The monk character in Canterbury Tales is treated in an ironic way, Chaucer unveils the corrupt mask of religion, and his character is no more than a satire on religion. In Chaucer’s time, the church was a powerful institution as well as a medium of speech. And the same monk is related to the church area. The monk character is actually a symbol of the downfall of religious life, in Canterbury Tales he is not what should be him, he is totally opposite to the life of the church, and he loves secular life instead o church The manner in which Chaucer has described it is very worth praising. This character shows the “Decline of the Church” as well as the religion, there is only texture and gimmick in religion, the act has vanished from the lives of the people, and there is nothing called to be outstanding in religion.
The monk’s character is delineated in an ironical as well as satirical way, his physical appearance is not fit for monastic status, if we remember the character of the poor clerk then we feel he is lean and weak but also his horse is too weak which reveals that he is poor and takes pain his work but on the other hand the monk is fat and loves to eat which is totally opposed to monastic life but her whose cares.
The Monk Character in Canterbury Tales
In Canterbury Tales the monk is on target of Chaucer’s keen satire, he is delineated in an ironic way because he has not Real Monk’s passion rather he is involve in worldly pleasure. Actually, the actual monk remains busy in remembrance of God, he divorces the world and gets marry his monastery, for him the world is nothing but the monastery is everything. The first group of monks was emerge on the surface of the earth in Northern Egypt in the early 14 century. Al the members of these groups do not meet before prayer, they live altogether but do not meet yet and remain in busy in God‘s remembrance. On the other hand, Chaucer’s monk is not like that he breaks all traditions customs and norms about the monk’s life and takes participate in worldly pleasure, for instance, he loves eating, hunting, riding, gossiping, having hounds for hunting, he spends a lot of money on costly clothes, he likes expenses horses and he has all of them in his stable etc.
How does he break old norms? This can be seen when he ignores the rules of St. Maure and St. Benedict. When St. Benedict says in his text if a monk hunts, he will be considered the unholy man but he does not care about his text and creates his own rule and makes his new world he loves hunting. St. Benedict also suggests that when a monk is in the monastery he should be like fish out of water, it means the monk‘s soul demands all the time the water of God’s remembrance but he understands all of this mere old fashion and a monk should also be aware of outside. St. Augustine says a monk should perform drudgery, if he does not do so how he will serve the world? Chaucer also in ironic way narrates that he should not very much studies if he does then he will be mad why should he all the time live in his cloister and why should he sweat in studies and drudgery his hands? It seems that Chaucer sits beside him and is giving favour but in fact, he is doing in an ironic manner. He forgets the doctrine of St. Augustine
As far as the monk character is concerned in this Canterbury Tales Chaucer has no hesitation about telling his hobby he has two hobbies galloping the horse and hunting the hares and for them he does not care about money, here, means that he is very extravagance who is against the clergy man’s conduct. His extravagance is not ended here when we see him he wears a hood under his chin and the pin is in gold the same pin we see a love knot, love knot surprises us a clergyman has a love knot which is a clear-cut indicates that he is involved in worldly love the love of woman instead of God’s love. He has a desire for lovemaking as well as sexual that is against the life of a clergyman or an Ecclesiastical character.