Friar Canterbury Tales

Friar Character

1. INTRODUCTION The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, is a very long poem about a pilgrimage from London to Canterbury. Chaucer used very imaginative characters to portray different medieval opinions. People come from all layers of society and decide to entertain themselves, to kill time and tell each other stories while riding on their horses.

2. WHO IS A FRIAR? The title friar mainly applies to men who belong to mendicant orders. They actively participate in the world outside of their community’s walls. A friar back in these days promised to lead a life of poverty and humility.

3. FRIAR DEPICTED BY CHAUCER IN CANTERBURY TALES: The friar is one of many religious figures that Chaucer put on the journey Canterbury. His actual name is Hubert. And he’s also one of many that is corrupt. This friar uses his position to steal by pretending to beg for the poor, but instead, pockets the money.

4. APPEARANCE HOW FRIAR SHOULD LOOK LIKE? He is supposed to be a poor beggar. Dressed plainly in threadbare clothing. Saint Francis, the founder of the Order of Friars, famously spent his life treating lepers and beggars.

5. HOW CHAUCER’S FRIAR LOOKED LIKE? He wears rich clothes. He behaves like a master or pope, donning an expensive cloak. He is more like an elite member of clergy. The narrator compares his cloak to a bell. He tries to make his English sound pretty by modifying his voice.

6. CHARACTER ANALYSIS: Chaucer allows the reader to see the true character of the Friar. He is a crooked businessman. He uses his position in the church to get money. In lines 218-219: “ For he hadde power of confessioun as saide himself, more than a curat. ” This gains him much profit from wealthy men.

7. In Canterbury Tales the Friar is just someone who was wooing women and using the money that was supposed to help the poor to buy more gifts for his wives and help himself. Chaucer shows that the church and the Friar are very corrupt and describes someone who does not live up to the duties and expectations of a real Friar.

8. CONLUSION Friar is depicted as a religious man in name only. A person who does nothing but corrupt his own church. Chaucer’s portrait of the Friar is one of the harshest views of religious corruption in ‘The Canterbury Tales’.