Madame Eglantine wants to be known as ‘well bred’, she did try hard to appear this way but ‘peyned hir to cheere of court’ which means she took pains to imitate courtly manners as she Chaucer says ‘Frenssh she spak ful faire and fetisly meaning well and gracefully, but she speaks her French in a terrible accent ‘after scole of countrefete-atte-Bowwe’ which are the pilgrims mocking the prioress, again none of this she was allowed to do yet se did it anyway, she even flirts with men and shows body parts which should be covered uyp such as ful semyly hir wympul pynched was’, showing off hire nose tretys hir eyen greye as glas’ and ‘hir mouth ful smal, an therto softe and reed’ all of these features would attract a man. This ironic praising continues talking about her forehead and her elegant neck which she should in those days have been terribly punished by the church.
Therefore, the Prioress is clearly a misplaced woman who should not be a leader for nuns. She is only representing what the religious characters were like then and some are still like that now. In some ways, Chaucer is representing criticising the church in many ways but not as much as other characters like the Friar and the Pardoner.
The tale is a humorous and somewhat bitter attack on the profession of , an official in who summons people to attend and in particular, , who is one of the other people on the pilgrimage. Unlike the and the who tell tales which irritate the other and do not get on for that reason, the Friar and the Summoner seem to have a longstanding hatred between them. The Friar is of one of the which traveled about preaching and making their livings by begging. Part of the animosity between the two characters may be due to these orders of friars, which had been formed relatively recently, interfering with the work of the summoners.
The Monk is the second character and a ‘prikasour.’ He was said to have a liking towards hunting, a love for fine horses and dogs, delicious food and fine clothing but these are things that as being a monk he was not supposed to like. In fact, no monks took these rules seriously and they also seemed to have these same likings. Chaucer continues to ironically praise the church as the monk is ‘fair for the maistrie’ and ‘to been an abbot able.’ Unlike the Prioress, he opposes the monastery and is said to be ‘an outsider that loves animals’ where animals can both mean sexual hunting or the actual hunting for animals. Apart from the monks love of hunting which is ‘al his lust, for no cost wolde he spare’ he also has other defects as like the Prioress, his sleeves are ‘purfiled and the hond with grys, and that the fyneste of a lond. This is definitely not what a monk is supposed to wear and as they were supposed to wear simple costumes and stay indoors yet the monk also wears a ‘ful curious pyn; a love-knotte in the gretter ende ther was.’ He also thinks that he is very high ranking due to ‘his boots souple’ ‘his hors in greet estaat.’
A monks diet was to be of simple foods and bland in taste yet as Chaucer says ‘a fat swan loved he best of any roost’ showing that he has a very much a gourmet diet. He also stays outside too much rather than being a ‘prikasour’ which would seem to show that he would have been looking at women and he would seem to be a sexual predator and has ‘maad ful many a marriage, of yonge women at his owene cost,’ this suggest that we would deflower the girls and if they were to get pregnant he would need to find them a scapegoat husband immediately so that nobody would know the baby was his and new husband would be fooled into thinking the baby was his. The monk is not supposed to look evil but is a man who lacks control and ignores duties set to him.
The friar is shown as a desperate and depraved man who yearns for sexual activity which is similar to the monk yet, he is “madd ful many a marriage, of yonge women at his owene cost”. This means that he would probably impregnate the young women and would then have to find an unsuspecting husband for these women which he was able to blackmail. Chaucer states that “for many a man so hard is of his hert he may nat wepe althogh him sore smerte. Therefore, in stede of weping and preyers, Men moot yeve silver to the povre freres.” Here Chaucer is showing that the system of confession is becoming corrupted and is saying that if you are rich enough you can get rid of all your sins and that this is not the right way for a preacher to preach.
A friar is meant to beg and preach round the streets however, this friar has not taken to his job well as he has “nekke whyt was as the flour-de-lys” This means that his skin was as pale as flour due to him staying in doors instead of out where he should have been. For example, “frankeleyns over al in his contree and eek with worthy women of the toun.” This seems quite abnormal as he should have been living in poverty and giving to charity but he is spending all his time in taverns.
Therefore, it is clear that the friar yearns for the high life by speaking correctly, playing instruments, but, yet he will also do anything for money such as tricking the poor out of their money when in fact he should be doing the opposite. This is quite similar to modern day man in general, for example, celebrities and people not caring about the environment. Together, the monk and the friar show just how poorly kept the churches traditions have been and how stretched the church has become since the original idea of brotherhood.
The Clerk is the next character in the Canterbury Tales. He is a student at Oxford “that un-to logic hadde longe y-go,” as students should. It is said that he was “as lene as is a rake” and “ful thredbar was his overest courtepy.” This means that he was extremely skinny and not very well off and it is a possible chance that he is at Oxford through a bursary as “he had geten him yet no benefyce.” He even preferred studying and books to the riches of life – unlike the previous charactors. When he did earn money he would spend it on books as Chaucer says “twenty boaks, clad in blak or reed, of Aristotle and his philosophye, than robes riche, or fithele or gay sautrye”. He borrowed money to study and is in return for this by being studious and virtuous “and bisily gan for the soules preye, Of hem that yaf him wher-with to scoleye”. This contrast with the previous characters, especially as Chaucer says that he is setting an example like Jesus Christ “souninge in moral vertu was his speche, and gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly the”.
The next character is a “povre Persoun” who is clearly a good man with religion “riche of holy thought and werk.” He was a graduate but very poor and depended on his community as they would only receive a tenth of the produce of the town’s income. Day to day he would pray and try to teach “Cristes gospel” to his parishioners. This man shows great unselfishness as for thinking about other people by showing them the way of god and instead of trying to make money to help himself. The Parson has realized that he only needs basic things to survive and can therefore give his money to charity.
The Ploughman is portrayed to be the perfect religious character even though he is strictly not religious. Chaucer tries to show what the religious characters should be like as he is described as “trewe swinkere” and that he lived in “pees and parfit charitee” also he is “god loved” with “his hoole herte” and “thanne his neighbor as himselve” showing that this man is clearly an honest, hardworking, generous person.
The summoner is the next character and in Chaucer’s usual pattern starts to describe his vulgar appearance due to having a “fyr-eed” face with “scalled” eye brows. He was also “lecherous as a sparwe” which seemed to scare children as Chaucer describes him saying “Of his visage children were aferd”. The Summoner also has a dreadful diet which consisted of garlic and “stong wyn, reed as blood” making him drunk for most of his day and ended up speaking Latin phrases that he had learnt parrot fashion as Chaucer says “lerned out of som decree” and therefore only knew three phrases.
The next character is a “rood a gentil Pardoner”. Pardoners were sold papal indulgences, which were churned oput by the thousand, and often as artifacts too. The Pardoner is a mysterious character, portrayed a grotesque man and is aware of him committing bad sins. The Pardoner admits to lying to people that he preaches to due to selling fake antiques as Chaucer says “for myn entente is nat but for to wynne, and nothyng for correccioun of sin” over confident and conceited, also other pardoners are held responsible for objections of the Reformation, as they are a group of evil people and he is not even the worse. He then describes some of the Pardoner’s appearance as he says when talking about his hair “as yellow as wex”, although “ thinne it lay, by colpoons oon”. He also had to wear a skull cap and had “swiche glaringe eyen hadde he as an hare” which may not make him better looking the the hare is also a symbol of lust but we can not be sure of sexuality. As Chaucer says “voys … as smal as hath a goot”. However, the Pardoner was very unique in England as Chaucer says there was not a Pardoner like him – probably due to his evil sins.
Chaucer is portraying the Church and the people around it to be falling apart and drifting away from their morals. He mostly criticises all the characters except for two which he praises for living the perfect Christian life in the thirteenth century. The aim of Chaucer writing this book was to entertain the public and to show society and the Church what was happening at this time and that greed and personal want was getting in the way of peoples lives and their religion.