The Canterbury Tales: Clerk and Monk

In the late 1300s Geoffrey Chaucer began wrote The Canterbury Tales, a story which follows the religious journey of twenty-nine people, who represent many aspects of Medieval society, to the Canterbury Cathedral in southeast England. While on the pilgrimage the host of the tavern, where all the pilgrims meet, suggests that the pilgrims each tell a story for the group’s entertainment. Chaucer intended for all the voyagers to tell two stories, but he unfortunately died before he could finish the book and only got to write one story apiece. However, the goal of the storytelling contest is to tell the most moral story possible, and the one who wins receives a free meal, which the rest of the pilgrims will pay for. Although some of the other stories have good moral messages, “The Pardoner’s Tale” and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” are on different ends of the moral spectrum. “The Pardoner’s Tale” focuses on a pardoner who preaches against greed. While “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” exemplifies what all women want in their relationships: power. Although both “The Pardoner’s Tale” and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” demonstrate the value of the opinion of elders, the stories differ in their moral values and their storyteller’s values.

“The life so short, the craft so long to learn” (Famous Quotes). The Canterbury Tales is enriched with humanistic merit that allows the reader to sharpen his or her own craft of life. Specifically, “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” and “The Clerk’s Tale” are embodied with multiple struggles of life that pertain to life in the present. Despite seven centuries of society constantly evolving, the two stories’ plots can still be further analyzed through similar themes about relationships that pertain to modern society and how rhetorical strategy allows the audience to relate to the narrative characters.

monk, such as hunting, and roaming throughout life beyond monastery walls.  A quote that best describes the monk is:

Buddhist monk from childhood to old age in the flow of four seasons. Kim depicts two important

A red light flashes when questioning the authenticity of the Friar. He is distinguished as a festive, merry man who drinks excessively and carouses with several women. He is very money conscious, an excellent beggar, and despises associating himself with the poor or unfortunate. The Friar’s integrity is questioned also by Gower, who writes,

Deep within the trees little hooded men walk along a path to meditate and pray dressed in brown robes tied with nautical rope. They dwell in silence and live a life of celibacy. This is what most of think of when we hear the word monk. Throughout the years, monks have always been people of intrigue. They live a different lifestyle than most. They live a life of seclusion far from the mores of modern society, which often makes people ponder who these people really are and why they choose to participate in such a foreign religious movement. This paper will attempt to unravel the mysteries of this peculiar movement of by researching it's origin, the true meaning of a silent lives, and how key leaders have helped to

There is no question that contradictory values make up a major component of The Canterbury Tales. Fate vs. Fortuna, knowledge vs. experience and love vs. hate all embody Chaucer's famous work. These contrasting themes are an integral part of the complexity and sophistication of the book, as they provide for an ironic dichotomy to the creative plot development and undermine the superficial assumptions that might be made. The combination of completely contradictory motifs leads to the unusual stories and outcomes that come to play out in the tales. And these outcomes draw focus on the larger universal issues that in many cases transcend the boundaries of vernacular periods to all of

Throughout early English history, the Catholic Church was a huge influence on a person’s life. The members of the church class are supposed to set an example for others; the people mimic what they do because they think it is right. Two main figure-heads of the Medieval Catholic Church are the parsons and the monks. In Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, these characters are introduced in “The Prologue.” Chaucer initially states that the Monk is “a good man,” (The Canterbury Tales l. 193). Chaucer then later introduces the Parson, who he says is “Benign and wonderfully delight” (l. 493). These two members of the church show how other members are supposed to live and behave.

the Wife of Bath says that "thus the apostle Paul has told it me, and bade

      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.

       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

Like the Prioress, the Monk is also an ironic characterization. The Monk loved to ride horses and hunt. He also eats well and dresses in nice clothes. He even goes so far as to say that he prefers the outdoor life, hardly a statement one would expect from one whose profession entails sitting inside and copying books.

In “The Journey to the West,” the monk was accompanied by Pigsy, the Sha Monk, the Handsome Monkey King, and the horse. Each of these supporting characters possess a certain magical ability that assisted the monk on his journey, additionally they had their own flaws. This contrasts the monk, which has no magical ability and was devoted buddhism. The strengths, weaknesses, and backgrounds of these supporting characters encapsulate the idea of buddhism throughout the novel, and by including them and Xuanzang the book is able to summarize the idea of buddhism.

The Monk is the following pilgrim described in the General Prologue. According to his description he is very interested in hunting and in horses (line 166). A monk should not be riding and hunting but obeying, praying, copying and studying. In addition, the Monk is fully aware that his order does not allow these practices and he admits that he does not follow the rules of his order (Jokinen, 2010) (lines 174-175). When the portrait of the Monk finishes in the General Prologue, the man described is bald, fat and well-dressed. Any person in that time that heard this description would immediately think about a lord not a monk. Although the narrator likes the life style of the Monk and his description is not very acid, we can see how Chaucer is criticizing some

Canterbury Tales is a story about a group of thirty people, including the Host, that are traveling to the shrine of the martyr St. Thomas a Becket in Canterbury. The diverse group is a concoction of contradicting personalities that are intricately described by Chaucer. Among these twenty-nine excursionists are two women. One of them is the coquettish Prioress while the other one is the partially deaf Wife at Bath. Although both women possess discernable similarities, both possess divergent personalities and experiences.