Money’s Corruption in Canterbury Tales

Money’s Corruption in Canterbury Tales The Marxist Critical Lens was based on a “German philosopher and economist named Karl Marx”. (Marxist Criticism Purdue OWL) The critical lens is looking at literature by examining the socio-economical classes and power that is created by economical resources. It depicts how individuals react with one another and can also show the effects of materialism. Through the many stories of the Canterbury Tale’s many of the characters are intertwined and a main theme that is exhibited is greed. Most of the characters are corrupt with both power and wealth. The socio-economic classes are a larger part of the corruption, with wealth comes power and the upper class abuses power by exploiting the lower classes. The corruption comes from the economy, corruption in the church, and materialism. “Canterbury Tales” corrupt economy has two parties that the Marxist lens calls, the bourgeoisie, and the people that control production. The characters that can be considered bourgeoisie are the miller, reeve, and the skipper. The other party are the proletariat, the people who are controlled by bourgeoisie and operate their production. The bourgeoisie being the group that own the production, they control the money and can have influence over politics and government. At the beginning of the Pardoners Tale, in the prologue, the Pardoner says “My theme is always one, and ever was: Radix malorum est cupiditas”. (Pardoners Tale Prologue lines 333-334), which is saying that “greed is the root of all evil.” It can be implied as saying the bourgeoisie is the cause of the corruption due to their lust for wealth. “The Catholic Church in the late fourteenth century had become very wealthy largely due to governing many countries around Europe including England, Ireland, and many others.” (PCCUA Church in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Century) With the church’s wealth growing, they distributed the wealth by building cathedrals that cost an incredible amount

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