How The Monk In The Canterbury Tales

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"When in doubt, skin it out." Who'd imagine that a monk would live by this code? In reference to Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales there is indeed one character that does. Foreshadowed earlier this character is introduced into the story as the Monk. During the period in which the story was based upon monks belonged to one of three castes. These castes included the Clergy, men and women who usually dealt with religious affairs, Nobleman, warriors who fought in exchange for food, and lastly the Commoners, those who were ordinary citizens that did all the hard work. Monks belonged to the Clergy with duties of taking care of the sick and ailing people of their time. With tasks like these at hand, it was revealed by Chaucer that those were not on the Monk's status quo.…show more content…
As Chaucer continues to give readers insight on what type of person the monk is it is revealed and emphasized that he loved to hunt. He owned a horse and dogs making it almost obvious that he tended to them more often than his indisposed human patients, so it seems. " Hunting a hare or riding at a fence was all his fun....."(Chaucer 195-196) taking this quote into context it is a near give away as to where the Monk's heart lies. To give a more concise explanation on this, he'd basically hunt until he died and would condone the activity to be the first thing he'd probably want to do when he wakes up. To explain the ways of this man only few words can be said. He's a monk who, instead of helping someone get better, wants to go out and collect rabbit feet along with bear teeth, to say the least. Now does this really make him a bad person? Looking at it from an unbiased perspective you've got to weigh the
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