The Hypocritic Holy Man

Chaucer implements that the pardoner is a hypocrite by carrying around fake relics and preaching the very thing he has a problem with. He forgives people's sins for the good of his own pocket. The pardoner carries around fake biblical relics; astonishing people and when they give donations, the pardoner pockets the money. This is seen in the passage where it says "Which he asserted our lady's veil" it also talks about how he has part of a sail from the boat Saint Peter sailed on when he walked on water with Jesus. The pardoner also carries the bones of pigs which he claims are the bones of old saints. The pardoner sings and talks in churches as seen in the passage "But best of all he sang an offertory/ for well he knew that when that song was sung/ he'd have to preach and tune his honey tounge/ and (well he could) win silver from the crowd/ that's why he sang so merrily and loud." When doing this, he is getting money for the same thing he is preaching against; which is greed, selfishness, and hypocrocy.

The Host: A Tricky Business Man

The host has managed to trick the group going on the pilgrimage. After taking their money, the host offers the group a deal; to entertain while traveling on the pilgrimage and he will pay for the expenses on the way. The trick is though, whoever tells the best story, gets a free meal paid for by the rest of the group at the host tavern. The host also gets to be the judge and ruler over the group and any one who disagrees with him through out the trip has to repay the host for the costs. This benefits the host by the group buying more food from him when they get back.

The Friar of Today and Chaucer's Friar.

In Chaucer's story, one of the characters is a Friar. The very purpose of his job is to help the beggars and the lepers, but yet those are the exact people he despises. He abuses his spiritual duties for his own profit. The man is cheep, greedy, and selfish. He only does what is best for himself. The sad truth about this is that we still have people like that today. The ever so friendly con that sells you a faulty product, or the greedy insurance businesses that barely pays enough to fix the front bumper on your car. We cant forget about the man on the internet that wants to help you lower your monthly bills but instead walks away with your bank account. This just shows that there will always be greedy, low-life people that just care about themselves.

Irony of the Monk

Chaucer explains each character with much detail, but the one that stuck out the most to me was the monk. The monk is ironic and hypocritical in a way that he does nothing that a monk should do. One of the first things that stuck out to me was that the monk lives like a lord rather than a cleric. The monk also hunts which is expensive for a man of his stature and is frowned upon by his monk teachings. The man is aware of what he can and can not do but yet he disobeys the rules given to him.