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The Monk And The Pardoner In The Canterbury Tales

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Throughout the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer introduces a variety of characters and gives information about them. This includes members of the pilgrimage that are directly related to the church. Chaucer makes note of how these people are generally considered “holy”, but in all reality have a number of flaws. Chaucer was essentially saying that there was great corruption in the church during his lifetime. The two characters in particular that stood out to me were the Monk and the Pardoner. I believe both of these two people exemplify perfectly what Chaucer was trying to make a point about. The Monk, a supposed man of devotion and prayer was instead fully engaged in activities such as hunting and overeating. He was described
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In medieval times, the Church had become predominate in both the culture and domestic affairs of everyday people. The Church was in charge of governing laws, taxing people, and was a big participant in every form of social event from baptism to the funeral. Sadly, with power comes corruption, and the Church was not above this standard. Many churches began to abuse their power and took advantage of the ignorance of the common people. Chaucerâs Pardoner is the embodiment of a stereotypical church official who has become corrupt with power.

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The Friar breaks the vows of poverty, chastity, obedience, and stability; therefore, he is the most corrupt pilgrim in The Canterbury Tales. The Friar is apart of the Clergy, or the religious or Church class. To be apart of the Church, you must take the vows of poverty, chastity, obedience, and stability. Chaucer is making fun of the clergy and saying that most of the members do not honor their vows.

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A narrative like this is one that has paved the way for all different kinds of literature to follow it. The story was a pioneer of the English language and can still be put to use today to analyze, and in The Friar’s case, satirize types of people and their typical characteristics. Chaucer does not explicitly express disdain for some Medieval values but his writing style is a testament to his feelings. Modern satire found in normal aspects of entertainment like Saturday Night Live and parody musician Weird Al might not exist without Geoffrey Chaucer, along with modern English

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Chaucer uses satire in many different ways in his story. One of his main objectives with the use of satire is to criticise the Christian church, which was looked down upon in that time. There are many different members of the clergy that go on the pilgrimage and that Chaucer writes about, but the only honorable member is the Parson. Chaucer uses satire when describing the Friar. He says the Friar is a fine beggar, which shows the corruption of the church since friars were not allowed to beg for money.

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In the Prologue Chaucer introduces many pilgrims that are setting off to a pilgrimage to a Cathedral during Spring time. In medieval Christianity, pilgrimages were long annual trips to holy places; a way to express religious devotion. Specifically Chaucer idealizes the Franklin, the Parson, and the Plowman. Idealize is to regard or represent as perfect or better than in reality, which you glorify them. chaucer idealized many people like the Franklin, Parso, and Plowman.

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Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales have provoked controversy for nearly 500 years. Canterbury Tales used everyday characters to point out the faults in 1500’s society. Chaucer used characters from religious figures, peasants, and even royalty. To this day, Chaucer’s smart, and witty department of people and what they do remains true to real life. When asked the question of who Chaucer would use in a modern setting, the choice is very clear.

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We begin with the Monk, “a person typically living a celibate life according to the rule of a particular order and adhering to vows, esp. of poverty, chastity, and obedience” (OED). Chaucer’s monk clearly has broken these vows. In the description of the Monk he is described as someone “who loved venery” (General Prologue, 166). Venery is defined as the practice or sport of hunting beasts of game; the chase (OED).

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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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He is slyly corrupt, which earns him the most criticism on Chaucer’s part. Where most all corrupt members of the Church on the pilgrimage have either justified or denied their corruption, The Pardoner relishes in his. He recognizes the hypocrisy of preaching against the very sins he practices, yet does not

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In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer attacks three sacred ideas using satire which include the church’s hypocrisy, patriarchy, and nobility.

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In Selected Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer, the novel is written so that the reader can challenge the social order that appears during the the Medieval times. While the narrator is describing the Monk he says, “His bulging eyes he rolled about, and hot / They gleamed and red, like fire beneath a pot;” (7:12-13) This quote is describing the monk, who is usually seen as a very calm and holy man, but is shown here as having the appearance of a devil. What Chaucer is illustrating is that even though most people believe that you need to be perfect in order to be a monk or part of the church really everyone has some evil or bad to them and that 's ok. The narrator is exemplifying that nobody is born perfect and even though that is what people

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The second type of criticism of the church Chaucer incorporates is poverty. In the tales the Parson and the Plowman are both portrayed as remarkable and offering men throughout their journeys. An old saying is to always give before you take; in this case both the Parson and Plowman execute this saying to the finest. The example, the Canterbury Tales gives us explains the poverty, goodness, and Chaucer’s views on the Parson himself. He writes, “But kindness to lead people towards heaven, His duty was a good example given” (The Parson in The Canterbury Tales: Geoffrey Chaucer).

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What really makes you good or bad? In the Canterbury Tales by Chaucer twenty four pilgrims met at the Tabard Inn on their way to the Shrine of Thomas Beckett. Each pilgrim has to tell four tales, two on the way to the Shrine and two on the way back from the Shrine. The characters in the pilgrims stories can be separated into two categories; Saints and Scoundrels. The Knight and Parson are the Saints, while the Friar and the monk are the scoundrels.

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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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In the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer satirizes the monk because he is one of the clergy who is the most immoral. He shows that he does not like the rules he has to follow by doing the opposite of what monks are supposed to do. Chaucer explains how different the monk acts from the others, and how his thought process works. He says, “He had a wrought-gold cunningly fashioned pin” (Chaucer 200) which is describes the monk as being selfish, and greedy with his status. Another oath the monk had not followed was the oath of stability, which means you commit yourself to the church, or monastery, for example, Chaucer says,” Was he to leave the world upon the shelf?”

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