Friar And Greediness

Throughout the tale there are prominent themes of greediness and neediness. For example, when the Friar arrived to Thomas’ house and sees that he is ill and bedridden, he saw that as a perfect opportunity to try to get money from him and said it was all for the church. The Friar tried to use Thomas by saying he has been constantly praying for his health and the Friar told him that if he would just give more to the church and be more like a Friar, he will be more pleasant with life and Jesus Christ will be more accepting to his prayers. In my opinion, the Friar is very hypocritical because even though he preaches to Thomas on greed and sin, the Friar, himself, went around begging for money and food, using the church for his own personal gain.
The Friar is supposed to be someone who is pure and of good deed, yet he has desires to use the church and is insistent that money be brought to him and no one else. It is ironic, though, that he preaches on how to not be sinful, angry, or greedy, but then he goes and acts like how he preached you shouldn’t act. The Friar uses his power as a way to get things for himself, which is religious corruption, and he should be doing those things for the church and not for himself. When the Friar receives the fart, he becomes very angry, which is ironic because he told Thomas that being angry was a sin. Thomas knew how manipulative the Friar was, so he deserved that fart after all his devious actions. Also, I found it interesting that there are similes used to describe Thomas and the Friar’s anger. For example, When the Friar gets the fart as a gift from Thomas, “[he] started up like an angry lion” (234). This simile shows how angry the Friar gets that he didn’t get what he wanted, which was quite selfish. Another example is when Thomas’ wife talks about Thomas to the Friar saying, “he’s irritable as an ant beside the fire” (225). That simile is used when the wife describes how Thomas is always angry and unpleasant with