Religion In Canterbury Tales

Medieval England literature all seem to follow a basic set of ideas. Although many of the plays and tales we have read so far are different in plotlines, they all possess a certain set of ideas and focus on certain concepts. In each piece of literature, not only is God mentioned, but religion almost always is a main issue in the plot. Along with holiness and religion, virtues and chivalry are also common in this type of literature, whether it be how the characters have good virtues or the characters’ lack of them. During the age of Medieval England, religion was an important (and large) part of society. This is expressed in most literature, as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. In this tale God and religious allusions appear multiple times,
He declares a monk he is travelling with to be of “a fair for the maistrye” but then spends the rest of the description in demonstrating how the monk is not really of the highest value (Chaucer 165). The monk both hunts and has wealth, things a monk should not have or be doing and is to show that the church was filled with people abusing their power since religion was so important at the time and they could get away with it. In the play Everyman religion (God to be precise) had a larger role, but also a different underlying message. Unlike Sir Gawain and The Canterbury Tales, the religious part of the play is more about what values in life and what God wants from “Everyman”. The play is about how society should focus more on being religious and good instead of committing the “seven deadly sins damnable” (36). Although the message is to focus on good deeds in one’s lifetime, it comes off somewhat hypocritical, but differently than in Chaucer’s writings. Instead its focus is on what religious steps should be taken to be forgiven by God, what deeds one should focus on in life, but also shows how simple and easy it is for one to be forgiven at the very end of a