The General Prologue Of Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales

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If one has ever read the General Prologue of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, they will find the attitude of Chaucer to be very opinionated and complex toward the members of the clergy. Some of the clergy consists of the Monk, the Prioress (also known as the nun), and the Friar. Chaucer has gone into depth of each one of these members in each section of the Prologue. From reading each section and analyzes his attitude towards each member, it is portrayed that Chaucer has a complex attitude of appreciation and dishonesty towards the members of the clergy.
In the beginning of the General Prologue, Chaucer describes the life and personality of the Prioress. The reader can imagine her as an elegant, contemporary ideal of a beauty from the expectations of a nun in the medieval times. He also talks about her fascination with kindness to animals. For instance, Chaucer states “She used to weep if she but saw a mouse/Caught in a trap, if it were dead or bleeding” (Chaucer, “General Prologue” 7). Being so fond of animals in the medieval times is seen as a sign of weakness. As a nun in those times, her charity should be more towards the poor and needy, not soulless animals. Chaucer’s attitude of appreciation comes in when he talks about her feelings towards these animals. The people of the church find it unnatural while Chaucer somewhat agrees with the fact that she shows this sort of love towards something other than the church. He also shows the attitude of dishonesty within the Prioress because she knows that her feelings of love and constant fondness of materialistic items is wrong and completely against the nun ways.
Secondly stated in the General Prologue is the lifestyle of the Monk. Chaucer describes him as a very mag...

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...es of a Friar, (which explains the attitude of dishonest from Chaucer), Chaucer still ironically commends the Friar as a strong leader of the church.
As the reader goes through the Canterbury Tales, it is seen that Chaucer shows the complex attitude of dishonesty and appreciation towards not just the Friar, Monk and the Prioress, but towards all the other characters displayed. Chaucer showed a sense of appreciation through each the Monk, Prioress, and the Friar when he talked about the importance of elegance and having the nicest things. Each one of these members of clergy had to have everything from the nicest clothes down to the best gold buckle on their shoe. While analyzing that, Chaucer also seemed to portray the sense of dishonesty that these members of clergy had. Each one broke the rules of their lifestyle in a way that Chaucer seemed to describe as corrupt.

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