Discuss Chaucer’s presentation of characters associated with the church
Explain you own views of the characters
Effects of language and imagery with technique, comment on what the portraits suggest attitude is towards the church in Chaucer’s time.
Two Portraits:
The Parson
The Pardoner
The Parson was the only true devout churchman in Chaucer’s group; he avoided all the tricks unscrupulous clerics used to get rich, and spends his attention and energy on his parishioners. He is an example of deep Christian goodness.
The portrait of The Parson is wholly good, without any such a hint of irony on display elsewhere in the general prologue “ A good man was ther of religioun”. Around him faith and pastoral care, which should be seen in the church, is failing, but he himself does not appear to falter. Many of his qualities are described in reverse, as failings that he did not posses, the opposite to those priests and churchmen who it is suggested, did exhibit considerable failings, such as The Pardoner, who were not as committed to their faith or practise. He remains in his modest parish, and is shown as a Shepard with his staff, imitating Christ it seems in his care for the flock. “This noble ensample to his sheep he yaf”. A noticeable line in the Parsons tale is “ That if gold ruste, what shal iren do?” This relates to the fact that the Parson is describing how on earth that normal people can hope to lead a good and respectable life, if those in the church are not. Those priests that are weak surely can’t expect ordinary people to remain genuine. The image of the Parson is one of true respectability and of a man who is precisely what God meant for the earth, someone who can be trusted and who is superior to others.
