Analysis of “The Friar’s Tale” PDF

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Analysis of “The Friar’s Tale”

In the book The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer, the author, introduces us to a group of pilgrims making their journey to Canterbury. While making their journey, the group entertained one another with stories, where the best storyteller will be rewarded with a free meal. Furthermore, in the story “The Friar’s Tale”, one of the 24 stories in the book The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer introduces us to a friar, one of the pilgrims, who tells a story about a summoner, a person who summons people to appear in front of a church court, and a yeoman, who turns out to be a fiend. In this story, the friar talks about a corrupt summoner who amassed an assembly of spies who report wrongdoers, in the eyes of the church court, to him. The summoner would then extort these individuals for money in exchange for not summoning them to court. However, one day, one of his many misdeeds caught up to him when he befriends a fiend, disguised as a yeoman, who ultimately takes the summoner to hell for a wrong doing he’d committed. In his story “The Friar’s Tale”, Chaucer is trying to tell us to resist temptation and live life justly; if we don’t, we will be faced with the consequences. In the beginning portions of the story, Chaucer builds on the summoner’s character, depicting him as a greedy, money driven man who misuses his authority to extort money out of individuals. This misuse of power is shown in Chaucer’s depiction of the summoner in the text where he writes, “He had prostitutes also at his call, who told it in his ear whether Sir Robert or Sir Hugh or Jack or Ralph were with them, or whoever it might be. Thus the prostitute and he were often in partnership. And he would fetch a forged mandate and summon both of them before the chapter, and he would rob the man and let the prostitute go.” Here, Chaucer is showing us one of the techniques the summoner employs to extort money from individuals. The

summoner would enlist the help of prostitutes, who would “rat out” those who request their services. Then, the summoner would summon these individuals and the prostitutes to appear before the church court, where the summoner would extort money out of the said individuals and let the prostitutes go. Furthermore, Chaucer further develops the summoner’s character by showing the conversation exchange between the summoner and the “yeoman”, when they first met. In the story, the summoner says, “I beg you, while we ride by the way, since you are a bailiff as I am, teach me some subtle trick and tell me faithfully how I may gain the most in my office. And spare nothing for conscience or sin, but tell me, as a brother to me, how do you carry it out?” Here, Chaucer is showing the constant obsession or greed of the summoner to obtain money. On his way to extort money out of an old lady, the summoner meets a yeoman, bailiff, and all he could think about was to ask him for tips and tricks on how to scam or extort money out of people. Also, as he asks the yeoman for tips and tricks on making money, the summoner makes it clear to the yeoman that he does not mind if some of the yeoman’s tricks might be sinful. This demonstrates the extent of the summoner’s constant obsession with money, where he is readily willing to acquire money by sinful means. Moreover, as the story progresses, the fiend, who the yeoman later reveals himself as, begins to talk about how he acts as God’s instrument. The fiend later clarifies this by stating that he carries out God’s tasks or commands over his creatures. The fiend demonstrates some of these “tasks” when he says, “And sometimes we allowed to tempt a man and to bring unrest to his soul and not to his body; and yet all is for the best. When he resists our tempting, it is cause of his salvation, though our intention was to seize him, and not that he would be saved.” In other words, the fiend is basically telling the summoner that, in a way, he works for God, where he “tests” human beings by tempting them into committing sin. Those who give into temptation are

brought unrest to their souls, while those who resist receive salvation. This excerpt from the story acts as a cautionary message from the fiend to the summoner. To elaborate, the fiend is basically telling the summoner what duties he personally carries out, one being tempting human beings. This is significant because the summoner himself falls for the temptation of accumulating money by any means necessary. With the sudden entrance of the fiend into the summoner’s life, this should raise suspicions for him. However, the summoner proves that he did, in fact, fall for the temptation of money when he pledges his allegiance with the fiend, even after the fiend tells him what duties he carries out, temptation being one. The summoner shows this when he says, “For even if you were the devil Satan, I would hold my pledge to my brother, as I am sworn, and each of us is sworn, to be faithful brothers in this matter. And we both are going about our pickings. You take you your part, whatever people will let you have, and I shall take mine. Thus we may both live. And if either of us should have more than the other, let him be loyal, and share it.” In making this comment, the summoner is showing us that he is so caught up in making money and splitting it appropriately, that he completely ignores the warning previously given by the fiend and even pledges an allegiance with the fiend. Completely ignoring the fiend’s warning, the summoner continues with his extortion ways when he travels with the fiend to extort money from an innocent, old lady on the false charges of being unfaithful to her late husband. The summoner summons the lady to the church court to face the charges presented against her and offers her a way to get rid of them, which was for her to pay the summoner twelve pence. However, knowing that she is innocent, the old lady refuses, curses the summoner, and says she gives the summoner’s body to the devil. Hearing this and confirming the lady’s intent, the fiend or devil seizes the summoner’s body and takes him to hell. This part of the story is clearly showing the summoner facing the consequences of his

misdeeds. After committing many extortions over his obsession for accumulating money, with no change in sight, the summoner was ultimately damned to hell. In this story, Chaucer was trying to show us that we as human beings should live life justly and if we fall off from the righteous path and begin sinning, we will be faced with the consequences because of this change. In this story, Chaucer demonstrates this thru the story of a summoner and his obsession to obtain money by any means necessary. Chaucer portrays the summoner as a greedy, money driven man who goes through elaborate schemes to extort money out of individuals. The summoner knew he was sinning to obtain his “extortion” money, showed no remorse, and continued with his sinful ways. This is what led to his downfall. Towards the end of the story, the summoner tried to scam an old lady out of twelve pence. This backfired. Knowing her innocence, she says she gives the summoner’s body to the devil, and the devil obliges taking the summoner straight to hell. Ironically, the summoner, a church official hired to call people before the church court for their crimes, fell for his temptation of money or wealth, committing major sins in the process, which ultimately lead to his downfall.

Works Cited "The Friar's Tale." The Friar's Tale - A Modern English Translation · eChaucer ¤ Chaucer in the Twenty-First Century. Trans. Gerard NeCastro - [email protected]. University of Maine at Machias, 2007. Web. 18 June 2017. ....