Canterbury Tales Corruption Analysis

Corruption is authority plus monopoly minus transparency. The Canterbury Tales is a book containing a compendium of frame stories told by different characters written by Geoffrey Chaucer throughout the late 1300s. Throughout the novel, Chaucer criticizes the injustices that take place in the real world by using characters and their stories as exemplum for the realities of the world. The Pardoner and Summoner are Chaucer’s two most intriguing male characters in The Canterbury Tales. Both characters work for the church, and many critics and experts believe that they are in a homosexual relationship. The sexuality of the Pardoner and the Summoner is significant in alluding to the corruption of the church because of their actions, gender, and likeness to one another. Chaucer uses the actions of the Pardoner and Summoner to reveal some of the corruption in the church. The gospel states that “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have
In the prologue, the narrator also states that the Pardoner and Summoner are “of the same feather” (21). This is Chaucer’s main clue indicating that they are a homosexual couple. This statement is also referring to both characters being sinful and morally impure church officials. In Keith Waddington’s article, “Sexuality and the Pardoner,” he states that the “moral corruption of the Summoner is revealed in his corrupted flesh, whilst the Pardoner, all falsehood and deception, demonstrates these qualities by his “lovely” appearance.” The Pardoner had smooth skin and dressed well, while the Summoner had repulsive skin and wore less flashy attire. Both worked for the church and were corrupt despite their looks. Chaucer makes the Summoner and Pardoner different in appearance and job title to accentuate that the church was corrupt in many facets of its being, not in just one