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The Three Estates Model Essay

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In “The Three Estates Model: Represented and Satirised in Chaucer’s General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales,” Sadenur Doǧan aims to illustrate how Chaucer represented the Three Estates Model though his descriptions of the pilgrims. Doǧan also points out how Chaucer implements an estates satire by describing corruption within his characters. Doǧan commences by introducing Chaucer and his famous work The Canterbury Tales, followed by a brief description of the Three Estates Model. In the model, the three social classifications are the clergy, those who pray, nobility, those who govern and fight, and peasantry, those who perform labor. Doǧan divides his paper into three main parts. First, he identifies the characters that Chaucer used to describe the Three Estates Model. Secondly, Doǧan singles out characters that Chaucer portrayed as religiously, financially, and morally corrupt. Lastly, he reinstates how Chaucer represented the model through his characters. …show more content…

The Knight represents the nobility because his duty is to protect the people. Doǧan explains that Chaucer’s positive language that was used to describe the Knight suggest that the Knight is honorable and well respected. Doǧan also states that the Parson represents the clergy because his mission is to pray for the people. He also mentions that Chaucer also praised his persona. To complete the model, Doǧan identifies the pageantry as the Plowman because he is described as “an honest worker” by

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