Short Summary And Analysis Of “The Monk’s Tale”
CANTERBURY TALES – In this article, we’re going to learn about the summary of Canterbury Tales’ “The Monk’s Tale“.
In the tale, the Monk is depicted as a fat and happy monk. Contrary to what typical monks do, the monk in this story loves food and wine. Moreover, he loves spending more time in the tavern rather than the monastery.
Obviously, knowing that this person is a monk, one would immediately question this character and the hypocrisy of the monk. Aside from this, the monk’s favorite pastime was hunting and riding horses. Additionally, the monk also values worldly things and indulges in the lavishness of the material.
However, the Monk already said that he didn’t live the traditional life of an ordinary monk. Instead, he claimed to be a modern man who lived in lavishness and ease.
When the monk was with Chaucer, he said he would tell the story of Edward the Confessor. But, he said he would tell a series of tragedies first.
The first was the tragedy of Lucifer and Adam. Both stories were taken from the first book of the Bible, Genesis. Next, the second tragedy was the story of Sampson who admitted that his great strength came from his faith and not cutting his hair. Afterward, he told the tragedy of Hercules whose strength compared to none.
But, Hercules was defeated when Deianira had Nessus make him a poisoned shirt and sent it to him. Then, the Monk told more stories about powerful people. However, there were mostly no lessons to be learned. Rather, it was just a depiction of how fate can be cruel to powerful people.
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