In the General Prologue to the Cantebury Tales, how does Chaucer use images of food, eating and physical size in his descriptions of the...

Many of Chaucer's character sketches in the Prologue to
Canterbury Tales use the diet and eating habits of the characters
as symbols of their personalities.

The Prioress, for
example, is depicted as a very dainty diner:

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At table she had been well taught
withal,
And never from her lips let morsels fall,
Nor dipped her
fingers deep in sauce, but ate(10)
With so much care the food upon her
plate
That never driblet fell upon her
breast.

This is part of her
image as a person who "went to many pains to put on cheer / Of court, and very dignified
appear."

Regarding the Monk, Chaucer writes: "A fat swan
loved he best of any roast."  This is emblematic of this monk who "loved his venery"
(hunting)  more than "the rule of Maurice or Saint Benedict," two of the fathers of
European Christian monastacism.

The Clerk is described as
being not "too fat," but rather "hollow."  His emaciated appearance is clearly a result
of his poverty, which is a result of his dedication to "getting knowledge," rather than
to acquiring "rich robes" and other material goods.  He is the epitome of the starving
scholar.

The Reeve (a caretaker of an estate) is "a
slender, choleric [irritable] man / Who shaved his beard as close as razor can"; "long
were his legs, and they were very lean."  He is a slim, cunning man who was "was right
rich...in his own private right," thanks to his shrewd business practices.  One imagines
the Reeve skipping many a meal in order to have time to drive hard
bargains.