Sentence In Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales

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The Theme of Sentence in Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales
The Theme of Sentence
The Canterbury Tales, a collection of short stories authored in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer, clearly depict the theme of Sentence. Hence, this paper will discuss the theme of Sentence in both The Friar's Tale and The Summoner's Tale from Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. Throughout the class discussions, I have learnt the meaning of Sentence which implies the morals and meaning portrayed by a given piece of literature. Sometimes, different tales may show different meaning and morals to readers.
The Friar's Tale
Indeed, the Summoner’s duties purely based on false accusations. In The Friar's Tale, the Summoner set out to present a piece of summon to a widowed …show more content…
Due to her frustrations, the poor lady cursed the Summoner and damned him to hell. The old widow lamented “The devel, so fecche hym er he deye, a nd panne and al, but he wol hym repente” (line 1628, 1629). Again, when asked by the Fiend, the widow wished to see the Summoner’s body and soul carried away to hell. In her case, unless the Summoner repented then and there, the poor widow wanted him to languish in hell. Therefore, to avoid the judgement, one has to repent and ask for forgiveness from the victims and the Fiend. The Friar explains how repentance could save an individual’s body and soul. Since the Summoner refused to repent, “Body and soule he with the devel wente/ Where as that somonours han hir heritage” (line 1640, 1641). As a matter of fact, the Friar completes his story by stating that hell remains a heritage of Summoners and hopes that they repent before evils caught up with …show more content…
The author demonstrated how different individuals used unscrupulous methods to mistreat their subjects. In The Friar's Tale, Chaucer explains how the Summoner uses false accusations against a poor widow. The Summoner embarks on a mission to fulfill his selfish interest and request money from a poor lady. Chaucer stated that, to avoid losing one’s body and soul to the devil, a person has to repent and ask for forgiveness from the victims. Morally, in The Fiar’s Tale, the narrator asks people to “Waketh and preyeth Jhesu for his grace” and desists from temptations (FT 1654). On a similar tone, as expressed in The Summoner’s Tale, Chaucer agreed that people on authority relied on superstitions and unproven facts. In The Summoner’s Tale, the Friar pretended to relay God’s message to the church members and urged them to pay more contributions to the church. Besides, both the Summoner and the Friar had reciprocating moral views against each other on how they carried out their functions. Therefore, in his literature work, Chaucer managed to demonstrate the theme of
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