Canterbury Tales, William Nicholson, Geoffrey Chaucer

Canterbury TalesNameInstitutional AffiliationDate
William Nicholson once said that we do read so that we can know that we are not alone. Geoffrey Chaucer brings out this fact in his work, The Canterbury Tales, that talks about the pilgrims such as prioress and also friar. His work depicts corruption that existed in the church in the medieval society and also in the 21st century. His work captures incidences such as hypocrisy, greed, and corruption. The prioress is hypocritical when he says that he believes in courtly love, though he is supposed to be chaste. The friar is also greedy when he says that he loves only the rich and he only spends his time with the rich. The prioress shows off in his appearance by showing a lot of jewelry implying that he does not live a life of poverty.
Greed is one of the norms that we do not expect from a religious leader. The descriptions that have been used by Chaucer show that there are various vows which have been broken in the church. The information in the book shows that the religious leader does not take their call seriously, but rather they take the opportunity to get money from the people. Greed has also been presented to the religious leaders who fight for food when they are supposed to distribute the food to the needy in the society. Similarly, in the 21st century, there are religious leaders who are concerned about getting money from the people rather than serving them.
Another theme that has been presented in the work is vulgarity or showiness. As the author develops the identity of the various pilgrims, greed manifests itself in the showiness of the clergy members about their physical appearance. They have unwarranted fine jewelry, and they show it off to the people. We expect the leaders of the clergy to be humble and they should not be showing off the wealth that they own. It is in contrary to the teachings of Christ about humility.
The writings of Chaucer depict the hypocrisy that exists among the members of the clergy. Some of the members do not have a divine call to ...