Essay Example on The Canterbury Tales is a large collection of stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer

There was a widespread amount of church corruption during this time The large religious institution did have good men and women but they were taken advantage of usually by the parsons of the community The Catholic Church was very powerful and wealthy in medieval times After the Black Death plague had passed the people did not believe or trust the church There are many religious figures in The Canterbury Tales The Monk Friar Summoner Pardoner and the Prioress are some major religious characters The Monk likes to hunt and wears expensive clothing The Monk is an important part of a catholic church Chaucer explains that the Monk is lazy wealthy and a vulgar man who breaks the church's rules The Pardoner takes advantage of people by selling false holy relics In the General prologue Geoffrey Chaucer starts with the Knight who is noble and ends with the Pardoner The Pardoner is an intelligent character who uses his brilliance for evil He sells religious and holy objects for personal profit There was no other such pardoner for in his bag he had a pillowcase which he said was Our Lady's Veil he said he had a piece of a sail Saint Peter had when he sailed on the sea until Jesus Christ took him he had a cross of brass set with stones and in a glass he had pigs bones but with these relics whenever he found a poor country parson 53 Love and marriage was very important during medieval times Most of the women in the stories are young and have no say in the relationship 

The Canterbury Tales describe various views of relationships The Knight's Tale is an expectation of love and the Miller's Tale is love s reality The Knight's Tale is very a tragic and noble story The courtly love story expresses nobility and romance The Miller's tale is a comic and slapstick story but it still expresses loyalty The Wife of Bath tale teaches an ethical lesson while involving all of the views of relationships The ethical lesson in the Wife of Bath's tale is very important and interesting My lady and my love my wife so dear I put myself under your wise control you yourself choose which may be more pleasurable and most honorable to you and to me also 357 The Reeve's tale has the influence of infidelity The two main characters of the story insert themselves into a situation where they want to get revenge for their troubles They decide to sleep with the daughter and the wife of the Miller

The wife of the story was unfaithful to her husband and believes she has done a sin The Merchant's tale has an important perspective on marriage In the story a man who is quite old marries a beautiful young woman but she has an affair The wife was romantically and sexually not happy in the relationship by nature their ages did not collide to have a successful marriage The many detailed stories in The Canterbury Tales give a brief and intriguing view on the Middle Ages Geoffrey Chaucer focused on the characters and how they were portrayed The Catholic Church is one of the most important institutions during this time The Canterbury Tales give a realistic and valuable view on medieval society There are a few things that are the same with modern time and medieval time People have many perspectives and opinions on their everyday life There will always be vulgar or mean people in the world but it is up to the individual who decides to spread positivity to combat that negativity