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Examples Of Foolishness In The Canterbury Tales

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Charity and Selfishness in The Canterbury Tales
During the Middle Ages, the medieval society was very separated and the different classes and occupations were rarely brought together. However, through the use of a frame story, along with his variety of experiences as a soldier, courtier, civil servant, and diplomat, Chaucer was able to create a collection of allegories. Doing this brought together all the different aspects of the medieval time period. This cross-section of medieval society aided in Chaucer's purpose of revealing the truth behind its members. In Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, the difference between leading one’s life according to a principle of charity, like the Knight and the Parson, and living according to a principle …show more content…

In the prologue, Chaucer introduces both of the characters along with their charitable qualities. The Knight is described as possessing the qualities of “chivalry, truth, honor, generousness, and courtesy” (l. 45-46). These characteristics express the Knights willingness to protect, help, and respect others, and overall present him as a benevolent member of society. Another charitable character is the Parson, who Chaucer states is “a holy-minded man of good renown” (l. 487). The Parson also “preferred beyond a doubt giving to the poor parishioners round about both from church offerings and his property” (l. 497-499). Through being a righteous man and therefore giving to the poor, the Parson is also shown as a charitable member of medieval society. Chaucer continues his lesson of leading a life according to a principle of charity in the Wife of Bath’s Tale. In this tale, a Knight is being taught a lesson of unselfishness which he learns in the end when he says “My lady my love, my dearest wife, I leave the matter to your wise decision… whichever pleases you suffices me” (l. 406-411). This shows that the Knight learned about unselfishness because he allows his wife to make the decision for herself and not have it be what he would choose. Through the Knight, the Parson, and the Wife of Bath’s Tale, Chaucer establishes what it means to live one’s life according to a principle of

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The Parson and The Friar In the story, The Canterbury Tales written by Geoffrey Chaucer, we meet many different characters, two of them being the Friar and the Parson. These two men have very striking differences. Whereas the Parson lives a life of goodwill and consideration, the Friar looks to reap the benefits of anything possible. The Parson gives as much as he can; meanwhile, the Friar acquires whatever is conceivable.

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The Canterbury Tales depicts the differing levels of society of the Medieval period. The tales with the most notable differences are “The Pardoner’s Tale” and “The Reeve’s Tale.” The former story is about three men consumed by greed, which ultimately leads them to their h. The latter tale is about two clerks who seek revenge on a miller who steals grain from their school. “The Pardoner’s Tale” and “The Reeve’s Tale” drastically differ in their moral themes that depict revenge, sin, and greed. “The Pardoner’s Tale” illustrates the effects of revenge, sin, and greed.

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In The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, one of the many characters, the Pardoner, takes advantage of people’s vices and ignorance, preaching against avarice, a sin which he does not feel guilty of committing. The Pardoner in The Canterbury Tales speaks of greed as “the root of all sin” and of himself as doing “Christ’s holy work”; although, he “practices” avarice himself he has no guilt of his thievery. The Pardoner deceives the towns people by falsifying professionalism by “speak[ing] a few works in Latin” and displaying his “bishop’s seal” on his “license” disguising himself as a trustworthy person.

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With each tale, there are different events that occur in order to reach the main topic of these tales. Within the Knight’s Tale, the Wife of Bath’s Tale, and the Pardoner's Tale, Chaucer does a phenomenal job in having these tales represent the societal problems of his era. Geoffrey Chaucer uses the Knight’s Tale to explains how love can corrupt the trust between two cousins. The knight is telling the story of Palamon and Arcita, two prisoners of wars that are locked up in a prison in the city of Athens. One day, the two look outside the prison window and see a fair young lady called, Emily.

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The story “The Canterbury Tales” by Geoffrey Chaucer talks about a guy named Pardoner. The author uses Pardoner to explain different themes of the story. Pardoner is one whom you can go to for forgiveness of your sins but with a price that was meant for him. He has yellow hair like wax that hangs smoothly like a hank of flax. Towards the back of his head were his locks that felt like rat tails and fell all the way down to his shoulders.

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The reader should now know Geoffrey Chaucer disapproves of the Church and deems it to almost only be full of hypocrites because of people such as the Friar and the Pardoner being a part of it and doing what sinful deeds they do against God and the followers who they are supposed to be protecting and taking care of. If it was not for the Parson existing, or even clergy members, then the generalization of him believing the entire Catholic Church was a hypocrisy would be entirely true, but that is not the case. Still, maybe Chaucer made such an implication because he had a bad past with the Church, but then again in the story he was traveling to a religious shrine, so he must not have such a bad past when it comes to Catholicism. There must have been a root to his disdain towards the Church as in, he was conned by a pardoner or a friar or even grew up seeing only hypocrisy from the Catholic Church, which could have molded his opinion of it. Instead of making, The Canterbury Tales, a full on attack against the Church, he decided to make it a comical, satirical piece, which was a very intelligent move by him.

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