THE PURSUIT OF WEALTH : MATERIALISTIC DESIRE VERSUS THE RICHNESS OF HOLY ACTIONS Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The General Prologue” to The Canterbury Tales can be portrayed as a story based on the concept of wealth, and what one can truly benefit from following it. Throughout his prologue, Chaucer visualizes the values that the characters hold in correlation to money by using imagery of the pilgrims clothing, transportation, and luxury items. The narrator follows this by illustrating the consequences that come from pursuing wealth, and how it can corrupt one’s religious beauty. However, few characters presented in his descriptions challenge what has wistfully become the norm, and possesses a holy beauty that outweighs the desire for materialistic …show more content…
The purpose of his images is to allow the reader to gain a sense of understanding that the clothing the pilgrims choose to dress in can shine a light to their true personality and intentions. Throughout his prologue, it is apparent that Chaucer goes more in depth on the clothing of the crooked characters, such as the Friar, “It is nat honest, it may nat avaunce / For to delen with no swich poraille, / But al with riche and selleres of vitaille. (246 - 248) as opposed to those of a more loving nature like the Parson. The reader can perceive that he does this to place the focus on the charitable deeds of the characters. However, in saying that he does go into minimum detail about their clothing to illustrate the lack of wealthy materials that they hold to demonstrate that their intentions are pure. In the description of the Parson, Chaucer does not discuss his clothing in great detail apart from the staff he carries. Instead, Chaucer chooses to go more in depth about the Parson’s charitable work to the people in the society. The Parson has comparisons to Christ in points of the story. The comparison of the connection to his staff and his leading of sheep sets an excellent example for his followers- similarly to the story of Christ. These images that Chaucer gives the reader allows for a deeper understanding as to why his job is more …show more content…
One of the conclusions that can form from the prologue is the higher the intellect one holds, the more capable they are to exploit someone beneath them. This mentality allows opportunities for those with a lack of moral to step in and control the community. Chaucer displays that the Parson is straightforward about the motivation for his behaviour, as he believes he must be a level of excellence that his parishioners should aspire to be "if gold rust, what shal iren do?" (502). From this, it is perceived that Chaucer has an intense amount of respect for him. The Parson is an important figure in the prologue because without his love and compassion, we would only have corrupted characters such as the Pardoner and the Friar; who give the reader a fallacious perspective of what those of religious status should be. Contrasting the comfortable lives other characters choose to hold, the Parson puts his personal comfort second and stays close to his parishioners in order to serve them to the highest quality he can
There are two types of people in this world, the first ones are, the people who doesn't really like reading books because most of them doesn't have pictures on it, and they find it extremely boring. Then the other type of people, who simply gets lost into their book every time they read, because they just simply love reading. Some of them even say that when they're reading, it is taking them to a different world that only their imagination can create. That is why some people consider their books as their most priced possessions, because of how much it means to them and also some books can be rather pricey. Indeed, books can really be expensive, however, you might be too astonished when you see the following books, because they're considered
The Friar and the Parson, as described in the General Prologue of the Canterbury Tales, can be used to portray both the good and the bad sides of clergy. They make a stark contrast to each other, often even directly, with their characteristics as told by the narrator. From physical traits to their actions, these two pilgrims are almost exact opposites in certain ways. Their motivations for these actions describe the differences in the mind sets of the good holy man and the one who is less true to his orders, the Parson and the Friar respectively. Throughout their portraits, the descriptions of the two are set at odds, so as to highlight their contrariety.
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 by Geoffrey Chaucer, (written c. 1387), is a richly varied compilation of fictional stories as told by a group of twenty-nine persons involved in a religious pilgrimage to Canterbury, England during the fourteenth century. This journey is to take those travelers who desire religious catharsis to the shrine of the holy martyr St. Thomas a Becket of Canterbury. The device of a springtime pilgrimage provided Chaucer with a diverse range of characters and experiences, with him being both a narrator and an observer. Written in Middle English, each tale depicts parables from each traveler.
The Canterbury Tales examines many important qualities of human nature. Chaucer purposely mocks the faults in his characters, and shows the hypocrisy and deceitfulness ...
“Whoever is greedy for unjust gain troubles his own household, but he who hates bribes will live” (Proverbs 15:27). The Bible condemns the value of greed and Chaucer is able to incorporate this value into his work through the ironic uses of holy men. Chaucer’s “The Shipman’s Tale” and “The Summoner’s Tale” suggests that the monk and the friar have an overactive id which overpowers their superego- evident from the character’s selfish motives and their rejection of their holy vows.
Chaucer first begins his sly jab at the Church’s motives through the description of the Pardoner’s physical appearance and attitude in his “Canterbury Tales.” Chaucer uses the Pardoner as a representation of the Church as a whole, and by describing the Pardoner and his defects, is able to show what he thinks of the Roman Catholic Church. All people present in the “Canterbury Tales” must tell a tale as a part of story-telling contest, and the pilgrim Chaucer, the character in the story Chaucer uses to portray himself, writes down the tales as they are told, as well as the story teller. The description of the Pardoner hints at the relationship and similarity between the Pardoner and the Church as a whole, as well as marks the beginning of the irony to be observed throughout the “Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale.” The narrator describes the Pardoner as an extremely over confident, arrogant, and unattractive man, noting that his hair is “as yellow as wex,” lying thin and fl...
The Canterbury Tales is a very popular and well known set of stories, written by Geoffrey Chaucer. This collection of stories is great entertainment and some even provide very good moral lessons; most of these stories show the contempt Chaucer had for the Church of England which had control at the time over most of England. Chaucer’s bias towards the corruption of the Church is best demonstrated in the Pardoner’s Prologue, in contradiction with the Parson’s Tale, and the level of power within the Church structure. These are two of the stories of the many that are in The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer uses the Pardoner as a high level leader who is corrupt and yet enables him to convert the sinners even if he does it for personal gain. While the Parson is of lower standing in the Church, he is not corrupt, and gives the message to the pilgrims so that they might be forgiven.
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.
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,
It is not hard to apply Chaucer's description of the greedy doctor to today's medical system, nor is it difficult to find modern-day people with equivalent personalities to those of many of Chaucer's other characters. However, it is the institutions of his time as well as their flaws and hypocrisies that Chaucer is most critical of; he uses the personalities of his characters primarily to highlight those flaws. The two institutions that he is most critical of have lost much, if not all, of their influence; in many instances, the Church has only slight hold on the lives and attitudes of the people as a whole, and the strict feudal system has entirely disappeared. Few institutions today are as clearly visible and universally influential as those two forces were in the Middle Ages, so, if Chaucer were writing his tales today, he would most likely turn to the hypocritical attitudes of the general populace and the idiosyncracies of our daily lives. He gives some emphasis to these in the Tales (for example, he mentions the prioress's ladylike compassion for even the smallest creature in the Prologue, but has her tell an anti-Semitic tale later), but, in today's American culture, he would be most likely to criticize businessmen, middle-class parents, and the demand formust instantaneous gratification.
It is hard to believe that the clergy, in the Middle Ages, was supposed to be the class for morality, yet the clergy was filled with corruption. Geoffrey Chaucer, author of The Canterbury Tales, does a miraculous job of highlighting the Middle Age clergy. Chaucer’s Prologue introduces the viewers to a number of pilgrims, who range from pure to unprincipled. The Friar is a magnificent example of how corrupt the clergymen can be at times. A friar is supposed to represent the Mendicant Catholic church. A friar’s job description is to give up worldly possessions and to travel place to place by begging. However, Chaucer’s description of the Friar varies very differently to the job title he supposedly represents. Chaucer’s focus
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.
While in reflection of the readings this semester, I could not deny that Chaucer’s collection should be preserved as the author succeeded in what his stories were meant to accomplish: to “delight and instruct”. With the alluring variety of characters and entertaining situations which are described in well-chosen detail, each story is provided by the pilgrims. Additionally, as each of the chosen tales (as stated in the course reading syllabus) provides a lesson that is still relevant after five centuries, the “instruction” comes from these universal morals. Therefore, in the course of this essay, I wish to provide reason as to why The Canterbury Tales should be preserved by looking further into the selected tales (“The Miller’s Tale”, “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale”, and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale) in reference to the following: the literary variety expressed in the stories, the morals given in the selected tales, and its references to English society at Chaucer’s time. 1).