Marriage In The Canterbury Tales

When one takes a vow, they make a promise. There are many different types of vows. An example of some are marriage vows and political vows. In The Canterbury Tales, the type of vow that is focused is on is the religious kind. Three of the four religious people in the book that break their vows are the Prioress, the Monk, and the Friar. Out of the religious people and the rest of the pilgrims, the most contemptible character in The Canterbury Tales is the Friar, who participates in unsuitable promiscuity, selling absolution, and rejecting his vowed life of poverty.
Friars take a vow chastity, but this Friar is quick to disregard his vow. He is an avid participant of promiscuity. He repeatedly seduces women with his voice when he sang. As a religious man, his job was to be a beggar for the poor, but instead of doing his job, he lusted after young women. On page 9, Chaucer writes “his young women,” as in the Friar’s women. This gives the reader the impression that the supposedly holy Friar has in engaged in wanton activity with the women that he is fixing a marriage for. In addition to alluring women with his voice, he “kept his tippet stuffed with pins for curls/And pocket-knives, to give to pretty girls” (Chaucer 9). These gifts help attract women to him, which again, breaks his vow of chastity. The promiscuous activity that the
Chaucer writes that “Sweetly he heard his penitents at shrift/With pleasant absolution, for a gift,” on page nine. The Friar would immediately absolve a person of their sins if they gave either him or the Order a gift. The Friar would only consider the penitent to be sincere if he or she gave enough. The Friar is abusing his position in order to get more than he should be receiving. The “gifts” that the penitents give are bribes that the Friar gleefully accepts. This Friar’s morals parallel the morals of the Order he is in. This goes against his vows of obedience and