The Summoner's Tale

The pilgrims, or characters of The Canterbury Tales are relatable to the present society in numerous ways. Many of them show traits that are similar to today’s world like greed, pride, envy, and gluttony. The Canterbury Tales consist of a prologue defining all of the pilgrims and individual stories that the pilgrims tell. Each character has his or her own unique personality that is comparable to some well-known personalities. In The Canterbury Tales prologue, there are several characters that are described. One of them is the Monk. Monks are supposed to take up a religious life, and devote their life to serving their belief. They commit themselves to vows such as abstinence, poverty, and compliance. In the prologue, it tells how this monk lives a sinful and indulging lifestyle. The Monk hunts, overeats, and dresses elaborately. He claims he is a modern man, and that he does not follow traditional styles. “This mounted Monk let old things pass away, so that the modern world might have its day. (Lines 175 and 176)” This character is interesting and relatable, because there are people in the modern world that act like the Monk. In today’s society, the traits most similar to the Monk are greed, gluttony, and…

Chaucer is no stranger to writing parodies of his own stories in The Canterbury Tales, as seen in the Reeve’s Tale working off of and following immediately after The Miller’s Tale. Similarly, The Friar’s Tale closely parallels and also follows right after The Wife of Bath’s Tale. Chaucer aligns these two tales to enforce the point that they should not be interpreted separately, but rather they should be accepted as an entire unit. And by implementing textual similarities, Chaucer blurs the lines…

As the pilgrims arrived I began to plan a seating arrangement so all will be fine and dandy the night of the dinner with no absurd interruptions. I first placed the Summoner in the far left-hand side corner for I know he is an irrational drunk who at any time may be obligated to leave to the distant restroom for his bladder will be full. He is also hard to look at as well with his overly blemished face. That’s why I intended to have his right side free of any fellow pilgrims. Although there are…

terms, during this time, money was the key to making it to heaven after death and for eternal forgiveness. Chaucer did an exceptional job with portraying all of the corruption and vices in the secular and non secular societies in The Canterbury Tales. During this time, everything was not as it seemed. Historian Keith Baker claimed that there was a large amount of tension between the church and the state. “If you worked for the church, you believed the state was corrupt, and if you worked for the…

over centuries of ruling and with the ignorance of its subjects there was really no true opposition to the government. Geoffrey Chaucer uses his work of poems The Canterbury Tales in response to this, and addresses many societal issues of medieval England with an emphasis on his criticism of the church. The Canterbury Tales mirrors the characterization of clergymen of the time and allows Chaucer to condemn their corrupt…

Critique of Chaucer’s Attack on Church Hypocrisy (An Understanding of Chaucer’s Attack on Church Hypocrisy) Within Geoffrey Chaucer’s stories of, “Canterbury Tales,” he clearly explicates the negativity brought about by the hypocrisy of the church. While he proves, distinctly, that he is not against the church itself, he does show, on many occasions, how disgusted and furious he is about the greed and selfishness of the church. Before going into details about the story of the pardoner, the…

A man of God should never be greedy, however, the pardoner in “The Pardoner’s Tale” uses his position as a scheme to make money. The theme of “The Pardoner’s tale” is “Radix malorium est cupiditas,” (Chaucer 123) which is Latin for “Greed is the root of all evil.” The pardoner begins his tale by saying, “But let me briefly make my purpose plain; I preach for nothing but greed of gain.” (Chaucer 125) Truthfully admitting to his own greed is ironic because he goes on to tell a story that…

The Caterbury Tails are written in the 14th century by Chaucer. During the Time around the 14th century church was the greatest power in the world. The Holy Roman Empire had control over the people and the state. But during the later years of its power and began to become more and more corrupt with more and more people abusing their power. Canterbury tales represents the corruption of the problems within the church by the use of its characters. The main character Is off on a pilgrimage to…

Pedro Paramo was written in 1955 in Mexico, a deeply Catholic country. The influence of this Catholicism, along with Juan Rulfo’s disillusionment with the politics of the church, is evident throughout his novella. Through Pedro Paramo, Juan Rulfo criticises the opportunistic nature of the church, portraying the greed of the church elites and their willingness to sell salvation to cater to their own desires while also portraying the elites as an extension of God, thus implicating Him in their…

In The Pardoner’s tale, a horribly greedy man divulges the sinful business tactics he uses to trick people out of their money. He teaches sermons using fake relics fooling people into buying them to work miracles. The real-life version of the Pardoner, Marjoe, made his living by traveling across the United States pretending to be an amazing preaching prodigy, as a child, thus tricking people out of their money in the same way. Furthermore, the Pardoner entertains his fellow travelers by telling…