Chaucer used fictive poetry to express his frustrations and outrage against the Roman Catholic Church’s corruption during the middle ages. During this time, the ecclesiastical order had ignored the poor’s plight while it contributed to their burden leading to a growing hostility. In The Canterbury Tales, the author used humor and irony to give the audience a clear representation of the churchmen. The author achieved this by merely criticizing the practices of some church officials. He accurately depicted how the church had compromised the values it was supposed to hold by developing characters who represented great depths of greediness and corruption in the England church during that time. As an individual who demonstrated vast knowledge about the Bible, evidenced in his usage of Biblical passages and allusions, Chaucer subtly criticized the prevalent corruption practices in the church at the time. The characterization of the Pardoner, the Friar, and the Summoner depict corruption and the church’s failure to take action against its officials who abused power by enriching themselves. The art of characterization helped Chaucer to expose hypocrisy and lack of adherence to God’s service and morality by the church.
Using the central theme of religious hypocrisy, Chaucer successfully used the Pardoner, the Friar, and the Summoner characters to expose the church representatives’ corruption and evil practices. In The Pardoner’s Tale, the author explicitly condemned church representatives and depicted their lack of good moral guidance. The Pardoner portrayed hypocritical, vulgar, boastful, absolute corrupt, and greedy behaviors. His actions reflected the existing fraudulent activities and corruption of the Catholic Church during these times (Chairani et al. 581). Using the Pardoner’s character, Chaucer exhibited his literary skills and political skills to expose the evil practice of hypocrisy by church officials.
Also, it was clear that Chaucer criticized the Pardoner’s office by demonstrating how people corrupted by power abuse their religious positions for personal gain. Through this character, the author further revealed the Pardoner’s actions, which he conducted without being remorseful (Wohlschlaeger 9). Evidently, Chaucer’s work displayed personal anger against the rampant greediness and hypocrisy by church agents. Furthermore, the Pardoner’s actions portray the quest for riches through extortive motives by preaching and asking for money in return for forgiveness (Chairani et al. 582). This character utilized Biblical passages to distort his follower’s viewpoints as he disclosed holiness. In summary, the conduct of the Pardoner to receive gold from the sinners in exchange for the pardoning of their sins and to save them from hell demonstrated flawed humanity and hypocrisy in the Catholic Church.
In The Summoner’s Tale, Chaucer used the Summoner story as an excellent example to level his criticism against the church for failing to stop its corrupt officials from damaging its name. The Summoner’s actions reflect church representatives’ failures to nurture its follower but rather fleece them through causing fear and intimidation in the name of religion. The author used ironic humor to portray the Summoner as an ignorant swindler, drunken wretch, and a craggy-bearded with pimpled and hideous face terrifying to children (Chairani et al. 581). Further, the author pointed out that the character spoke without comprehension, just like a parrot. Through the character’s physical description and characterization, the Summoner was portrayed as a despicable individual and an extortionist unworthy of holding those positions in the church.
Moreover, Chaucer introduced the Friar character in The Summoner’s Tale to further depict the church authorities’ behaviors. The hypocritical Friar’s action reveal deeds by church representatives that seemed angelic while they loathe the poor, sick, and beggars who cannot fulfill their insatiable greed for more wealth (Chairani et al. 580). Using irony, Chaucer depicted the existing tension and division within the church. The characters of Friar and the Summoner highlighted the feud that had existed between church leaders for years. As a result, the reader could outrightly identify Chaucer’s objective to ridicule both positions and the church’s failure to restore discipline in their religious roles.
In summary, Chaucer’s vivid description of these characters’ unethical conduct to collect money from innocent people demonstrates how the author hated these unethical behaviors that reflected the blatant nature of corruption in the church (Wohlschlaeger 11). Besides, Chaucer’s revealed his discomfort with the evils that led to creating these characters that seemed righteous and holy at first glance, while their true nature of evilness remains hidden. Their intentional deception with their flirtatious tongue pointed out the dangers of corruption throughout the Catholic Church in England.
Through his literary works, Chaucer couldn’t hide the evil ways of the church representatives and how they tricked innocent people as they masquerade as holy men of God. The author harshly criticized unethical practices in the Catholic Church as depicted in the various characterizations. Furthermore, a careful interpretation of the writer’s use of irony and humor in his literary works alerts the audience of his disapproval of the general conduct of the servants of God. The author exposed the church’s inability to oversee corruption and the leaders’ abuse of power properly. Through his writing, Chaucer demonstrated the virtues of a good Christian and how they should serve as role models for other people in society.
Works Cited
Chairani, Sri, et al. “Medieval Religious Officials in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Prologue to Canterbury Tales.”KnE Social Sciences, vol. 3, no. 19, 2019, pp. 570-584. Web.
Wohlschlaeger, Jessica. “Holy Friars in Lucifer’s Pocket: Examining Chaucer’s Reflections on the Corruption in the Church.” Intégrité: A Faith and Learning Journal, vol. 16, no. 2, 2017, pp. 3-17.