, that
Chaucer begins with the Knight.  After reading about him and his worthiness, it is easy
to see how many of the other characters fall short of the example he sets. He is modest,
courageous, charitable, kind, and thoughtful, and thus he deserves his famous
description as “a verray, parfit, gentil knight” (72).

On
the other hand, his son, the squire, seems vain and somewhat immature.  He is not an
evil character by any means, but he is preoccupied (as young men often are) by the
pleasures of the world far more than his father is.  The same is true, ironically, of
many of the “religious” figures, including the Prioress, the Monk, the Friar, and
various others.  Most of the characters, in fact, display some sort of selfishness or
vanity that makes them targets of Chaucer’s often subtle satire.  They are shown to be
in bondage, in various ways, to the world, the flesh, and, implicitly, the devil – the
three great enemies all Christians in the middle ages were told they had to
resist.

In contrast, characters such as the Clerk, the
Parson, and the Plowman all provide, like the Knight, examples of worthy behavior in
their different ways. The Clerk is devoted to true study, thus using his God-given gift
of reason in the proper way.  The Parson is perhaps the only religious figure employed
by the Church who actually seems to deserve his job, because of his loving commitment to
his parishioners. And the Plowman, the Parson’s brother, has a humble social status but
is a splendid spiritual example.  The narrator says of the Parson that he was
always

Living
in pees and parfit charitee.

God loved he best with his
hoole herte

At all times, though him gained or
smerte,

And thanne his neighebor right as himselve.
(534-37)

In other words, the
Plowman’s love of God is constant (whether he is enjoying good fortune or enduring bad
fortune), and his love of God leads him to love his neighbors as he loves himself. 
This, it would seem, is the basic ideal by which Chaucer measures all his characters and
finds many of them sadly lacking.