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Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer's Depiction of the Church in The Canterbury Tales

Poetry is an excellent way to express your feelings and beliefs. A sensitive subject on which many poets focus is that of religion. Religion became a popular topic for poetry during the Medieval Period in Europe. During this time, the English church was a topic of much discussion and dispute. Throughout the many opinions of the church a negative one would be hard to come by when asking the higher class. In his poetry, The Canterbury Tales, fourteenth century middle class British author Geoffrey Chaucer blatantly portrays his opinion that the church is mostly hypocritical and corrupt.
In "The General Prologue" of The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer successfully conveys his feelings and beliefs of the immorality of the English church through the personalities and habits of his characters. Chaucer's opinion is best shown in the characterization of the Prioress, the Monk, and the Friar. Though it may seem in reading about these characters that the church is demoralized, not everyone is to blame. The character known as the Parson does whatever he can to make the church dependable and moral. Each of these characters have completely different traits and some display no virtue at all.
The Prioress has her priorities mixed up and focuses too much on her physical appearance. English professor Mark Lowry states, "The Prioress cares more of her appearance than the prosperity of the church" (Lowry 1). Her behavior is not that of a nun, but that of a materialistic young woman. She bends the rules and does not act properly. The Prioress wastes her time mourning over small tragedies like a mouse stuck in a trap, but not over people starving. She could be putting forth an effort to help out someone in real trouble, instead she wastes her time on these small tragedies. This is not the proper attitude or behavior of a nun.
The Monk crosses the line by openly breaking the rules of his...