Canterberry Tales

A detailed Summary of Canterberry Tales

The Monk and the Friar are people who separated themselves from the ordinary way of life to devote themselves to their religion. They devote themselves to work, study, and pray. When one thinks of these people, they imagine of someone honesty, someone can be trusted, and would more than likely to help other people. However, these people in The Canterbury Tales are nothing like the usual monk and friar that people imagine. In fact, they all dress, act, and do things the opposite from what they suppose to do. I find it interesting how Chaucer, the narrator and author of The Canterbury Tales, reveals the character in specific pilgrims by showing their characteristics in the way they dress and look, the things they do, and how they act.

The Monk, one of the twenty-nine pilgrims that travel on a pilgrimage to the Canterbury in The Canterbury Tales, is totally different from a regular monk that people describe. He hunts hares and rides horses instead of studying, praying, and working. This monk did not follow the rules of the monastery, which say that monks should not hunt, be reckless, or leaves the monastery; instead, they should pray and perform manual labor. In addition, to become a monk, one should takes vows of poverty, c

hastity, and obedience, promising to own no property, to refrain from sexual activity, and to obey superiors. This monk did not do what he supposes to do and ignores all these rules. Chaucer shows that the monk does not care about these rules when he says, "Hunting was his sport. A manly man, to be an Abbot able; many a dainty horse he had in stable" and when he says, "Hunting a hare or riding at a fence was all his fun, he spared for no expense" (Anderson 93).

The friar deliberately violates sumptuary law to brag about his successes and wealth. According to Darton Harvey, the Friar's clothes were not threadbare like those some poor cloister-monk, but lordly as an abbot's. All the inns and innkeepers in every town the pilgrims reach were known to him, for he thought that so fine a man as himself could not mix with the poor and the beggars in the ale-shops, but must go to the best house (134). Although the Friar's clothes are not described specifically but he had

This specific pilgrim, the Monk, is different from a usual monk. Especially his robe is different from all other monks. Monks usually wear plain habits with hoods. This monk has a gray fur on the sleeves of his cope and a gold pin with a lover's knot at the end of the hood. He also wears a hat to prevent other people from seeing his shiny baldhead. Unlike

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Approximate Word count = 900
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English