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Flaws of mankind as presented in the tales.

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Within the various stories written in the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer reveals the exploitative, materialistic, greedy, and judgmental qualities of mankind, showing how imperfect people are and how these traits influence people's lives.

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Three men find treasure, one is sent to get food, the other 2 try to plan to kill that one while the one tries to kill the others with poisoning their food, and when the food one returns, he’s jumped and killed by the 2 men who stayed, then the two eat the food and die from the poisoned food.

“Then draw your dagger too and do the same. Then all this money will be ours to spend, Divided equally of course, dear friend.” (305)

This quote signifies how the men don’t value life or fairness over money and material things - treasure. They not only risked the lives of others but rather tried to kill the others to enjoy this treasure on their own, which shows a lack of morality but more so the theme of greed and just wanting to have as much as possible, for no good reason may I point out.

“Thus these two murderers received their due, So did the treacherous young poisoner too.” (307)

The two men were successful in killing the other man, so they got their end, but with so much pride in the moment and greed in general came a lack of foresight that the other guy may have pulled a stunt himself, so they ended up dying from the poison.

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The merchant’s wife has one dominating goal: be pretty by buying dresses and fancy clothing. For that, she prioritizes this goal over morals like being loyal to her husband and general items like not using everyone for money even if the option is available.

“By Sunday next, if I am to look smart/And do my husband honour I must part/with - well, a hundred francs” (200)

Here, the merchant’s wife is saying that she needs to show her husband honor by looking a certain way, and she needs money to let her buy what she needs. She views the honor solely as being there by his side as a smart looking object almost; she doesn’t consider the disobeyal (and dishonorable element) of how she’s going to acquire the money, that is cheating on him and sleeping with the Monk.

“Don’t be so angry, dear, let’s laugh and play./My jolly body’s pledged to you instead;/By God I’ll never pay except in bed.” (208)

The merchant’s wife presents to her husband her method of paying back for the money he inadvertently wasted on her. She uses sex as her end of this transaction, as she did with the Monk previously. The topic of morals comes back because after cheating on her husband, she’s now going right back to essentially selling herself for her material desires again.

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The Wife of Bath spends most of her time defending herself. She wants to be able to have sex often because she doesn’t think of it the same way that society does, and the way she achieves her goal is to remarry more often than not. She is staying within society’s rules by doing this: she is not having unmarried sex. But, society heavily judges her for her choice to constantly remarry, and for that, her tale is a written defense of her lifestyle.

“Show me a time or text where God disparages/ Or sets a prohibition upon marriages /Expressly, let me have it! Show it me!” (pg 260)

The wife expresses that nowhere does God say that there’s a limit to how many times one can remarry, making this exact act an invalid thing to be judged for. As stated, she uses the “remarry method” to achieve what she wishes as close as possible, and she is within society’s written rules on this one. When one says she can’t remarry, she defends herself by saying it’s simply not a boundary anywhere.

“I know that Abraham was a holy man/And Jacob too-I speak as best I can-/Yet each of them, we know, had several brides,/Like many other holy men besides.” (page 260)

Building on the other quote, the wife exemplifies that the men who essentially outlined their religion had multiple wives themselves. She uses this as a justification for her actions as it almost can’t be unholy to do what the holiest of men did at a point.

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Monk uses his position in the church as a facade so he can continue to extort money from Thomas, and other resources from multiple other families in the area for that matter. The monk remains trusted because he’s a higher position in the church, and he utilizes this to cover his wrongs because his position protects him from being seen as fraudful.

“He went from house to house to poke and pry And beg a little meal and cheese, or corn” (364)

Nobody likes a begger or wants to help them, but when the begger comes from the church in a society formed around the church, things are different. The monk goes from home to home to see what he can collect from people that will see his requests as necessary and genuine.

“She said, ‘my baby died two weeks ago, Just after you left town on visitation.’ ‘I know. I saw his death by revelation,’” (367)

This is the Monk trying to gain trust in people by saying that he knows what’s up and can predict things, so they should place their bets on him and give him what he wants for future purposes.

“The householder was sick and lying down. Bedridden on a couch the fellow lay. ‘Deus hic! Friend Thomas, how are we today?’” (365)

This quote shows how the Monk tries to stay friendly and seem innocent so his later actions seem harmless and genuine. Being personal with the people he takes from helps hold up the facade created by his position.

“‘Give us a bushel of barley, malt or rye, A wee God’s cookie, then, a slice of cheese, It’s not for us to choose, but as you please; A penny to say mass, or half a penny, Some of your brawn perhaps - you haven’t any? Well then, a bit of blanket, worthy dame, Our well-beloved sister! There’s your name, It’s down. Beef? Bacon? Anything you can find!’” (364)

This quote reveals the greed found within the monk’s requests. He wants and doesn’t stop wanting, and he inflicts his position in the church upon people - “A penny to say mass” - as the church is so powerful at the time, and will work as a reason to get what he wants.

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Through stories written from various perspectives, Chaucer reveals four prominent flaws in mankind. The fact that people judge others for actions that don’t affect them; the desire to have material things before good morals or relationships; the desire to have as much as possible at anyone’s expense; the carelessness that comes with having power and ability to do whatever one wants. These four things are revealed through four different stories in the Canterbury Tales. The Wife of Bath is stuck in a position where she wants to live freely and enjoy sex freely, but lives in a society where sex is restricted to marriage. Combating this by occasionally remarrying isn’t enough, despite it technically working inside the rules: it brings judgement from her community; the question of why she’s so eager to do what she wants is rather odd to this society, and the only explanation assigns her an unfriendly title. The Merchant is a loyal man who trusts his wife and is rather generous with her within reason. His wife wants something other than a strong relationship though; she wants nice clothing, as she believes nice clothing is what will make her pretty and define her as such. For that, she worries little about loyalty to her husband and chooses to sell herself to acquire money to buy clothing with, as her husband doesn’t always choose to give her money for that. She sells herself to Sir John, who previously is the merchant’s close friend (referred to as “brother” sometimes) despite his claim that he isn’t that close to the merchant. This shows that feature of how material items outweigh decency and loyalty. The three men of the Pardner’s Tale all want money and to keep the found treasure way more than they want to share or be fair or be decent to one another. They end up all killing each other through their individual attempts to acquire the treasure via killing the others. Lastly, the Monk exploits his power by acting needful in his society, knowing people will give because of his titled role in the church. This reveals how power can lead to the destruction of a character, where one stops considering others and uses their power wherever it may be an option. In conclusion, these four characters in the four stories represent larger flaws of mankind that play into more people’s day-to-day life than one may expect.

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Well done Ben. I think you started off a little rough on the wording in the first box but things got progressively better as you got into the flow of things. Strong evidence used here  and solid understanding of the tales and Chaucer's ideas.
A+