Character study of three characters in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. 3 pages

Essay by callypsoCollege, UndergraduateA+, April 2002

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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 drunk, he babbles relentlessly of common...