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Example research essay topic: Style Of Character Man Of The Church Chaucer - 1,143 words

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Geoffery Chaucer in The General Prologue of the Cantabury Tales, describes the members of the pilgrimage. These descriptions do not simply tell of the basic appearance of the pilgrims but something of their personalities as well. Chaucer never directly criticizes the Pilgrims. Instead, throught the use of satire and insightful (and sometimes humorous) descriptions, Chaucer lets the reader come to their own judgements of the pilgrims. Two of the travelers, the Knight and the Pardoner are examples of Chaucer's unique style of character descriptions and show two different individuals with very different flaws.

The Knight is an imposing and noble figure at first glance and indeed, has no flaw of character as a person yet he has a flaw else where. The first lines paint a picture of a glorious man who excels in the art of battle and appears to be the living embodiment of what a Knight should be: To ride abroad had followed chivalry Truth, honor, generousness, and courtesy. He had done nobly in his sovereigns war And ridden into battle, no man more. (Chaucer 5) The text continues and lists the places and deeds of the knight, creating an almost legendary air about the warrior. Fearless, unbeatable, and ever ready to take up arms, an impressive portrait is presented of this man as a medieval Knight. However with one simple line, this air ofindestructibilty is destroyed, his bearing as honest as a maid. (Chaucer 5). By comparing the Knight to a young woman, Chaucer makes the Knight not the impressive figure of a man offer, but rather a mild and passive man by nature, definitely not someone to be feared.

Chaucer continues in his deconstructing of the Knights image in his description of the clothing of the Knight. Recalling the initial passages where the Knight is ever ready for battle, one can almost imagine a Knight in shining armour. However Chaucer goes on to say: Speaking of his equipment, he possessed Fine horses, but he was not gaily dressed. He wore a fustian tunic stained and dark With smudges where his armour had left mark; (Chaucer 5) This is hardly the view of what a Knight should look like. In giving such descriptions, Chaucer has given a flaw foe the Knight. Instead of a larger than life man of battle, the description given one of a worn and slightly feminine man.

This is hardly the image of a perfect Knight in the middle ages. Yet Chaucer also describes this man as a true, perfect gentle knight. (Chaucer 5). Was Chaucer using a sarcastic phrase to bring this imperfect image of the Knight to life? To decide this, one must decide if Chaucer was a pacifist at heart and if Chaucer was against the bloodshed in the holy wars fought in Christs name. And if so, was Chaucer trying to bring the conflicting nature of a killing soldier and the supposed gentle nature of a Knight to light? The answer is no.

It is doubtful Chaucer (being a devote Christian) would have been heavily opposed to the holy wars. Rather, it is more likely that Chaucer was trying to bring some reality to the stoic notions of Knights that were held at the time to show the Knight in The Prague as a real person, not something out of a fairy tale In stark contrast to the Knight, the Pardoner is shown to be a man of almost no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Chaucer describes the Pardoner in markedly unflattering terms: This Pardoner had hair as yellow as wax, Hanging down smoothly like a hank of flax. In driblets fell his locks behind his head Down to his shoulders which they over spread; (Chaucer 21) The Pardoners description is indicative of his character and is used to give the reader a dis likable image the man as a first impression. That the hair of the Pardoner looks like stringy strands of wax is the first effort by Chaucer to show the Pardoner as a slick and disreputable figure. The unflattering remarks of bulging eye-balls (Chaucer 21), and especially the further description of his hair that fell like rat-tails (Chaucer 21) all the more adds to the unpleasant persona that Chaucer is trying to convey to the reader.

Interestingly, Chaucer again uses the image of a woman (as wiht the Knight) to undermine the character of the Pardoner even further, saying: He had the same small voice a goat has got. His chin no beard had harboured, nor would harbour, Smoother than ever chin was left by barber. I judge he was a gelding, or a mare. (Chaucer 21) So now an already detestable man is weak and sniveling as well. After all, to call man hairless and as having a high picked voice is hardly a compliment. Reinforcing this contemptible image, Chaucer then goes on to comment on the ablitiesand interests of the Pardoner.

Through easily detected, over lavish extolling of the abilities of the Pardoner, Chaucer builds a concise image of a manipulative, scheming man who uses his authority from the church, false relics, and... honey tongue (Chaucer 22) to cheat money out of the people: In one short day, in money down, he drew More than the parson in a month or two, And by his flatteries and prevarication Made monkeys of the priest and congregation. (Chaucer 22) Chaucer is appalled at the misuse of the power of the church by the Pardoner and by the careful use of irony, an image is drawn of that of a disreputable, corrupt man. Chaucer has shown the Pardoner to be a man of little morals, exactly the opposite of how a man of the church should. An interesting aspect of the two descriptions can be found by comparing the two for the significance upon the reader. By showing the Knight as less a mythic figure and more as a realm who, perhaps as a consequence of his great battles, knows true gentleness and modesty, Chaucer builds a likable man. The flaw of the Knight is not a flaw of the man himself but one ofthe conceptions held by Chaucer's contemporaries of the time.

By this same use of satire and irony, Chaucer builds a much less likable character in the greedy Pardoner. As well, with the Pardoner being a man of the church, one can draw out that Chaucer is trying to make a statement on the corruption of the church itself. The difference between the two is clear. By the same style of character description we get two very different people. In the Knight, Chaucer constructs a man as any other man is, and this increases the value of the Knight in terms of his humanity. The exact opposite is true with the Pardoner.

Here Chaucer shows not only the man, but the church too, as corrupt and morally repugnant.


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