Relating Canterbury Tales to Modern-Day Characters
Relating Canterbury Tales to Modern-Day Characters
Although we can see some changes in types of characters, people today are relatively the same as they were during the Middle Ages. Some Chaucerian characters, such as the Parson, the Summoner, or even the Doctor, can relate characteristically to modern-day characters.
When compared with the Chaucerian Doctor, the stereotypical, modern-day witch doctor relates similarly. With few exceptions, such as types of clothing, the Doctor and witch doctor are different The brightly colored, expensively made clothes (ll. 449-450) would be substituted for dark, black, flowing robes. The Doctor’s eyes full of strength and intellect. The witch, full of power and demon possession. Despite their differences, their likeness of their actions are greatly similar. They both make magic charms and effigies(l. 428) with their demon possessed hands. They create potions and supposed “magical” elixirs, manifested from cited chants passed down from other generations. They are perfect practicing physicians(l. 432), given that they know the cause of every malady and infliction the body can withstand(ll. 429,430). They appear to many as one to provide an extended hand to anyone in need. But there is a price to be paid for their services, and their eyes cannot oversee the wealth that is due to them. The Doctor then is the same as a witch doctor now, with their appearances different, but their intentions and thoughts the same.
Stereotypes are seen only in the imagination. And it is in the imagination from which a television evangelist is characteristically similar to Geoffrey Chaucer’s Summoner. The evangelist is a deceiver to many. He quotes scripture of Biblical content, to put forth an act or display that he might appear unto others as a “man of God.” The Summoner is much the same. When he is drunks, he babbles relentlessly of common Latin phrases that he had memorized from the Church services(ll. 655-659). The Summoner has been referred to be “as hot and lecherous as a sparrow(l. 640),” giving new meaning to the purpose of many great evangelists’ falling out from the ministry. Their reasons are those of lust and adultery. Both are deceivers of men in that they appear to be to many as being righteous men. It is only on the inside that reveals the evidence of deception. “Let God be true, and every man a liar.”
A tree can be determined by the fruit that it...