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Religion In The Canterbury Tales

Decent Essays

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer is a number of stories put together. The narrator is the author himself. The stories are told by pilgrims who are headed to Canterbury to visit the remains of Thomas a’ Becket. The character the Host insists that everyone tells two stories. One on the way there and one on the way back to make the trip less tiresome. There are some important details to understand when reading the poem. The first one is the values of the people in the middle ages. The people’s values consist of chivalry, feudalism, Thomas Becket and religion. Next is the influence and expansion of Christianity throughout. The author uses the characters to portray different messages. And lastly the author’s characterization plays a major …show more content…

The Roman Catholic Church became corrupt after Thomas Becket died, but he also had a major impact on the church and the pilgrims. One obvious example is how the pilgrims go on a journey to a sacred place. His death caused members of the clergy to take unprecedented liberties leading to corruption in the church. An example of a religious character is the Pardoner. The Pardoner represents the corruption of the church because he is a dishonest person. The Pardoner says “I preach for nothing but for greed or gain” (98). This shows he is only in for the money. It also shows that the relics he sells is fake. He sells fake relics just to get money from the others. He takes the last coin of an old and poor widow without any guilt. He also tells a moral story about greed, but yet he is just as greedy. “Out come the penece, and specially for myself, for my exclusive purpose is to win and not at all to castigate their sin” (76-78). This quote shows his greed and shows how corrupt he is to his people. Chaucer also demonstrates christian aspects through his characters by announcing the monk, nun, and the friar. All three, are figures that are embodied in a church. Chaucer uses blatant satire in his characters to show how corrupt the church is. We can tell Chaucer understands the meaning of Christianity. He uses irony throughout to display the satire and the

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