Who Is Chaucer's Clerk Who Would You Be Without Education

In our modern times, many students, especially in college, are forced to choose between items for their own personal pleasure, and the supplies they need to do well in their studies. Often times, students will fall deep into debt during the course of their collegiate studies, simply because everything they need to be a good student is so expensive that they cannot afford anything else. In The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, there is a traveler in the group who is in a very similar situation to the modern day college student. The Clerk is a student who spend all of his money on books, rather than clothes and other embellishments. His clothes are ragged and torn, and he often has to ask his friends for loans in order to buy new clothes for himself. In both of these cases, we can see two examples of dedicated students. However, the one major difference is that in the case of the Clerk, his poverty is by choice, and the items that college students require is extremely expensive, and poverty is not necessarily a choice for them. Both of these are examples of students who are very dedicated to their studies, and spends far more money on the items they need for their education than they do on their own personal pleasure.

Throughout the Canterbury Tales, various characters are introduced and tell a tale, each of which tells a different story. All of the tales are unique and address different issues. “The Miller’s Tale” is the second of the many stories and varies from all of the rest. As seen from the “General Prologue,” Chaucer clearly depicts the Miller as a crude, slobbish man who will say anything. This reputation is held true as the Miller drunkenly tells a story full of adultery and bickering. Despite the scandalous nature of “The Miller’s Tale,” the story also displays some of Chaucer’s prominent beliefs. As “The Miller’s Prologue” and “The Miller’s Tale” are told, it becomes evident that Chaucer is challenging the common roles and behaviors of women, and he is also questioning the effectiveness of social class.

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.

He is simply ‘lyk a clerk’, but not a real one. Therefore, he succeeds in deceiving people by appearing to be so, but this image is only surface deep. Internally, the Pardoner is no such holy man. In both these examples, Chaucer exposes him as the deceitful and deceptive character that he is. Chaucer’s style of language is also indicative of the Pardoner’s personality and attitudes.

Throughout Chaucer's Canterbury tales, he describes the merchant class as more of neutral type of people, some are admired while others are criticized. The author uses his personal knowledge to better explain his thoughts about the characters who belong to the merchant class. The first one he mentions from the merchant class is the Merchant, he is described as sitting high on his horse as well as making it to where none knew that he was bad in debt. The narrator states that he does not care much about him, enough so that he does not know his name. The next character Chaucer mentions is the

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”.

Chaucer chooses the Clerk be 'good' and thus becomes a model of what Chaucer hopes all scholars will one day be like. This is a big difference; especially when it is compared to the Summoner and his profession. The difference is that Chaucer portrays all summoners the same way. Which leads one to believe that Chaucer has no hope for summoners ever being good and honest people. Whether Chaucer is to be thanked or not for the change in demeanor in current scholars is debatable but, it is still resonates in the 21st Century regarding how education and etiquette should go hand in

If we look beyond the negative impressions that the Miller's behavior and appearance create in us, I am sure we can find at least some worthy attribute that will change our opinion of him. To our astonishment, Chaucer informs us that the Miller possesses a humorous and a poetic soul for he is "a janglere (chatterer) and a goliardais (teller of obscene stories)" (Norton, 562). But all and any remaining good opinion that the reader may have about the Miller is crushed by Chaucer's next lines that complete his description of our working-class hero:

At age 17, Chaucer was a public worker. He attended St.Paul's Cathedral School where he first met influential writing. He was also a moneyer (someone who mints) and was a public service worker. His public service time was very well documented, between his time being the noblewoman's page to a diplomat. His work life also has over 500 documents testifying to his career. He was also a courtier, civil servant, and even working for the

During the medieval times corruption in the Catholic Church was prevalent. As corruption was prevalent during Chaucer’s time so was a Pardoner’s practice of selling indulgences, becoming one of deception and greed. Similar to the upper class focusing their time on becoming the richest and most powerful. In many of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer would use satire to criticize different social classes. For example, the middle class, those people who worked for their possessions. He satirizes religious hypocrisy in such tales as the Pardoner, in which a middle class man, showing the corruption of the Pardoner’s job. Through his description of the Pardoner as being a man who is disitful, greedy, and hypocritical, Chaucer uses

Analysis: The narrator gives many facts and descriptions of the clerk. He portrays the clerk as poor, describing him as skinny with tattered clothes and a thin horse. This shows that he does not have the means to take care of himself or his horse. He also does not seem to mind that he is not wealthy, as the narrator goes on to say that the clerk would rather have books of philosophy than goods of the wealthy, such as robes or instruments. This shows that he is dedicated to learning, even though it did not make him wealthy. Although he borrows money from his friends, he prays for them and is thankful for the opportunity to learn and teach. Although he is poor, he seems to speak, as one would expect a wealthy person to speak, respectfully. From this description, I sympathize for this man. I definitely trust him, because I respect that

Chaucer's Canterbury Tales reflects Britain history too. The Middle Ages were a time of political troubles, and social change. First, religion is important because the Church was the center of people's lives. Pilgrimages were very popular too because they allowed people to express their devotion to God. This is the reason why Chaucer's pilgrims as he calls them are going from London to the cathedral at Canterbury. The pilgrims are all from different walks of life and each tells a story related to his profession. The stories kind of illustrate the struggles between the different classes in society.

Geoffrey Chaucer lived from thirteen-forty-three to fourteen-hundred. “Chaucer is one of the most interesting writers in English literature because he straddles two worlds: the Middle Ages and the Renaissance” (Collin 1). He wrote his poems in middle-English, which is called Vernacular. “Geoffrey Chaucer chose to write his poetry in the Vernacular – the everyday language – of his time and place” (Chaucer et al. 18). Perhaps one of Chaucer’s most important literary works, “The Canterbury Tales,” sets the stage for a more in depth understanding of the feudal systems and classes of the Middle Ages.

Geoffrey Chaucer, widely known for his influence in medieval literature, expresses a fourteenth century literacy concept of authority and gentility in The Canterbury Tales. There are two forms of authority and gentility that will be covered in this discussion: authority and gentility in Chaucer’s personal life and the one in his two tales, “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”, and “The Clerk’s Tale”. Chaucer himself loses a sense of authority over his writing after his death, when his scribe, Adam Pinkhurst takes over as his authorial supporter. A wide speculation follows Chaucer and his Canterbury Tales because it is believed that Chaucer himself did not complete his tales in its entirety, since his death came before the publication of the book as well as the arrangement of the tales not being in order. In Simon Horobin’s article “Compiling The Canterbury Tales in Fifteenth-Century Manuscripts”, N. F. Blake raises the possibility that “some of the earliest manuscripts of The Canterbury Tales may have been written under Chaucer’s supervision, and that differences in content and tale order would therefore represent separate stages of authorial revision” (Horobin, 372). Aside from the completion of the tales, more important the authenticity of his work is greater questioned because his idea for the pilgrims are perhaps borrowed from predecessors, for example Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron that holds a similar theme. Chaucer deals with a form of

To say that the Friar knows every barmaid and innkeeper in town is a great example of Chaucer’s use of hyperbole. By exaggerating the Friar’s deplorable activities it paints a vicious picture of the him. He is illustrated worse even more so when the narrator talks of lepers and poor people as scum and gutter dwellers in the eyes of the Friar. Through Chaucer’s use of hyperbole he is able to so exquisitely share his opinion of a character and then convince the reader to feel the same.