There were many different jobs during the Middle Ages. These jobs belonged to many different people with many different characteristics. In the series of tales The Canterbury Tales, author Geoffrey Chaucer writes about a group of people with different occupations during the Middle Ages. Who are going on a pilgrimage to the sacred town of Canterbury. Chaucer gives a detailed description of each character traveling to Canterbury. During this trek to Canterbury each of the passengers tells a different tale that Chaucer has chosen for them. When Chaucer described the Summoner he started with he had a face on fire like a cherubim, which, in medieval art means a little angel with a rosy face (Chaucer). He had carbuncles on his face which are pus-filled skin inflammations that look like boils, and pimples and pus-filled sores all over his face that no ointment or cream could fix (Chaucer). He had black and scabby brows and a thin beard; he was hot and lecherous as a sparrow which means he was after more than one woman at all times (Chaucer). The Summoner was also a drunk who loved garlic, onions, and leeks (Chaucer). When children saw the Summoner they were generally afraid (Chaucer). Chaucer uses the physiognomy of the Summoner to show his true character. Chaucer constructs the Summoner's portrait so as to describe the Summoner's medical conditions (Braswell-Means). The Summoner is clearly unnaturally hot as both his description and his cures indicate; the combination of these two suggests that the Summoner is choleric or bad tempered (Braswell-Means). The Summoner's disease is also associated with sexuality; this was not only directed towards women but possibly children as well (Braswell-Means). This explains why Chaucer was sure to ... ... middle of paper ... ...hat has happened to him and the council feels no sympathy for him (Chaucer, Geoffrey). What the Summoner is trying to get the travelers to understand is that Friars are not all what they seem and do not always do what they promise. This is another point Chaucer is trying to make about how the church is corrupt by pining the Summoner and the Friar against each other. Chaucer gets the Summoner to tell this tale so that he shows what he believes Friars are in reality compared to what they appear to be which is high and mighty. This also proves to the crude demeanor that the Summoner carries showing somewhat jealousy towards the Friar, trying to ward the travelers away from believing him (Chaucer, Geoffrey). The Summoner is a basic translation of the warning Chaucer is attempting to display with how he thinks the church is being evolved into something it should not be.
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales are filled with many entertaining tales from a variety of characters of different social classes and background. The first two tales told, by the knight and the miller, articulate very different perspectives of medieval life. Primarily, The tales of both the knight and the miller bring strikingly different views on the idea of female agency, and as we will discover, Chaucer himself leaves hints that he supports the more involved, independent Alison, over the paper-thin character of Emily.
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...
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.
Chaucer used controversies to create character. He wanted his characters to teach the readers something new about life. The Wife of Bath and the Pardoner demonstrate Chaucer’s way of creating characters based on the sexuality of the medieval period.
The characters are on a pilgrimage which is a clear indicator that the text is of religious genre. The Catholic Church, at the time, was losing many followers due to the Black Death and their lack of faith in the importance of the church. The Summoner and the Pardoner, who both represent the Catholic Church, are both described as greedy, corrupt, and abusive. This is a direct correlation to how Chaucer and many others felt about the Catholic Church during this period. The Monk and the Prioress are not described as being corrupt like the Summoner and the Pardoner; however they are described as falling short of what is considered ideal for people of their position. They both are described as being in a depressed state. Also bot...
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
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,
...iplomat, and civil servant for the king collecting and inventorying metal scraps) that Chaucer had led him to meet the 'types' of people portrayed in his stories exemplifying in a certain way social classes. He was able to model the speech and ways to parody the very people, in which his literature would become popular. His narrative was closer to society with which they felt identified.
The first of these devices, his straightforwardness and matter-of-factness regarding the Pardoner’s hypocrisy, is used first to appall his readers, and then to cause them to take a second look at the church in their own society. Chaucer knew that most of his audience lacked the ability to fully understand his views, but he hoped that by using this device he could plant seeds of reason in them that would lead to reform of corruption he saw among church officials like the pardoners.
The Canterbury Tales is a literary work that deals with the personal concerns and solutions of an evolving Medieval society. In Medieval Europe pilgrimages were common for personal reflection, penance, and spiritual renewal. Chaucer chose the framework of a pilgrimage for its naturally plausible diversity of people and mix of pious purpose and holiday spirit.
What makes Chaucer’s characters so unique and unforgettable is that he cast them outside of these roles. Bordering on the controversial but lightened by his use of humor, his characters...
The Canterbury Tales is an in-depth narrative analysis of twenty-nine unique characters and their Host on a collective pilgrimage to Thomas Becket’s shrine in Canterbury. Chaucer paints vivid pictures of each pilgrim through his description of their physical appearance, inner nature, and outward behavior towards others. The individuals are not given names but the reader can identify them by their titles. One of the clearest cut characters in this work is the Parson. Chaucer presents the Parson in The Canterbury Tales to create a stark contrast for the other religious figures by his description of the Parson’s inner constitution, outward actions, and shepherd like qualities.
...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.
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 Canterbury Tales is a great contemplation of stories, that display humorous and ironic examples of medieval life, which imitate moral and ethical problems in history and even those presented today. Chaucer owed a great deal to the authors who produced these works before his time. Chaucer tweaked their materials, gave them new meanings and revealed unscathed truths, thus providing fresh ideas to his readers. Chaucer's main goal for these tales was to create settings in which people can relate, to portray lessons and the irony of human existence.