Chastity In The Canterbury Tales

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The Canterbury Tales Analysis In the prologue of The Canterbury Tales the author, Geoffrey Chaucer, is a very good observer of his fellow pilgrims who describe themselves as being of the church, but they do not really conduct themselves as faithful church members. There are seven characters that are from the church in The Canterbury Tales. The sad thing is, five of the seven are corrupt, the only good guys are the squire and the cleric. In the days of Chaucer, the Catholic Church was ruled under these four vows: Poverty, Chastity, Obedience, and Stability. The vow of poverty is that you shouldn’t have personal belongings and don’t have attachments to worldly possessions. Problem is that four of them break this vow: The Nun, the Friar, the Monk, and the Pardoner. According to Chaucer the Nun owned “a set of beads, the gaudies, trickled in green which held which held a golden brooch with brightest sheen” (163-164). A Nun shouldn’t have the gold brooch or green beads she should have given them to God.…show more content…
This vow basically states no relationships or sex, kind of harsh, but that’s the church for you. Three people break this law: The Squire, the Nun, and the Friar. Chaucer thinks that the Nun is a very deceptive person, nice on the outside, mean and selfish on the inside. He states “no morsel from her lips to be made nor dip in her fingers in the sauce too deep” (697-700). A Nun should be really caring not be a fake that’s not her job. Another person who broke the vow is the young squire Chaucer says “he loved so hotly that till dawn grew pale he slept as little as a lightning gale” (99-100). The squire only wants love and nothing else even though he should be training to become a knight. Last breaker of the vow is the Friar because he is having sex, Chaucer saying “He knew the taverns well in every town and every innkeeper and barmaids” (244-245). The Friar wouldn’t be having sex or dating these people if he followed the
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