The Monk In The Canterbury Tales

Today, I will be comparing and contrasting Chaucer’s Friar and Parson. More so, show how they have the same kind of job yet be far different in their personalities and be perceived differently by Chaucer. The parson, as proof will show, is a kind hearted and devout follower of his religion. Conversely, the Friar, despite having the same type of job, has a far different demeanor. Firstly comes the similarity of their jobs.

The Catholic Church was a dominant and powerful foundation represented throughout The Canterbury Tales and through the Medieval Era. The majority of religious figures in the story portrayed characteristics of unscrupulousness and deceitfulness which emerged from the corruption of the church. The exception is the Parson; who is an accurate symbol of what the Clergy should be, unlike the Friar who neglects to pursue his missionary. For instance both men act in contrast of each other and illustrate both the admirable and the sinful appearance of the clergy. Throughout the tales these two men and their polarity are presented on accounts of their obligations of the clergy, charitable nature, and their lifestyles.

The Canterbury Tales is a poem written by Geoffrey Chaucer in 1392. In this poem each character tells four stories, two on the way there and two on the way home, to provide entertainment for the people on the pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral. One part of Chaucer’s tales that truly stands out is the character prologue where he introduces all of the characters on the pilgrimage and conveys the narrator’s opinions of them using satire and other literary devices. Of characters that Chaucer’s narrator describes, two are the Parson and the Friar. Both of the characters share similarities in their social status and job position however greatly contrast in morals and character. In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer uses contrasting characteristics to convey an idea that teaches that power does not always lead to corruption.

Chaucer describes his grandiose opinion of himself, the friar is pompous and crooked. He surmises that a man of his “status” should not be seen with the lowly and poor, which is ironic because those are exactly the people he is meant to help. Chaucer as discloses the lengths he is willing to go for even the smallest person gain saying. “His brethren did no poaching where he went./For though a widow mightn’t have a shoe,/So pleasant was his holy how-d’ye-do/He got his/farthing from her just the same/Before he left, and so his income came” (“General Prologue”, 256-262). The friar is willing to take from the people who need it most in the community, the widow’s economic class and living conditions are used further show the reprehensible behavior of the religious characters. Friars, like several other religious orders are supposed to take a vow of poverty in order the become closer to Christ. The Friar in Canterbury Tales does the exact opposite. Both his greed and unscrupulous behavior of another religious character further substantiate the idea that the religious characters are used to reflect the corruption in the church.

The fact that his sources of motivation were secular goals such as wealth and power rather that his religious duties reveals his lack of spiritual depth and selfish nature. Unlike ordinary monks who pray, study, and service their community through manual labor, he entertained himself by hunting. the Monk in Canterbury Tales spends his time participating in leisure activities such as hunting. Materialistic “I saw that his sleeves were garnished at hand With fine grey fur, the finest in the land,

Within Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, “The Wife of Bath Tale and Prologue”, was written with a main focus of promoting power among women; when during that time, medieval ages, it was uncommon among women to desire so much power. In Chaucer’s General Prologue, also within the Canterbury Tales, readers question the Monk by whether or not he should be seen as a religious figure. In both Chaucer’s works misconception becomes a huge factor.

To begin with, the narrator describes two men in particular, the Monk and the Friar, as being contributors to the fraudulence of the church. The monk is described as a very manly man who enjoys hunting and worldly possessions, such as money and clothing. Although these attributes don’t sound unholy, they were frowned upon in Chaucer’s time. The author describes him as a man who “let go by the things of yesterday and took the modern world’s more spacious way” (Chaucer 8). The Monk also does not follow the rule which states “hunters are not holy men” (Chaucer

Once again, Monk’s have plenty of different rules. The Monk loves to hunt hares and ride horses. In the rules, it is said not to hunt and ride horses, be reckless, and leave the monastery; Only to pray, study, and work. Chaucer had shown that the Monk does not care for the rules and loves to hunt and ride when he says, “of priking and of hunting for the

       The characters introduced in the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales each represent a stereotype of a kind of person that Chaucer would have been familiar with in 14th Century England. Each character is unique, yet embodies many physical and behavioral traits that would have been common for someone in their profession. In preparing the reader for the tales, Chaucer first sets the mood by providing an overall idea of the type of character who is telling the tale, then allows that character to introduce themselves through a personal prologue and finally, the pilgrim tells their tale. Through providing the reader with insight about the physical and personal traits of

Chaucer makes forceful insults in his character explication. “The Rule of good St. Benet or St. Maur/ As old and strict he tended to ignore” (Chaucer 7.) A monk is supposed to have a strong authority in the Church, but Chaucer explains that he breaks the written laws and precedents set by people recognized as Saints and highly acclaimed people. The Monk is a lazy, disgusting man who lived a dishonest and imprudent life.

In the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer introduces a variety of characters with a multitude of personalities. From the despicable Summoner to the abrasive Miller, these characters are created with their own personalities and their own human failings. One common fault that characters share is hypocrisy. From pretending to be wealthy to cheating the poor out of money, hypocritical tendencies are abundant in the Canterbury Tales. Throughout the story, Chaucer ridicules the human criticizes the human failing of hypocrisy through the examples of the Pardoner, the Merchant, and the Friar.

Chaucer recognizes and points out devious and manipulative traits in characters such as the Friar when he says "Therefore instead of weeping and of prayer / One should give silver for a poor Friar's care. / He kept his tippet stuffed with pins for curls, / And pocket-knives, to give to pretty girls" (l. 235-238). In this case, relative to many others regarding clergy, Chaucer's description is ironically allegorical. In the instance of the Friar, the Friar is a member of the Catholic clergy. Members of the clergy are sworn to adhere to the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. The friar is selling his authority to grant forgiveness for monetary profit, a tactic that is greedy and immoral and, therefore, breaking the vow to poverty. Moreover, the Friar is especially concerned with his looks because he meticulously tends to his hair. What's more, the Friar is said to give gifts to pretty

      In the General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer describes the men and women of the Church in extreme forms; most of these holy pilgrims, such as the Monk, the Friar, and Pardoner, are caricatures of objectionable parts of Catholic society.  At a time when the power-hungry Catholic Church used the misery of peasants in order to obtain wealth, it is no wonder that one of the greatest writers of the Middle Ages used his works to comment on the religious politics of the day.

When one thinks of a monk, he may imagine someone who studies, prays, and performs manual labor. The Monk, one of the thirty pilgrims travelling on a pilgrimage to Canterbury in The Canterbury Tales, is nothing like the usual monk many people imagine. He is rebellious, ignores rules, and lives and controls his own life. Chaucer, the narrator and author of The Canterbury Tales, shows these characteristics in the way the Monk looks, the things he says and does, and in the things the host, a character in "The Monk's Prologue," and Chaucer say about him.

In The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer paints the characters of the General Prologue in a somewhat ironic light, offering cynicism and criticism as the poet through the naïve observations of his own fictional personification. One character portrait that receives Chaucer’s cynicism is that of the monk, who, on the first read-through, seems to be a jolly monk with a healthy habit of hunting, but on closer inspection is not all that he seems.