Chaucer, Geoffrey - The Monk, Canterbury Tales

The monk is presented as a normal person and not as a monk belonging to the clerical world. He isn't conservatorist but he is an open minded man. He isn't guided by the rule of St. Benedict but he takes into considerations the modern world. He doesn't spend all the day praying and studying in his cloyster as the others monks do, but he likes hunting riding his horse. He's active, ribellious in monastic rules interesting in his pass time, in fact he spend a lot of money for his hobby. His soul isn't tormented, also his clothes aren't typical of a monk, his sleeves are decorated with fine grey fur and on his hood he had an elaborated gold pin in order to fasten it on his chin. Geoffrey Chaucer analizys in a very detailed way the monk without critizing him, he criticizes the corruption, the power, the lazyness and the indolence of the church. We can also understand the irony of Chuacer in the approvation of the monk's opinion. Chaucer likes the monk and seems to agree in his way of life. The monk is the opposite of the tradiotional concept of a monk.