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7 Deadly Sins In Canterbury Tales

Decent Essays

In the prologue to Geoffrey Chaucer’s epic Canterbury Tales, readers are introduced to the 30 characters which make up a large group of pilgrims on their way to Canterbury, supposedly to see the Church of the Martyr Thomas Becket. The Host of the pilgrimage gives all the pilgrims a challenge over the course of the pilgrimage, tell two tales each way to and from Canterbury, and those with the best stories will be brought dinner at the expense of all the others. It is evident as the stories begin to flow forward and the characters are being described, that they all aren’t truly there to be blessed in the presence of Thomas Becket’s church. In fact, all of these characters represent the seven deadly sins in one form or another, which was a heavy …show more content…

However, even he is not to be excluded from the Seven Deadly Sins, perhaps something that Chaucer was attempting to tell his readers: no one can escape from living in sin. Though the Knight is described as living in “Truth, honour, freedom and all courtesy” (Chaucer, Line 46), he is also full of pride from his previous battles and honorable meetings, some of which have the feeling of being fabricated to preserve his own self-esteem. He is known for his battles “At Alexandria,… Latvia….Russia….Granada...” (Chaucer, Lines 51, 53, 54, 56), which he has quite obviously been telling everyone about in his short time with the pilgrims. Therefore, it could be said that the Knight is prideful of these achievements, making him guilty of this deadly sin. The Knight shows that it is entirely possible to a great person at heart, but still be condemned of one of the many things considered to be a sin. Although many are great of moral stature but corrupted by sin, the same could not be said for The Summoner, who was gluttonous in all he did and a generally terrible human …show more content…

Unlike many sins which can be concealed within the text such as the pride of the Knight, Lust cannot be concealed and is very present when reading through the description of any of the characters exhibiting the sin. For example, within the Friars passage, Chaucer states that this Friar had “arranged full many a marriage Of women young, and this at his own cost” (Lines 212-213). Obviously no effort has been done into concealing this sin at all, perhaps this is because Chaucer simply doesn’t view this sin as being terrible, and simply as being a part of life. He is further stated as being with “all the worthy women of the town”, showing that he is not the only one partaking in this sin, but all those around him who are with

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