Hypocritical Tendencies in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales Essay

   Chaucer presents characters in the Physician's and Pardoner's Tales who are very similar to each other in one important way. Although the characters seem on the surface to be mirror images of each other, they have an important underlying similarity: both the physician and the pardoner are not what they appear to be to most people. Both are hypocritical, although they show this hypocrisy in different ways.

Hypocrisy is a common attribute attributed to many of Chaucer’s religious characters in The Canterbury Tales. They are greedy, drunks, and people without a moral code. In The Pardoner’s Tale this theme is exemplified. The Pardoner is greedy and drunk. Matthew 19:24 (ESV) says, “Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” Despite this, the Pardoner’s only goal is to scam as many people as he can with his “pardoning” of sins. The Pardoner would pretend to have objects blessed by the Vatican and sell them to people as an indulgence for future sins. It is doubtful that any of his objects had even been to Rome. Therefore, when the Pardoner starts his tale, it is one full of hypocrisy and deceit. Arguably, Chaucer’s grievance was not specific to the Pardoner. Rather, Chaucer used this character to make a wider point about the corruption of religion during the fourteenth century.

   Somehow, Chaucer is mocking the behaviours of the characters in this story, he does not condone their actions, in fact, he punishes them for behaving in such a fashion. One can wonder if Chaucer is expressing the idea of a majority of people from his time, or if his voice was singled out among his countrymen.

In The Pardoner’s Tale, the pardoner is depicted as a highly decevious man that takes advantage of people’s fears and uses this fear to fill his pockets with their money or belongings. Although his stories will teach you about right and wrong he is a hypocrite that ignores his stories and capitalises on it. In The Wife Of Bath’s Tale the monk is the opposite of what a demoted godly monk should be, he is fat, loud and begs. In my opinion Chaucer gives too many examples of the godly men doing mischievous things for the reader to like them and is trying to convey that we need to be more cautious of these people even through their crosses and clothing because sometimes the wolf hides in sheep’s

The world is full of hypocrites and in the story “The Pardoner’s Tale”, Chaucer writes about a man who is living a life of sin. The Pardoner’s tale is an epologia of a pardoner who has the power from the church to forgive others for their sins but makes a living out of lying and tricking his audience. Throughout the Pardoner’s Tale he preaches about greed, drinking, blasphemy, and gambling but in the Pardoner’s Prologue he admits to committing these sins himself. The pardoner is really just a 14th century con artist who makes a living by his own hypocrisy.

Chaucer’s views on society are expressed through his characters in “the Canterbury Tales.” The views of medieval society, based on Chaucer, are expressed through his opinions on certain people. Throughout the tales, Chaucer praises or criticizes certain types of people over others. Chaucer usually condemns people from the Ecclesiastical class. As an example, the Pardoner is highly criticized by Chaucer because he is a fraud as stated in line 702.

In Canterbury Tales, Chaucer reveals hypocritical qualities in the Pardoner through vivid characterization, tone, and morality. The Pardoner's total lack of respect for the Church's expectations and the congregation allows Chaucer to display flaws in society. Chaucer is able to demonstrate scams and illustrate hypocrisy in the Church, and society in general through the techniques he uses in Canterbury Tales.

The Canterbury Tales, written and narrated by Geoffrey Chaucer, explores manipulation and dishonesty in the Catholic Church. The Nun in “The General Prologue” exemplifies improper qualities to which a Prioress should have. Along with the Nun, The Friar in “The General Prologue” uses false information to gain customer. In “The Pardoner’s Tale,” the Pardoner uses greedy tactics to wield other pilgrims into buying his relics.In Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Chaucer uses the Nun and the Friar in “The General Prologue” and the Pardoner in “The Pardoner’s Tale” to show the hypocrisy in the Church.

Chaucer’s writing involves a lot of hypocritical characters, for example the pardoner. He speaks of religious peoples wrong doings and the how the workers are compassionate and God fearing. If Chaucer were to still be alive in this day and age he would have plenty to write about. From major icons to the people in charge, there is always lying and hypocrisy. Examples of pilgrims that Chaucer would include in his Canterbury Tales today would be, celebrities, politicians, and modern religious figures who often display wrong doings.

Chaucer’s depiction of the friar is one of the harshest views of religious corruption in the Canterbury Tales. The friar is portrayed as a religious man and someone who corrupts his church for nothing but personal gain. He lacks sincerity and humility for the poor. The friar’s selling of forgiveness is one of the most significant sins that he could commit. He also seems finicky over the people he chooses to help. For example, he helps pretty girls or wealthy gentlemen over the poor and the sick. We also learn that the friar has no association with poor and the sick, another example of the friar failing to be a good representative of the church. He also was begging for money to feed the poor, but is rather pursuing women. The friar is considered

The author of The Canterbury Tales had much to say when it came to religion and the religious people of his society. Chaucer gave descriptions on a number of characters from different backgrounds. He had a certain bias towards people who are truly “good” while the truly “bad” people were made fun of by him He paid special attention to a character when the topic of religion was involved. With the Pardoner’s Tale, the Pardoner acted like a hypocrite and the author made sure to point out his hypocrisy, be it implied or expressed in the story. Chaucer was one of the very few who had the courage to criticize church officials in his lifetime, and it shows that he had a swell time doing it as well. That is why Chaucer, the author of The Canterbury Tales, viewed religion and church officials as a joke because he made fun of most of the religious characters in his prologue, was more meticulous towards religious characters on the topic of religion, and pointed out the hypocrisy of the Pardoner’s morals in his character description and in the Pardoner’s Tale.

Both the Pardoner and the Friar are portrayed as quick-thinking charlatans. Chaucer does seem to admire the Pardoner’s skill, and skilled he is, but his actions do not befit a man of the cloth. The Pardoner is spoken of as using bogus relics to con “poor up-country parsons” out of their hard-earned cash. These small hustles netted him “more in a day than the parson in a month or two”. When choosing his occupation, I’m sure the Pardoner did not see the light of the lord but rather, dollar signs. Chaucer goes on to say that yes, the pardoner did preach rather well and his stories were quite splendid, however that might be on account that he could “win money from the crowd”.

In Chaucer’s famous novel: The Canterbury Tales, he describes many characters in a satirical way, while others he describes with complete admiration. The narrator (a constructed version of Chaucer himself) is staying at the Tabard Inn in London, when a large group of about twenty-nine people enter the inn, preparing to go on a pilgrimage to Canterbury. After the narrator talks to them, he agrees to join them on their pilgrimage. Although, before the narrator progresses any further in the tale, he describes the circumstances and the social rank of each pilgrim. There are two characters in these tales of the same social class, but Chaucer’s opinion on them vary greatly. These two characters are the beloved Parson, and the loathed Pardoner.

     Chaucer lived in a time dictated by religion and religious ideas in which he uses The Canterbury Tales to show some of his views. Religion played a significant role in fourteenth-century England and also in Chaucer’s writing. His ideas of the Church are first seen in “The Prologue,'; and he uses seven religious persons to show the influence of the religion in his writing. Although many of his characters appear to portray part of the corruption in the Church, he does give a small example in which one can conclude that he is speaking in praise.

We are first introduced to the Friar in this section of the story. Chaucer introduces him as, “one of the better Friars”. This is an example of satire because the Friar, who is supposed to be a holy man, likes to sleep around with women and get drunk. “But first I beg of you, in courtesy, not to condemn me as unmannerly if I speak plainly and with no concealing’s and give account of all their words and dealings using their very phrases as they fell.” Chaucer quotes on page 115 of the hymnal. This is Chaucer’s second use of satire in the General Prologue. This is satire because Chaucer made these characters up and is making the words for these characters. He quotes, “I’m short of wit.” So if he says something people disagree with he is going to claim he is stupid and is just quoting what these people