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Parson In The Canterbury Tales

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Writers in the Middle Ages could not directly critic society without incurring strong disapproval from powerful institutions, such as the church. In The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer, critics the pilgrims as individuals to show the overview of the church and society. Chaucer’s personal opinions are thinly veiled as he satirizes and praises certain characters as social criticism. Chaucer presents the Parson and the Friar as religious figures in terms of their morality, their vocation, and dedication to the church to criticize the corruption and virtue within the church.
The Friar is one of the most deceitful and unethical people on the pilgrimage. Chaucer criticizes the Friar to represent how corrupt and dishonorable the church really …show more content…

Chaucer praises the Parson because he represents the goodness and grace in the church. Chaucer describes, In the Canterbury Tales, the Parson’s morality on how he sells his own property to help people. “Nay rather he preferred beyond a doubt giving to poor parishioners round about both from church offerings and his property,” (The Canterbury Tales line 497-499). The Parson is willing to sell his own items to support others. Chaucer honors the Parson’s morality because it represents how the church can be caring and valuable. Chaucer also talks about the Parson’s vocation on how he is willing to help and assist people in any way he can but unlike the Friar, he does not want anything in return. “ His business was to show a fair behavior and draw men thus to heaven and their Savior,” (The Canterbury Tales line 529-530). The Parson’s reason for doing what he does is to bring people closer God and to increase them in their faith. Chaucer admires what the Parson does because he is bringing people closer to the church for the right reasons. Lastly, Chaucer comments on the Parson’s dedication to the church. “There was, and poor, the Parson to a town, yet he was rich in holy thought and work,” (The Canterbury Tales line 488-489). The Parson is very passion and goodhearted about his work with the church. Chaucer is very pleased with the Parson’s love and commitment to the church and his faith.

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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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Chaucer wrote the book: The Canterbury Tales, in which a group of men going on a journey all tell a tale. Within each tale is a moral lesson as well as each tale consists of a corrupt action committed within the church and is conveyed by those kind of characters within the story. One of the tales that Chaucer tells in his book is called: The pardoner 's tale. Within this tale the pardoner (who is telling the tale) is a preacher who often gives sermons but admits that he does is solely for money and not to condemn people of their sins. (Greed)

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With the exception of the Parson, these pilgrims fall short, suggesting that the moral objectives imposed by Medieval society are unattainable in a corrupt world. Chaucer uses the Parson to illustrate decency in an immoral society. The Parson is a member of the clergy, but unlike the Pardoner, the Summoner, and the Friar, he truly lives in harmony with his own advice. “He was a poor country parson, but rich he was in holy thought and work” (General Prologue 480-481). The Parson believes he cannot leave his parishioners behind, and it is his honorable duty to look after and care for them.

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As Lee Patterson points out, The Parson’s Tale at first glance appears to be a drab, unfulfilling conclusion to The Canterbury Tales. Described by Jill Mann as a treatise on pertinence, the structure of The Parson’s Tale clearly deviates from the tales told by the other pilgrims, such as the courtly romance told by the Knight and the beast fable told by the Nun’s Priest. Furthermore, the work contains little of the vivid humor and playful sarcasm that Chaucer displays in many of his other tales. Instead, The Parson’s Tale appears to play the genre straight and gives a real speech about the nature of sin. Based on these differences, some scholars doubt the work’s authorship, believing that The Parson’s Tale is merely a translation by Chaucer.

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Geoffrey Chaucer lived in a time where religion was of ultimate importance. The Dukes, Kings, and even the great Holy Roman Emperor (supposedly) paid reverence to the seat of Saint Peter in Rome. However, Chaucer also lived in a period where this monolith of Latin Christendom was showing signs of deep fractures, fractures that would lead to the Protestant Reformation a century and a half later. Chaucer was a man of deep religious conviction. Despite this, or perhaps due to this, Chaucer uses the Canterbury Tales to criticize the Church, but more broadly to criticize many of his fellow Christians.

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In the Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer utilizes the immoral character of the Pardoner to tell the utmost moral tale through satirical devices, presenting the true greed and hypocrisy that runs throughout the Church, regardless of it attempt to cover it. Chaucer introduces the hypocrisy within the Church through the characterization of the Pardoner, as he is explained to be a man with, “flattery and equal japes./He made the parson and the rest his apes” (“General Prologue” 607-608). “Japes” are tricks, alluding to the Pardoner’s relics, as they are fake; yet, the Pardoner still sells these relics to the Church members as genuine treasures. This creates dramatic irony, because the character of the Church body is unaware of the situation bestowed

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And then he'd pray right busily for the souls/ Of those who gave him wherewithal for schools... Pregnant of moral virtue was his speech;/And gladly would he learn and gladly teach." (10) Aristotle and philosophy, at least for the clerk, were thus serving as a substitute for the church's teachings. It is also important to denote, that not all religious figures in the tales were wicked or immoral. The parson is a devout Christian who lives in poverty, preaches the gospel, and lives a very holy life.

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This tale would have helped the medieval audience understand the entire Canterbury Tales more clearly than today’s typical reader. It is one of only two tales composed in prose rather than verse, but the prose clearly and vigorously resolves the moral issues posed by the waywardness of the pilgrims and of the characters in their tales. It explains penitence, the process of contrition, confession, and satisfaction that each sinner must undergo. Also, it explains thoroughly the Seven Deadly Sins, which all good pilgrims must strive to avoid” (Ellis par 3). The author makes sure the reader understands why the Parson’s Tale is important because of where it is placed in the story.

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Roger Ellis writes that the only true purpose of a religious narrative is to move others towards an act of faith10, and concludes that the Pardoner's tale and prologue are the only ones to achieve this outside of the Parson. Through this, Chaucer is presenting a more nuanced approach to the familiar theme of religious corruption, by suggesting that the Pardoner's clever rhetoric is able to prompt others to move away from a life of sin, even if he is shamelessly benefiting from their conversion at the same time. Therefore, he is asserting a similar conclusion to the one he draws from the Man of Law's generic approach to Custance's suffering, by suggesting that personal devotion and piety is more important and should be prized above the existence of religious

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The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer, reveals that religion does not make moral individuals. Chaucer goes on about telling how several of the characters on the pilgrimage had questionable lifestyles yet the characters were taking part in a religious journey. Religion can only influence a moral character but does not make its followers untouchable to the imperfections found on earth. In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer’s character, The Pardoner, is a church official who altered the peoples mind by cheating the people into believing any nonsense.

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