In “The General Prologue”, Chaucer's portrait of the pilgrim Friar satirizes the estates through his seduction of women, his misuse of begging, and his disassociation with the class he should be living among. The ironic descriptions and estates satire of the Friar portray how corrupt the Catholic Church was at this time. The pilgrim Friar is in the class of the clergy, but acts as if he is of a higher class. He does not act as how a Friar should be; he is not who he should be. Any other friar is a man of God, they represent God and God's actions. The Friar is the complete opposite of this, so arise the irony. The Friar is more interested in woman than helping the poor. He uses his ability of begging and doing confessions to fund his needs and desires; money that should be going towards helping the poor. The Friar simply does not want to be who he should be, so explaining his disassociation from the class he should be a part of, the class he should be helping.
The Friar's occupation required him to help the peasants and overall the less fortunate. He is a man of God, his only necessities should consist of helping others. Chaucer shows the reader that helping people was the last thing on the Friar's mind, “So muchel of daliaunce and fair langage. He hadde maad ful many a mariage of yonge wommen at his owene cost” (Chaucer 211-213). The Friar was more focused on winning the hearts of women rather than doing his job. He seduced women, something that is not familiar with occupation of a Friar. He is by no means religious or holy, he is more of the opposite of who he should be. Again it is explained that the Friar has a way with words, “Ful wel biloved and famulier was he, and eek with worthy wommen of the toun” (Chaucer 215-217). H...
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...lain it to the rest of society. He the man of God, and his occupation requires him to help to poor. The irony with all that being said is that the Friar in Chaucer's “The General Prologue”, is everything he should not be. The Friar is more content on winning the hearts of every woman he finds attractive. Helping the poor is the last thing that comes to his mind, but the first thing that does come to mind is satisfying his own selfish needs. He uses his begging benefits, and wealth from doing confessions to buy expensive things for himself and the women he attempts to impress. The Friar believes that he is above the class he belongs to, so he robs and deprives them of their chance to survive, in order to be someone who he is not. The Friar is meant to guide the people that look to him for help, instead he robs them of their dignity when they have their backs turned.
Chaucer's Prologue is an introduction to the characters that he will soon be talking about in his short stories. It was written to combat the Italian Buchartio, and write his own version to achieve fame. The reason that the Italian version became so popular is because of how it was written in the Italian of the street people, in other words, it could be understood by the whole of Italy, not just the rich. Chaucer wanted to do the same thing, but came to halt when he was deciding what language to write it in, he thought of Russian and other languages, but soon decided on English. This is extremely important because it is the first time that English has ever been written down, usually it is just a spoken language with no written form. This is why it was so important to the English language that he wrote it specifically in English. Giving the language a written form, sort of. It was a mixture of German of the east and native language from the Anglo Saxons. It is difficult to read, because this is the first time English has been written down, so there wasn’t any set way to spell words, and they were spelled how they sounded phonetically.”Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote The droghte of March Hath Perced to the roote, And bathed every veyne in swich liquor” (Page 97 Lines 1-3). Typically, this meant that the same word was spelled fifty different ways throughout the entire Prologue. Though it is hard to read it is still an excellent story, and has very depth in its characters, which are fully developed and give further detail into the story and make it one of the best stories in English there is today.
...irony, the corruption he believes can be found in the Church, pointing at its common tendency in this time to take advantage of the people through its power. He also shows through the Pardoner that perhaps immoral people cannot guide people to morality, through subtle lines such as “For though myself be a ful vicious man,/ A moral tale yit I you telle can” (GP 171-172). Through Chaucer’s portrayal of the Pardoner in this tale, the audience is able to see that the Pardoner is a self-absorbed, greedy man that mirrors what the author thinks of the Church, and that the Pardoner is the exact opposite of what he preaches, which also points towards the supposed corruption of the Church. The irony found throughout this work serves the important purpose of bringing attention to the dishonesty and fraud Chaucer believes can be found in the Roman Catholic Church at this time.
Throughout the main "Prologue" as well as "The Friar's Prologue", the characteristics and appearance of the friar, Hubert, is presented in such a way that portrays his character as sly and sinful. With such lines that say, "easy man to give penance when knowing he should gain a good pittance", I am compelled to view Hubert as a sly thief, considering he pockets silver gifted to him by confessors who hope for a better penance. This silver helps Hubert live a comfortable life when he should be living in poverty sufficing on the charitable donations of others through begging. Also, instead of the dirty, tattered clothes which friars typically wear, Hubert dresses like that of a lord, described as "Of double worsted was his semi-cope, that rounded like a bell".
During Chaucer’s time, there was only one church, the Roman Catholic Church. There is only one church because the Protestant movement hasn’t started yet, it started in the 16th century. Anyone who was a member of the Roman Catholic Church, for example a Pardoner, a Summoner, or a Friar, are not to have sex, or party around, as well as not having money. Chaucer notices that some of these people in the Church break these rules repeatedly. Chaucer uses satire to brilliantly describe the hypocrisy in the church. Although Chaucer may come off as anti-religious, he is religious, he is against anti-hypocrisy. The first character Chaucer uses satire on is the Friar. Chaucer tells his audience that the Friar liked to sleep around a lot with women. The Friar also got lots of girls pregnant and then married them off to men in the church. The Friar was also very wealthy, and liked to party. Which are clear violations of the church’s code. To make things worse, Chaucer said that this particular Friar was better than others. The next characters that Chaucer introduced were the Pardoner and the Summoner. The Summoner’s job in a church is to find people who have committed sin and bring them to the church so that their sins can be forgiven by the Pardoner. However, the Summoner abused his power by blackmailing people to go see the Pardoner or else they
... his preaching. He can be seen as a good example of how a clergyman should be. The Friar on the other hand in deed, speech, motives, and reasoning, is questionable in relation to his position. He is a selfish man who will take from, but not be amongst the poor since there is little good it will do him. Instead of using his office to do good works and to lead people closer to religion, he uses it for personal profit. His piety is less than devout, as it is insinuates that he is a lecherous man who is very interested in women. He would rather be among the wealthy than be true to his orders. In contrast to the Parson, he is not a good example of a clergyman. These pilgrims work together to show good and bad instances of men of the church, and comment on eachother in their characteristics in a way that highlights the qualities of one and the faults of the other.
Friar, to satirize the idea of charity and show that they are using charity for
The monk receives some scathing sarcasm in Chaucer’s judgment of his new world ways and the garments he wears “With fur of grey, the finest in the land; Also, to fasten hood beneath his chin, He had of good wrought gold a curious pin: A love-knot in the larger end there was.” (194-197, Chaucer). The Friar is described as being full of gossip and willing to accept money to absolve sins, quite the opposite of what a servant of God should be like. Chaucer further describes the friar as being a frequenter of bars and intimate in his knowledge of bar maids and nobles alike. The friar seems to be the character that Chaucer dislikes the most, he describes him as everything he should not be based on his profession. The Pardoner as well seems to draw special attention from Chaucer who describes him as a man selling falsities in the hopes of turning a profit “But with these relics, when he came upon Some simple parson, then this paragon In that one day more money stood to gain Than the poor dupe in two months could attain.” (703-706, Chaucer). Chaucer’s description of the pardoner paints the image of a somewhat “sleazy” individual “This pardoner had hair as yellow as wax, But lank it hung as does a strike of flax; In wisps hung down such locks as he 'd on head, And with them he his shoulders overspread; But thin they dropped, and stringy, one by one.” (677-681,
...id too better than lepers, beggars and that crew" (244-46, 111). The Friar cares only about pleasing himself and does not work to make other people's lives better. He neglects the people he is supposed to help and instead spends his time with the rich. These members of the clergy are not devout Catholics and have no right to be masquerading as one. By pretending to be something they are not, they bring corruption into the church.
Society has always judged a person on his level of morality. This level of judgment has been evident since the immoral acts of Adam and Eve were committed. Some of these acts are dishonesty, adultery, and ignorance. “The Friar’s Tale” makes these moral issues clear through various characters. The summoner and the Devil both show dishonesty, abuse of power, and mercilessness. In this short story, Chaucer illustrates the theme of immorality and how it affects the character of all the persons in the tale.
The Canterbury Tales is a literary masterpiece in which the brilliant author Geoffrey Chaucer sought out to accomplish various goals. Chaucer wrote his tales during the late 1300’s. This puts him right at the beginning of the decline of the Middle Ages. Historically, we know that a middle class was just starting to take shape at this time, due to the emerging commerce industry. Chaucer was able to see the importance and future success of the middle class, and wrote his work with them in mind. Knowing that the middle class was not interested in lofty philosophical literature, Chaucer wrote his work as an extremely comical and entertaining piece that would be more interesting to his audience. Also, Chaucer tried to reach the middle class by writing The Canterbury Tales in English, the language of the middle class rather than French, the language of the educated upper class. The most impressive aspect of Chaucer’s writing is how he incorporated into his piece some of his own controversial views of society, but yet kept it very entertaining and light on the surface level. One of the most prevalent of these ideas was his view that certain aspects of the church had become corrupt. This idea sharply contrasted previous Middle Age thought, which excepted the church’s absolute power and goodness unquestionably. He used corrupt church officials in his tales to illustrate to his audience that certain aspects of the church needed to be reformed. The most intriguing of these characters was the Pardoner. Chaucer’s satirical account of the Pardoner is written in a very matter-of-fact manner that made it even more unsettling with his audience. Chaucer uses his straightforwardness regarding the hypocrisy of the Pardoner, suggestive physiognomy of the character, and an interesting scene at the conclusion of the Pardoner’s Tale to inculcate his views of the church to his audience. The way that Chaucer used these literary devices to subtly make his views known to an audience while hooking them with entertainment, shows that Chaucer was truly a literary genius.
The Canterbury Tales examines many important qualities of human nature. Chaucer purposely mocks the faults in his characters, and shows the hypocrisy and deceitfulness ...
Chaucer’s book “The Canterbury Tales” presents a frame story written at the end of the 14th century that is set through a group of pilgrims participation in a story-telling contest that they make up to entertain each other while they travel to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. Because of this, some of the tales become particularly attractive for they are written within a frame of parody which, as a style that mocks genre, is usually achieved by the deliberate exaggeration of some aspects of it for comic effect. In fact, as a branch of satire mimicry, its purpose may be corrective as well as derisive. (Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms) Chaucer, therefore, uses parody to highlight – satirize - some aspects of the medieval society that should be re-evaluated. He uses the tales and the behaviours of its characters to paint an ironic and critical portrait of the English society at that time, therefore the tales turn satirical, elevated, ironic, earthy, bawdy, and comical. When analysing the Knight’s and the Miller’s Tale, one can realise how Chaucer mocks the courtly love convention, and other social codes of behaviours typical of the medieval time.
The Parson is an extremely humble, generous, and overall astounding person. He is not greedy in the slightest and gives to the poor as much as possible. Also, his conduct is impeccable and he is a role model for all parishioners. This description of the Parson is the complete opposite of the Friar’s true disposition and moral character. The Friar believes “Nothing good can come of commerce with such slum-and-gutter dwellers,/But only with the rich and victual-sellers” (250). The Friar only worked with the upper-class and believed “it was not fitting with the dignity of his position/[to deal] with a scum of wretched leper.” (248). One can assume from this statement that he must not be a man of God if he is so degrading of others. The Friar continually displays a particularly greedy and judgmental persona throughout the poem. As mentioned before, the Friar taking money from the poor also says a lot about his character. If he was sincerely a man of the church, he would not take from people who already live in poverty. He certainly does not follow God’s devout way of life. While the Parson gives to the poor, the Friar takes from them. Though the Friar’s behavior is looked down upon in the eyes of the church, the Parson “truly knew Christ’s gospel and would preach it/Devoutly to parishioners, and teach it,” which verifies that he truly is a religious and righteous man (491). This validates the theory that the Parson has a fine grasp on his morality while the Friar does not due to his dishonorable
Chaucer uses the Prioress, the Monk and the Friar to represent his views on the Church. He makes the three model members of the Church appear to have no problems with self-indulgence, greed, and being unfaithful to their vows. He displays his anti skeptical thoughts of the faults of the medieval church by making fun of its teachings and the people of the church, who use it for personal gain. Chaucer see’s the church as corrupt, hypocritical and greedy.
...eveals insecurities of him in the process while that itself tells us more about the popular culture in this time. Chaucer, along with many of the other pilgrims attempts to place themselves in a socially desirable or even superior position. With the Narrator having the responsibility of articulating the tales to us in a coherent fashion, he might feel pressure to present himself as all-knowing or superior to his companions rather than show us an honest and unbiased point of view. After all, he is telling the story; the Narrator can ultimately choose to tell us whatever he pleases. The Narrator plays the role of telling tales and providing the groundwork for this pilgrimage story, but since his ideas and opinions are designed in such a particular way; he indirectly tells us so much more about not only about the pilgrimage but of this time period’s culture as a whole.