Chaucer's Summoner

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Analysis of Chausser's the Summoner This essay will analyze the Summoner character from the General Prologue and the Summoner's Prologue in The Canterbury Tales. This is a character that Chaucer finds despicable. This essay will illustrate that the Summoner is an ugly, corrupt, shameless sexual fiend who has authority over people and abuses his power for sexual and monetary figures. First of all, Chaucer describes him as being extremely ugly. The Summoner is described as: That hadde a fyr-reed cherubynnes face, For saucefleem he was, with eyen narwe. With scalled browes blake, and piled berd, . . . Of his visage children were aferd. (626-30) His face looks like red baby's face that is full of pimples, boils and pustules and has a scanty beard. His face scares away children. The description of his hideousness represents leprosy that results from unclean living (Cooper 57). Secondly, Chaucer depicts him as being a morally corrupt sexual fiend. The Summoner is lecherous as a sparrow which was associated with lecherousness at that time (Robinson 666). The Summoner's corruption is shown with the following lines: Ther nas quyk-silver, lytarge, ne brymstoon, Boras, ceruce, ne oille of tartre noon, Ne oynement, that wolde clense and byte, (631-633) Chaucer lists and describes that no medicines and not even strong acids like sulphur and borax could help his condition. Cooper explains that his resistance to these strong medicines and acids signifies corruption, that he is corrupt from within and that is why he looks that way (57). In addition, the Summoner loves "garleek, oynons, and eek lekes" (636). Aside from giving him bad breath, these vegetables were considered to make him hornier and his leprosy worse (Cooper 57). This further depicts corruption because he is ugly and he does not care that he gets uglier, he just wants to have as much sex as
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