Literary Criticism Of Steve Chaucer

He represents corruption as the main theme in his poem The pardoner's tale. The churches are corrupted because of the religious figures. The monks tells people that there is a way to go to heaven, which is to confess to the priests. They lie to people for money (Chaucer).

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.

During the late middle ages, the power of the church was nearly unlimited; despite its holy mission the church was plagued by corruption and misconduct. Member’s of the clergy sold indulgences, bribed officials, and abandoned their vows. The religious characters in the Canterbury Tales are used to demonstrate the author's views of the Church. In Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Chaucer uses The Friar and the Nun in the “General Prologue” and The Pardoner in the “Pardoner’s Tale” to show the systemic corruption that is present in the church by exhibiting their immoral behavior. The Friar take from the destitute, the nun is overly concerned with the refined and the pardoner's only interested in the monetary gain.

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.

By analyzing “The Canterbury Tales”, one can conclude that Chaucer did see the merits of the church, but by no means regarded it in a wholly positive light. Whereas some of the clergy are viewed as devout and God-fearing, others are viewed as con- men and charlatans. One can even venture to say that Chaucer was using this story as somewhat of a criticism of the church, showing the flaws of its leaders and the greed that permeated it at the time.

Based on the Canterbury tales, Chaucer's point of view of the Church was that he thinks highly of the priests who pastor their congregations because they follow the commandments of Jesus Christ. The Summoner, the Pardoner, the Monk and the Prioress are full-time servants of the Church, but they tend to be selfish and care more for themselves than for God's work. The students Nicholas and Absalom are interested in promiscuous behaviors more than the Church. Nick' a misled God-fearing man is similar to the tale of Noah's Ark. He is swindled to cheat on his wife, and Abby is also lustful of his wife. The Church doctrine really doesn't help, by taking advantage of the men's situation for their own

In the story, “The Pardoner’s Tales”, Geoffrey Chaucer wrote the character the Pardoner in descriptive way. He describe the Pardoner’s corruption teaching and the way the Pardoner act in the tale. The religious that the Pardoner teaching is corrupted and very selfish, greediness, and gluttony. This thing are all opposite to what the real church religious is teaching. In the story, he tricks the people to buy his fake relics and other things by using the church’s believe. The Pardoner act and his teaching are all corrupted because of the church. It shows the side of greediness, gluttony and selfishness which highly reflect into himself and his believe.

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.

The Pardoner and Summoner appear together in “The Prologue.” They further illustrate an example of Chaucer’s awareness of a defiled Church. Chaucer provides humor to his description of the Summoner in that “he’d allow – just for a quart of wine - /Any good lad to keep a concubine” (Chaucer 20.) This means that a person who disobeys the Church without seeking repentance can easily bribe the Summoner, in that he will overlook the situation. Chaucer writes about the Pardoner that “by his flatteries and prevarication/ Made monkey of the priest and congregation” (Chaucer 22.) This is another direct insult to the Church at the time.

In the middle ages, society assumed that friars were always “impeccable.” Most friars expressed that they served Christ with their preaching, blessing, and begging for gifts. Chaucer mocks the assumption about religious figures by labeling religious figures in The Canterbury Tales as hypocrites. In “The Summoner’s Tale” of The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer uses allusion, imagery, and the archetypal theme of good vs. evil in order to depict the friar as a hypocritical religious dignitary.

To add on to the corruption, earlier in the “General Prologue” the narrator mentioned how the Pardoner was adding to his irrelevent preaching of having relics. Such as the gobbet of Saint Peter, he goes as far as even saying he has a pillow case made of Our Lady’s veil. Indeed there were people who believed in such spiritual journeys who can be examples of the Pardoner cons, selling them holy relics and or promises of salvation which are frauds. This is more to add to the Pardoner’s deceptions, since his job was to get money from charitable enterprises to give back to those in need. “For in his trunk he had a pillowcase/ Which he asserted was Our Lady’s veil./ He said he had a gobbet of the sail/ Saint Peter had the time when he made bold/ To walk the waves…”(Chaucer 696-700). As shown the Pardoner was a skilled liar, not that the narrator believed him or many people did for that matter, but he was a compulsive liar running on greedy. One quality his tale talks about not having. After bringing attention to the inadequacies of the church workers, it is seemed that Chaucer continues to throw judgement to the Catholic Church through the tales of the characters.

is suggested, by Chaucer, that he might have an ongoing affair with the Summoner. The

Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Pardoner's Tale," a relatively straightforward satirical and anti-capitalist view of the church, contrasts motifs of sin with the salvational properties of religion to draw out the complex self-loathing of the emasculated Pardoner. In particular, Chaucer concentrates on the Pardoner's references to the evils of alcohol, gambling, blasphemy, and money, which aim not only to condemn his listeners and unbuckle their purses, but to elicit their wrath and expose his eunuchism.

Many pilgrims in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales held a religious position. Some of these people’s personal ideas have caused debates and criticism over Chaucer’s opinion of the Catholic Church. Critics have discussed the ideas that were presented both subtly and openly. Two of the pilgrims and their tales will be discussed: the Prioress and the Pardoner. Both of these tales offer points of criticism in the Catholic Church.

      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.