Chaucer's Admonishing Of The Clergy

Decent Essays
Auquan Holmes
Mrs. Owens
English IV, Period 3
3 December 2014
Chaucer’s Admonishing of the Clergy: A Character Analysis of the Friar in the Canterbury Tales Based on his description of the Monk as a man’s man whose favorite love is hunting and he has elegant horses and fast greyhounds. The Monk isn’t sticking to his religious figure, he shouldn’t be a hunter, over power his expensive habits, and be dressed in fur and gold jewelry. The Monk is able to admit though that he doesn’t live a traditional religious life of study, hard work and fasting. The Monk is fat, bald, and greasy, with eyes that roll in his head. The physical appearance of his rolling eyes might be a sign of desire for food and women. The Monk is not your typical church man,

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    The Middle Ages were marked by religious upheaval in Europe. Two new major world religions were coming to power: Islam and Christianity. The rapid success of Christianity led the Roman Catholic Church to become the dominant religious force in most of the western world, and as with any powerful institution, it became increasingly corrupt (Swanson 409). As Lillian Bisson writes in Chaucer and the Late Medieval World, "[the] Medieval church . . . was a collection of competing factions with often contradictory agendas" (49).…

    • 199 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Chaucer and The Church In Geoggrey Chaucer’s, The Canterbury Tales, 29 people are on a pilgrimage to Canterbury to worship the shrine of the martyr Saint Thomas Becket. One of these pilgrims is a Wife of Bath. She has a unique story; she has wedded five different men. During this time, (The Medieval Times) The Church was one of the most powerful institutions in Europe.…

    • 778 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Knight tells a tale of courtly love and romance, which is in stark contrast to the dirty tales recited by the Miller, the Shipman, or some of the other middle to lower class pilgrims. Chaucer uses this creative raciness to make clear the distinct social dissimilarities during this time period. Chaucer also shows his distaste for the church, by characterizing the monk in the the Shipman's Tale as deceitful and untrustworthy. By describing the characters realistically, Chaucer created a story that when read in present day, gives a window into the social structure and personalities of all classes of people in the…

    • 568 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Sam Burton Mrs. Tarpey English 3 14 October 2015 Parson Power Many clergy fail to practice the very standards they teach. In the story "The Canterbury Tales," Chaucer clearly displays this lack of respect for religious duty through the monk and friar. On the other hand Chaucer uses the parson to exemplify a priest who does practice what he preaches.…

    • 451 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    According to Vicky Smith,“ the Monk – a male equivalent of the Prioress, he appears rather too keen on good living and the pursuit of pleasure than is appropriate.” (Smith, Vicky. " Chaucer 's Canterbury Tales. " The Horn Book Magazine (Boston) 83.2 (2007). Both are evidently self-indulging in their behaviors.…

    • 1324 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In The Canterbury Tales, the Friar is described performing…

    • 1382 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Canterbury Tales hosts a variety of unique individuals from different backgrounds and social statuses that are brought together by their pilgrimage to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas A.Beckett at Canterbury Cathedral. They exchange their own unique stories as a part of storytelling contest to keep them all engaged on their journey. Chaucer uses these characters and their stories to criticize many parts of English society and the church during the medieval time. In the Friars tale and the pardoners tale, he satirizes the church exposing the hypocrisy and indulgence of the clergy.…

    • 334 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Their courtesy extended from respectable battle tactics to gentle service to ladies. Overall, Chaucer’s glorified description of the Knight tells readers how appreciative he is for the Knight’s pureness. In remembering Marilyn Monroe’s quote, the highest respect Chaucer offers to the Knight is treasured. In medieval times, infamous for the corruptness of society, the Knight’s immaculate nature is remarkable as is his allegiance to God and his people which Chaucer depicts so clearly and eloquently in The Canterbury…

    • 2146 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Chaucer then describes the Friar, named Hubert. His main obligation is to beg to get money. The narrator describes the Friar by saying "he knew the taverns well in every town, and every innkeeper and barmaid, better than a leper or a beggarwoman” (General Prologue, 240-242). This quote degrades the Friar to being a drinker and someone who has many rendezvous with women. The narrator’s description of his attire is not what we would expect a poor man to be wearing.…

    • 223 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Pardoner’s Words: Life as a Game for the Craftiest and Blind to the Slowest While the Pardoner of Geoffrey Chaucer’s poem The Canterbury Tales, is undoubtedly a prime model of hypocrisy and evil intent, and his ability to survive on earth as an aberration of all norms shows that the norms leaves the travelers, and people in general, open to folly and sin. Chaucer appears to be inspired by the Fals Semblant character of the famous poem Roman de la Rose by Guillaume de Lorris, another deceitful character who uses society’s foibles for his own gain. It is the gullible, willfully ignorant and ambitious people they con that enable their duplicity in their eyes. The Pope, the lords of the peasants, and the mercantile class emerging are all…

    • 871 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Helen Rocha Per.2 SAHC:HR By looking at the Knight's and Miller's Tale in Geoffrey Chaucer's work of fiction Canterbury Tales 1476, one can see the distinctions between love and lust, and the tragic and comic endings desire, temptation, and ones emotional necessities may lead the human mind to. The Knight who portrays humorous aristocracy among pilgrims, introduces a courtly love tale that represents his social class. The Miller on the contrary represents the middle class in Medieval England, and coveys a fabliau tale, completely distinct from the Knight's tale. Both tales introduce the conventions of romance, and upshot of desire. While one tale engages on a spiritual meaningful convention of love, the other engages in sexual drive and the humiliation lechery may bring to ones table for the rest of their living.…

    • 1073 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer is the documentation of 29 different people going on a pilgrimage. It shows the changing medieval society-taking place in England and the people coming on this journey come from all different types of shire’s and social classes. They are travelling from London to Canterbury for a spiritual journey that will bring people closer to the divine spirit and help them evolve into better people. Harry Bailey who is hosting tells the guest’s that in order to make the ride more fun and make time pass, that each pilgrim tell two tales on the way to Canterbury and two tales on the way home from Canterbury. One story Chaucer brings to the reader 's attention is that of The Knight 's Tale.…

    • 2494 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the Canterbury Tales, there are many people we are introduced to throughout the story, all with completely different personalities and beliefs. Today, we are focusing on the man with a different motive than the words he delivers. This, being the Friar. In general, Friars’ are men who pertain to certain religious orders for the people; he is one under god who gives his time and money to the poor. Someone who believes he is there to help the people who can not necessarily help themselves.…

    • 722 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    During the fourteenth century, there were a vast array of cultural changes and shifts in social classes, the role of women, and the Church, all of which are depicted throughout the course of Canterbury Tales. Nobility and the rise of the middle class is highlighted in the prologue in which Chaucer introduces the characters in order of their social rank. Also, the increase in the role of women is depicted in the Wife of Bath’s prologue and story where the moral is that women equal authority over men. Last but not least, the corruption of the Church after the Black Plague is emphasized through the Pardoner’s hypocritical tale. From these views, it is made clear of Chaucer’s dislike for the Church’s officials and the social hierarchy of the time.…

    • 979 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Although the Canterbury tales is a satiric story about pilgrims, each character presents personality traits, appearances and tales that do not fit them in to absolute good or evil. However, instead of leaving the sinful characters to only be defined by their evil deeds, Chaucer manages to rationalize their deed to be a result of their nature. Giving them more of an amplified version of evil characteristics every human beings possesses. Through this rationale, Chaucer was able to show that no matter what their social status was, they were all Firstly, The gender parallels of each character reflect some of the worst characteristics in each other only adjusting their wrongdoings to be more fitting to their gender. For example, The Pardoner of…

    • 1673 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays