Sir January — The Canterbury Tales Character Profile

About Sir January

An elderly merchant who impulsively marries the young May. After losing his sight, he relies heavily on her. He catches her with her lover Damian in a garden but is easily deceived by May's excuses into believing he hallucinated the encounter.

Sir January — Character Profile

Character Facts

Played by

Hugh Griffith

Appears in

The Canterbury Tales (1972)

Role

Protagonist

Relationships (3)

• Sir January — Family Husband — May (Josephine Chaplin)

  Sir January is the elderly, newly blind husband of the young May.

• Sir January — Narrative Author — Geoffrey Chaucer (Pier Paolo Pasolini)

  Chaucer serves as the literary creator documenting Sir January's tragicomic tale.

• Sir January — Social Fellow Pilgrim — Pilgrim (Orla Pederson)

  Sir January and the pilgrims share the common identity of travelers heading to Canterbury.

Explore the full interactive character relationship map of The Canterbury Tales

More characters from The Canterbury Tales

• The Wife from Bath (Laura Betti)
• Perkin (Ninetto Davoli)
• Devil (Franco Citti)
• The Pardoner (Derek Deadman)
• May (Josephine Chaplin)
• Host of the Tabard (George Bethell Datch)
• Geoffrey Chaucer (Pier Paolo Pasolini)
• Friar (Nicholas Smith)
• The Cook (J.P. Van Dyne)
• Old Man (Alan Webb)
• The Carpenter (Michael Balfour)
• Greedy Friar (John Francis Lane)