The story of Sir Thopas is narrated by Geoffrey Chaucer after being demanded by the host Harry Bailey (Rossignol, 2007). The host wanted Chaucer to cheer people up as they were sad after hearing a sad story as well as being tired with the slow journey to Canterbury. Harry Bailey describes Chaucer as being shy, humble, and reticent and always looking down with a mischievous face (Rudd, 2001). The host also describes Chaucer as having a weakly appearance and a small waist. Chaucer agreed and said he only had one tale, which turned out to be awful that he was interrupted midway. The story talks about a knight called Sir Thopas who dreams that he is in love with an elf-queen (Bloom, 2008). He decides to go on a quest to find elf-queen but he is stopped by a giant called Sir Elephant. Sir Thopas promises to come the following day to fight the giant so as to find the elf-queen. The story is interrupted, because it was not amusing as expected.
This story is as different from the narrator as it is talking about a boy who is brave and ready to fight for what he loves, unlike the narrator who is shy and humble. The boy is also romantic and masculine unlike the narrator who is a weakling. The story is full of ironies as it talks of a character that is chaste in a story that has much sexual imagery. The story also depicts Chaucer as worldly unlike his previous piece of work. Chaucer also mocked the Flemish knights as they were regarded only as figures of fun and he portrayed Thopas as such. It is also ironical that a knight could escape a knightly combat, the way Thopas ran away from the giant.
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The moral lesson of the story is that, with patience, and determination, one can be able to achieve the set goals. Thopas was determined to marry the elf-queen hence prepared himself to fight the giant. The people in the middle ages would have thought that Chaucer was only wasting time and was not serious, as the story seemed to be made up in the process of being narrated. Chaucer intended to show that heroes can also be losers as indicated that Thopas fled from the giant and failed to marry the elf-queen.