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¶ … Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer [...] parson, who is one of the truly good characters in the tale. Chaucer does not make a satire of him, as he does the rest of the characters. The parson is a good and decent man who cares about his religion and his parishioners deeply. His is unlike the other characters in that Chaucer holds him up as a model, rather than making a mockery of him.
THE PARSON
From his first introduction, Chaucer portrays the Parson as a good but poor man who would not leave his flock to better himself. Chaucer writes, "nat his benefice to hyre / And leet his sheep encombred in the myre / and ran to London unto Seinte Poules / to seken him," (507-512). This shows he is honest, and cares about the people of his church, so he would not leave them and got to London to find a better position, even though he is poor (32N507-514). Instead, Chaucer says he "dwelte at hoom, and kepte well his folde" (507-510),...
He is an honest man who believes in God, and in the goodness of what he does, and only wants to help the people of his town lead more religious and holy lives. This is one reason Chaucer does not satirize this character, because he is a good man, the best among the group of pilgrims. Others may also have good tendencies, such as the knight, but this poor parson is the best among them, and helps hold the group together on their pilgrimage.
Another way Chaucer illustrates how good the parson is comes from his work, which Chaucer says is "hooly thought and werk" (478). He is saying the parson has only holy thoughts and does holy work, and he is absolutely devoted to God and his church. Chaucer also shows him as a kind man who is not greedy, when he says he does not "cursen for his tithes" (486), which means he does not exclude those members of his parish who cannot afford to tithe and make offerings (31N486). He is good and kind to all, regardless of their ability to help pay for his…
Works Cited
Chaucer, Geoffrey. "The Canterbury Tales."
http://find.galegroup.com/gps/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T002&prodId=IPS&docId=A21240794&source=gale&srcprod=ITOF&userGroupName=va0035_004&version=1.0 Works Cited Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. Trans. Neville Coghill. New York: Penguin Books, 1977.
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