Insight Into Human Behavior And The Canterbury Tales

Insight into Human Behavior in the Canterbury Tales Geoffrey Chaucer is known for being one of the greatest English poets of his time (Malvern). During Chaucer’s life, he went through many hardships. Some of the hardship Chaucer endured was being kidnapped by French enemies, dealing with the death of his wife, and surviving the Black Death (â€Å"Chaucer†). Chaucer hardship helped him become the author that he was (Malvern). â€Å"The Canterbury Tales is a group of legends narrated by fictional pilgrims on a pilgrimage† (â€Å"Chaucer†). Chaucer’s uses the characters in his tales to demonstrate his dislike of certain human behaviors in society especially in members of the Catholic Church. In his Tales the characters reflect different opinions of the†¦show more content†¦The Pardoner in this story is the most controversial of all the pilgrims for four reasons (Morgan 242). Those four reasons are his work, his greed, his pride, and his sexua lity (Morgan). He does not care for helping people to correct their sins or their souls he just cares about taking their money (Krugar). Being money hungry and taking advantage of the poor is not a trait most commonly used to describe a religious leader of a church. However, the Pardoner appears not to be concerned with what is best of the people he is more concerned about cheating the needy from support. The Pardoner cares about his self over anyone else. He would rather take the last penny from a widow and her starving family then give up his money (Besserman 244). The Pardoners only wish is to fill his â€Å"ever deepening pockets† (Besserman). When the Pardoner would grant repentance for people’s sin. The people had to pay him for the help he provided. The money the people gave him is supposed to be a charitable donation to the church but he would keep the money he made for himself (Morgan 249). The Pardoner would even make an exact replica of the Popes signature j ust so he could pocket the money (Morgan 242). This shows the readers that the Pardoner does his work in greed rather than doing charitable work. When the Pardoner preaches he preaches on Coveting. This is controversial because he commits the sins that he preaches about to his people (Morgan 243). He never changes hisShow MoreRelatedThe Inconsistancies of Life in In The Canterbury Tales and The Knights Tale, by Geoffrey Chaucer1707 Words   |  7 PagesIn The Canterbury Tales, composed by Geoffrey Chaucer, the fundamental topic of the tales is the inconsistency of human life — satisfaction and suffering are never far separated from one another, and no one is truly safe from experiencing a tragedy. When an individuals fortunes are up, other individuals are down. 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