The Canterbury Tales Literary Analysis Essay

Chaucer was a clever poet that made a lot of critiques and comments to make against the components of society while never actually making these comments. Part of the magic of literature, specifically poetry, is the ability to add hidden meanings and exploit the nature of your piece’s structure. The Canterbury Tales is structured to be a compilation of tales told by an assortment of people from every part of society going on a pilgrimage. He can’t outright criticize these people, especially the powerful church so he abused his story structure to cover for him. By going under the guise that “These characters in the story are saying these things, not me, the author”, he can say whatever he pleases about whoever. From the highest-ranked knight to the lowly miller, to the various members of the church, Chaucer had a medium to talk about these people through his quill and ink. No one could even accuse him of anything since that would be admitting that the things Chaucer is criticizing are actually happening. 

A particular favorite of Chaucer’s was the church; he narrates the tales of many members such as the Nun, the Prioress, the Monk, and the Pardoner. One of the obvious rivalries in the book through which Chaucer commentates is between the bickering Summoner and the high-status Friar. Through these two characters, Chaucer gave a more realistic insight into the true nature of the “holy righteous” people that made up the church and hypocrisy of the higher ranked members.

In the general prologue of The Canterbury Tales, the “wonton” Friar is described as having a special interest in assisting particularly women with their marriages (8). He listens to the confessions of sinners but would use the booth to exploit people into donating to the church; more specifically to get people to pay him silver for his own personal gain. He is an elitist that doesn’t enjoy the idea of helping lepers and beggars and finds it more worthwhile to deal with the wealthy.

“For in so eminent a man as he (Friar) -- It was not fitting with the dignity -- Of his position, dealing with a scum -- Of wretched lepers; nothing good can come -- Of commerce with such slum-and-gutter dwellers, -- But only with the rich and victual-sellers” (9).

The Friar is portrayed as a lustful person who exploits his status in the Church, not being as zealous or virtuous as he makes himself out to be. 

Like the Friar, the Summoner is also a member of the church who is just as terrible as him. He is a lecherous and lustful man with many negative physiognomic traits and adjectives attributed to him; even “Children were afraid when he appeared” (20). As a servant of the Church: he is a drunkard that chugs wine by the mug; harsh spoken and immoderate in tongue as evident in his backlash against the Friar after he commented on the Wife of Bath’s prologue (280); quick to get hot headed as evident in his response to the Friar’s tale, “The Summoner rose in wrath against the Friar -- High in his stirrups, and he quaked with ire” (303). These are the characteristics of a man of the church: a lustful, angry, and spiteful man that resides in the house of God; what sort of member of the church is this? Chaucer uses these flaws with the Summoner to show how the members of the church are sinful and not truly as holy as they always claim they are. Since the Summoner isn’t a high ranking or truly zealous church member, it can be argued that his actions don’t represent the true believers of the church. But now with the Summoner fired up in rage after the Friar’s tale, he has a little tale of his own targeted at the very same kind of man that offended him.

The Summoner’s Tale is a defamatory story about a Friar that goes around collecting donations in return for prayers for the donators, which he never actually does. He reaches the house of Thomas and his wife where he immediately goes to greet the married woman “And kissed her sweetly…” (307). Before going to preach to Thomas in order to get him to donate money, the wife tells the Friar that her baby had died two weeks ago to which the Friar replies “‘I know, I saw his death by revelation,’ -- Replied the friar, ‘in our dormitory. -- I saw the little fellow borne to glory…’” (308). How could this in-story extorting, trust-breaking, and lustful man be so zealous as to be able to witness a soul arise to the heavens? In addition to his previous defections, he is also a liar that preaches how great the friars of the church are. He is a hypocrite that preaches to Thomas about how he should let go of his anger and greed when ironically these are the very same issues the friar faces in the story; greed for extorting money for his own gain and anger for not getting an actual donation from Thomas.

Chaucer shows through the Summoner and the Friar how corrupt and broken down the church was during that time. With the lustful Summoner being a tempered and spiteful man but still doing “righteous” work for the church, and the Friar being a lustful and elitist in real life. His portrayal in the Summoner’s tale, a man of the same church, shows more potential descriptions of the real-life Friar that aren’t mentioned in the brief prologues. The hypocritical nature of the priest and his lying, extortive ways are likely a reflection of how they really were since reality is the best insult to use against a person you are angry at. Through his sneaky tellings of his characters, Chaucer was able to reveal the attributes of these “believers”.

Works Cited

Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. Translated by Nevill Coghill, Penguin Group, 2003. 

“Summary and Analysis The Summoner's Prologue and Tale.” The Canterbury Tales, CliffsNotes, cliffsnotes.com/literature/c/the-canterbury-tales/summary-and-analysis/the-summoners-prologue-and-tale. Accessed Nov. 8th.