Paper Summary:

This paper reviews "The Monk's Tale" in Geoffrey Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" with an emphasis on the themes of religiosity and women representation. It uses extracts of the tale's text in order to comprehend fully the significance of these themes. It looks at how Chaucer uses the character of the Monk to serve as the symbol of religiosity and Christianity and how his account of the different feats and eventual downfall of the great characters he had enumerated in his tale shows the weakness of humans despite their greatness and contributions to human civilization. It also examines how Chaucer extends to his audience the message of how greatness becomes useless because of Man's weakness and self-adulation.

From the Paper:

"The first theme, which is greatness without religious guidance and the eventual fall of Man because of this, is illustrated through the stories of great rulers of human civilization such as Nebuchadnezzar, Balthasar, Antiochus Epiphanes, and Alexander the Great. Nebuchadnezzar, prominently known as the greatest leader of the Babylonian Empire. The Monk shows Nebuchadnezzar's fault when he became overindulgent in his power and wealth; his greatest weakness is when he asked his people to pray before a large gold statue. When a religious figure disobeyed him, Nebuchadnezzar was ashamed, and received his downfall when he lost his sanity: "This king of kings right proud was and elate/ And thought that God, Who sits in majesty/ Could not bereave him of his high estate/ Yet suddenly he lost all dignity." However, despite his faults, Nebuchadnezzar is pardoned by God, humbling the once great leader."

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