THE MONK ANALYSIS - GEOFFREY CHAUCER

This extract describes one of the 29 pilgrims who are the protagonists of "The Canterbury Tales". From the title, "The Monk", the reader expects the text to describe the figure of a devoted churchman, who goes to Canterbury to pray a person considered by him as an example.

The text is composed in verse but it is not arranged into stanzas. The whole text is composed using the rhyming couplet, which gives a peculiar rhythm to the text.

Right from the first lines the reader understands that the monk is not a typical one and that the whole composition is shrouded in irony. In the first two lines the reader comes across the first of the contradictions that Chaucer uses to ridicule the character. Indeed he is "of the finest sort", so the reader thinks at his holy manners or at his devotion, but in the following line the narrator says that his favourite sport is hunting, which is not a typical religious activity. The same concept can be seen in the 3^rd and 4^th lines, where the reader discovers he is an abbot. At the same time however the reader  understands he is manly and has many fine horses as if he were a lord. He also acts like a lord: when he rides, his horse is decorated and he makes so much noise that everybody can hear him. All in all you can say this is far away from the idea of humility typically associated to a monk. The same idea is reinforced by the association of the words "lord" and "Monk" at line 8. In addition,  the narrator describes his attitude towards religious matters. He ignores the rules of his order; he does not even consider the old teachings, rather he follows only new fashions and does not keep in due consideration  the texts which punish his behaviour. The narrator seems to agree with his idea, but in the following four lines he asks a series of ironic questions which show the absurdity of the monk's way of thinking. Why should he study and work hard as St. Augustine had taught? Why does he have to give up all the comforts and goods of earthly life? Therefore the narrator goes on describing his real behaviour reminding the one of a a lord. He has lots of horses and dogs to go hunting: his favourite activity and he does not seem to care to spend money to do it.

A real monk should live in poverty and  give all his money to the poor but he only thinks to himself and to his fun. He also wears rich and precious clothes, made of gold and fur and what's more he is fat and pleasing. His behaviour does not concern hunting only rather but every aspect of his life. He eats a lot, wears with precious materials: he acts more as a lord than as a God's servant. His eyes always move and are ironically associated to flames. They always seek something precious to gain and therefore metaphors for his greed and gluttony. The last two lines sum up the personality of the monk. He does not care of religious matters, his soul is not tormented by thoughts about life after death or about his sins, he only thinks about earthly matters which might benefit him, like a roasted swan. The lines are full of the irony given by association of religious with practical matters.

The description of the monk is meant probably to offer the parody of the Church of the period. Indeed the reader starts thinking that the  monk's characteristics are to widened to priests in general. The Church of the monk's time was no longer linked to the teachings of the Gospels or the ones of the first Christians. Its message had been abandoned together with its ideas of poverty and sanctity.

Popes held temporary power, too and they only focussed on gaining more power and money. The same situation is described not only by Chaucer. Many writers and scholars of the Middle Ages accused the clergy for their standards of living  and fought to transform the reality of the church.