Religion In The Canterbury Tales

685 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Portrayal of religious characters in The Canterbury Tales

Throughout England, religion has been a subject which is constantly changing. The main aspect which continues to change are the opinions the people have regarding Christians and non-Christians. In the story, “Man of Laws Tale”, from Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, Christianity is one of the defining themes. By focusing on this theme throughout the story, Chaucer establishes the connection between religion and national identity by advancing the plot based upon the characters’ trust in God. In his story, Chaucer focuses on the relationship between God and his people. This relationship is established through Lady Constance, the daughter of the Emperor of Rome. Throughout the story, Lady Constance is faced with several challenges which …show more content…

“…Before the cross of Christ; and thus prayed she:/ ‘O bright and blessed altar, holy Cross, / Red with the compassionate blood that washed away/ The world’s inveterate iniquity, / Defend me from the devil and his claws/ When I am drowning in the deep sea waves.” (Chaucer 128) When she prays to God, Chaucer implies that God has protected her from danger because of her faithfulness. While there have been several others who were devoted to Him, God protects Constance because she has not staggered in her faith and claims that everything that happens to her is meant to be according to God and he will protect her through all that she does. “The wretched woman was in great distress;/ Her child cried out; and she cried piteously. / But the blessed Virgin helped her none the less:” (Chaucer 141) In this instance, Chaucer explains how even in her worst state, God protects Constance. By …show more content…

This idea is first seen through the Sultan’s mother, who plans to murder her son and the people who convert to Christianity because they have gone against their own God. Because of her plan to murder her own people, she is described as a follower of the devil. “You serpent hidden in the form of woman, / Like to the serpent fettered deep in hell!” (Chaucer 125) Because she is resisting the Christian God and choosing to murder her people, she is described as the serpent who caused Eve to eat the fruit from the Garden of Eden which lead to them leaving the Garden. She is seen as being just as treacherous as the serpent because she is betraying and fooling her own people as was done to Eve. Since they do not know any better, the people go through with the plan to be baptized, but instead of being welcomed to a new faith with open arms, they are slaughtered by the people of their old faith who believe they have betrayed their own God. By going through with this plot, they have solidified their role as evil-doers because of their

Show More
Related

  • The Marriage Debate in The Canterbury Tales

    617 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Geoffrey Chaucer's work, The Canterbury Tales, many travelers gather together to begin a pilgrimage. During their quest, each of the pilgrims proceed to tell a tale to entertain the group. From these stories arise four different tales, in which Chaucer uses to examine the concept of marriage and the problems that arise from this bonding of two people. In the tales of "The Franklin", "The Clerk", "The Wife of Bath", and "The Merchant", marriage is debated and examined from different perspectives. Out of the four tales, The Franklin's Tale presents the most reasonable solution to the marriage debate because the problems are resolved with the least amount of heartache.

    Read More

  • The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer

    1576 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...rn home. Each story plays on the roles of people during the time that they are told. The stories range like the characters traveling do. One story sticks out in particular when it comes to the relationship between men and women during the time of Chaucer. This story is told by the character of Allison whom tells the story of the wife of bath. The story and prologue look at the life of Allison and her views of how relationships between man and wife should be. She believed that women should be the head of the relationship and that men should be submissive to them. This reflects in her story in many ways. Her views on how relationships should be was different than the one that would be normal for the time period in which Chaucer lived

    Read More

  • Corruption In The Canterbury Tales Essay

    899 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ireland’s purpose is to show how Chaucer had a good example to show his final order to his audience. He establishes a reflecting tone for explaining the Wife of Bath’s sovereignty. This work is significant because of the comparison between The Wife of Bath’s Tale and Prologue. (Ireland 10)

    Read More

  • Version I of the Canterbury Tales

    732 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, has gone through many adaptations. Some authors decided to translate the story into verse, while others chose to write the as a narrative in prose. Although all adaptations are based off the same story, they are vastly different and can be the result of opposing interpretations of the original work. After reading a text translated by Nevill Coghill (referred to as Version I) and a text translated into a narrative by a different author (referred to as Version II), it is obvious that for each similarity they share, there are many more differences in language, syntax, and imagery as well.

    Read More

  • Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales

    3290 Words  | 7 Pages

    Critics interpreting Chaucerian depictions of drunkenness have traditionally focused on the state as an unalloyed vice, citing variously as justification the poet’s Christian conservatism, his intimate association with the disreputable London vintner community, and even possible firsthand familiarity with alcoholism. While we must always remain vigilant to the evils of excessive inebriation, to portray Chaucer’s images of drink and revelry in The Canterbury Tales as an unqualified denunciation is to oversimplify the poet’s work and to profane his art. By fusing his portrayals of drunkenness with the revelation of truth and philosophical insight, Chaucer demonstrates the capacity of wine and ale to evoke the funky earthiness of humanity that we so desperately seek to avoid and that is so fundamental to our corporeal experience.

    Read More

  • Canterbury Tales - Criticism of the Church in the Summoner’s Tale and the Prioress’s Tale

    1509 Words  | 4 Pages

    Many pilgrims in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales held a religious position. Some of these people’s personal ideas have caused debates and criticism over Chaucer’s opinion of the Catholic Church. Critics have discussed the ideas that were presented both subtly and openly. Two of the pilgrims and their tales will be discussed: the Prioress and the Pardoner. Both of these tales offer points of criticism in the Catholic Church.

    Read More

  • Canterbury Tales

    1021 Words  | 3 Pages

    There is a great deal of useful information to be found on the Internet but sorting through it can often be a hassle. There are some sites that are useful and give a great deal of helpful information but there are also many sites that just don't meet up to those standards. Since anyone can put information on the web, it is often hard to tell a good site from a bad one. Today, I am going to go through a few sites relating to Geoffrey Chaucer and his book The Canterbury Tales and give examples of good and bad sites relating to them.

    Read More

  • The Canterbury Tales

    842 Words  | 2 Pages

    In The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, the stereotypes and roles in society are reexamined and made new through the characters in the book. Chaucer discusses different stereotypes and separates his characters from the social norm by giving them highly ironic and/or unusual characteristics. Specifically, in the stories of The Wife of Bath and The Miller’s Tale, Chaucer examines stereotypes of women and men and attempts to define their basic wants and needs.

    Read More

  • The Role of Women in The Canterbery Tales

    2003 Words  | 5 Pages

    Chaucer, in his female pilgrimage thought of women as having an evil-like quality that they always tempt and take from men. They were depicted as untrustworthy, selfish and vain and often like caricatures not like real people at all. Through the faults of both men and women, Chaucer showed what is right and wrong and how one should live. Under the surface, however, lies a jaded look of women in the form that in his writings he seems to crate them as caricatures and show how they cause the downfall of men by sometimes appealing to their desires and other times their fears. Chaucer obviously had very opinionated views of the manners and behaviours of women and expressed it strongly in The Canterbury Tales. In his collection of tales, he portrayed two extremes in his prospect of women. The Wife of Bath represented the extravagant and lusty woman where as the Prioress represented the admirable and devoted followers of church. Chaucer delineated the two characters contrastingly in their appearances, general manners, education and most evidently in their behaviour towards men. Yet, in the midst of disparities, both tales left its readers with an unsolved enigma.

    Read More

  • Feminism in Chaucer’s Wife of Bath

    2103 Words  | 5 Pages

    Women in the medieval times were cast into very distinct roles. There was a strict code of conduct that was followed. They were to be submissive to their husbands and follow their lead. A woman’s place was also in the home and the responsibilities of cooking, cleaning, sewing, etc. fell into their domain. Women who deviated from these cultural-set norms made for interesting characters. Chaucer’s use of women and their overstepping their boundaries and typical roles in society make them most memorable.

    Read More

  • Corruption and Greed in The Canterbury Tales

    1044 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer is a collection of stories by a group of pilgrims who are heading to Canterbury Cathedral. In this book, the pardoner and the reeve show antipodal characters in many ways. The pardoner is beautiful blonde hair man who is being loved by everyone. However he is very corrupted and smart and sells fake religious stuff to people saying very good compliment. On the other hand, the reeve is very serious and honest business man. He is very smart enough to know what criminals think and do. The pardoner story-tells a great example (or tale?) of seven deadly sins and reeve’s story is mocking of the miller. These very different characteristic men tell story telling that human beings are always punished for being greedy. The crooked pardoner and the honest reeve have different purposes for telling their tales, but their stories have the same major theme; sins deserve punishment.

    Read More

  • An Analysis of the Characters of The Canterbury Tales

    2545 Words  | 6 Pages

    An interesting aspect of the famous literary work, "The Canterbury Tales," is the contrast of realistic and exaggerated qualities that Chaucer entitles to each of his characters. When viewed more closely, one can determine whether each of the characters is convincing or questionable based on their personalities. This essay will analyze the characteristics and personalities of the Knight, Squire, Monk, Plowman, Miller, and Parson of Chaucer's tale.

    Read More

  • Greed and Corruption in The Canterbury Tales

    365 Words  | 1 Pages

    Many of the religious characters in The Canterbury Tales represent character traits that are different from what is traditionally expected of them. This is because the Catholic Church, which ruled all of England, Ireland and most of Europe in the Fourteenth Century, was extremely wealthy. Extravagant cathedrals were built in every big city while the people suffered from poverty, disease and famine. The contrast between the wealth of the church and misery of the people was overwhelming. As a result, the characters in Chaucer's tales were portrayed as deceitful and greedy. Two examples of this are the Summoner from the "The Friar's Tale" and Death from the "The Pardoner's Tale."

    Read More

  • The Characters Of The Church In Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales

    1141 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the “General Prologue” of The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer indirectly denounces the church describing that they are corrupt, greedy, hypocritical, and selective. The people that have some sort of relation to the church are The Prioress, The Nun, The Priest, The Friar, The Monk, The Parson, The Summoner and The Pardoner. The “General Prologue describes each of the pilgrims and their general traits. Some characters are described more than others because of the fact that Chaucer likes people who are affluent, beautiful and noble. The problem with some of the characters that were described by Chaucer is that they were negatively viewed based on stereotypes and appearance. Overall, Chaucer wants the readers to know that the church people are corrupt and deceptive. Chaucer wants the reader to understand that most of the church people do not live their life by the holy book.

    Read More

  • The Role Of Morality In Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales

    923 Words  | 2 Pages

    In The Canterbury Tales, author Geoffrey Chaucer writes of the journey several pilgrims make from London to Canterbury to visit the shrine of St. Thomas Becket. Many of the pilgrims are discussed at great length, from their physical appearance to their personality traits. Many of these pilgrims represent a paradigm of their role in the 14th century when this set of tales was written. For example, the knight represents chivalry and honor to the highest degree, while the pardoner embodies Chaucer’s view on several negative aspects of the religious system at the time. These characters are the opposite extremes of Chaucer’s totem pole of morality, but most characters reside somewhere in the middle. Two of these characters are the Sergeant of Law

    Read More

More about Religion In The Canterbury Tales

Open Document