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Pilgrim's Flaws In The Canterbury Tales

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The “General Prologue”, written and narrated by Geoffrey Chaucer, the prologue describes and narrates all of the pilgrim’s behaviours, emotions/ethical standpoint, physical features and most important their flaws. Many of the pilgrims were described with horrible flaws. Many people reading this in modern time do not understand how these pilgrims behaved. Chaucer wrote the prologue of the “Canterbury Tales” in order to give people an understanding of how the medieval times were before they begin reading the actual tales. Without the prologue it would be very difficult to understand each of the 30 different pilgrim’s behaviors. As Chaucer begins to describe each pilgrim, the most notable factor were the flaws of each character. The most notable…show more content…
He was able to make his customers pay for medicine which they don’t even need. He even “...kepte that he wan in pestilence. For gold in phisik is a cordial, therefore he lovede gold in special. (Chaucer || 442-444). He found money to have a higher value than helping others, this led to his greediness and resulting him to sin. He creates false information to earn money. This character in particular would cheat his landlord and earning money off theft. A thief cannot be considered religious. Chaucer had brought up another pilgrim who seemed to also show signs of greed. The pilgrim by the name of Reeve, would steal possessions from his landlord. During his childhood “...he hadde lerned a good myster:..” (Chaucer | 613). Until he had taught himself how to earn more money by stealing; by outsmarting his masters, he is able to “...koude he plesen subtilly, to yeve and lene hym of his owene good,” (Chaucer || 610-611). His dishonesty brought him into an unethical lifestyle of theft. It is evident that he shows signs of greed in order to have wealth. These pilgrims have a terrible flaw of greed, this flaw can only be done by those of whom are not…show more content…
The bible reads that specific rules must be followed in order to be considered holy and christian. The Summoner was considered misuse his authority by Chaucer. He does so by asking for breaking the rules of the church and bible; he accepts bribes of those who have been punished by excommunication. As a someone who works at a religious work environment, he shows lack of morals and ethics. His profession was to determine whether the person person who committed the spiritual crime gets to stay, or be exterminated from the church. With his
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