Examples Of The Corrupt Friar In The Canterbury Tales

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The Corrupt Friar Geoffrey Chaucer, in his poem, The Canterbury Tales, travels along with 29 pilgrims on a pilgrimage or a holy journey. He opens with the prologue, where he explains that the season of Spring makes people more willing to go on a pilgrimage. In the prologue, he describes the people that he is journeying with. One of these pilgrims in particular is the friar. The friar by definition is a member of a religious group sworn to poverty and living on charitable donations. Chaucer gives a different meaning to being a Friar and also shows the corruption of the church that the friar is a member of. Hubert, the friar from The Canterbury Tales was a clergy member and is known very well by people in his society. The friar wasn’t rich…show more content…
He was expected to be honest and do the job that was had been given. Chaucer, though in an attempt to express the corruption that existed in the Catholic Church gave the friar a different look. His original job was to live with the poor and earn money to help them with their economic problems. He did this, but he also was very flirtatious and sought after women for their hand in marriage. He bought gifts for the women using the money that he begged for and didn’t live among the poor as he had sworn to do. The friar was also a heavy drinker: “He knew the taverns very well in every town” (line 244). In addition to this, it isn’t even confirmed that he is really qualified to hear confessions. Chaucer, in lines 222-223, “he was qualified to hear confessions, or so he…show more content…
Chaucer says “for in so eminent a man as he of his position, dealing with a scum of wretched lepers; nothing good can come of commerce… but only with the rich and victual-sellers.” The friar is basically saying that if he tries to sell anything to people of lower class, he could get nothing. But if he tries to sell things to people belonging to the upper class, he could actually earn a profit. This very wrong considering the fact that the friar is supposed to live among the poor so that he could be readily available to help them when he is needed. He has no dealings with the sick, poor or any person that is in need. Instead, Hubert would “fix up marriages, giving each of his young women what he could afford he.” In this text, the friar is portrayed as being generous, but in actuality, he only does this because these young women are his mistresses. And he apparently has engaged in sexual relations with them, which caused him to feel obligated to marry the women as a form of
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