Friar In Canterbury Tales

831 Words4 Pages
The Canterbury Tales Prologue, written by Geoffrey Chaucer around 1386-1395, introduces unique characters going on a pilgrimage, each with stereotypes of a group of people that Chaucer would have been familiar with. Within the group of people going on the pilgrimage to Canterbury were various members of the clergy and many other professions. One of the members of the clergy was the Friar. Chaucer’s Friar should dedicate his life to helping others and live his life as an example of how others should act; however, he enjoys worldly possessions and partakes in sinful activities. Chaucer depicts the Friar as being immoral in order to suggest that the clergy during this time is corrupt and does not correctly follow the rules of the church. Various religious orders require men and women to take different vows when being ordained. The most common religious vows that…show more content…
He is more concerned with his own personal wants, such as money and woman, than actually helping people. In the very first paragraph, the Friar is introduced as being, “wanton and merry” (l. 221). He has “’fixed up many a marriage, giving each/of his young women what he could afford her,’ which implies that the Friar found husbands for poor girls... In fact, these are girls whom the Friar has seduced and whom he is marrying off with a bribe to the husband” (Winny). The Friar broke his vow of celibacy by keeping “his tippet stuffed with pins for curls / and pocket knives, to give to pretty girls” (ll. 246-247). The reader is able to discern the Friar’s selfishness in the sacrament of confession. Instead of hearing confessions for free the Friar thinks, “One should give silver for a poor Friar’s care” (l. 245). The Friar also does not waste his time helping “wretched lepers” or “slum and gutter dwellers,” but “intimate was he/ with County fold within his boundary” catering to the “rich and victual-sellers” (ll. 228-229 and
Open Document