Quinn Critiques Religious Dominance In "Canterbury Tales"

Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales were written in an age of supreme religious dominance. Religion was as prevalent in the characters society as government is in today’s society. Esther C. Quinn gives a literary analysis, The Theme of Religious Pilgrimage in The Canterbury Tales, of the Canterbury tales exploiting the religious dominance of the time and professing the mechanics of the religious machine in the fourteenth century. In this analysis Quinn reveals the religious dominance of the time, the significance of the pilgrimage, the role of penance in pilgrimage, and how the characters’ different motives for undertaking the pilgrimage affected the entire structure of what was a religious custom Chaucer turned conceptual.

In Chaucer’s time Religion was omnipresent in the lives of daily citizens. Quinn effectively demonstrates this by suggesting that “Chaucer was living in an age dominated by religious forces, and his poetry is permeated with religious references.” This would mean that Chaucer himself was influenced by the prevalence of what was essentially a religious bureaucracy of that time and that, in turn, influenced how his characters behave. She later goes to point out that based on the frequency that Christ, Mary, and the saints are mentioned that it could be easily assumed that the primary religion of that time was Christian. This was a attentive find on the part of Quinn showing that she was actively reading every word of the passage to notice the reoccurring mentioning of the ennobled figures in the Christian religion.

In Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales he omits explanation of why his characters are going on a pilgrimage in the first place. Quinn, in her analysis, suggests that pilgrimages were such commonplace that Chaucer had no need to explain pilgrimage in his work. She begins by explaining the origins of pilgrimage to give the readers more insight into this custom of the time. Quinn states that pilgrimages came about after Jesus had died and that it “represented the desire of the faithful to walk upon the land where the Savior walked.” While this explanation first seems irrelevant she later goes to explain that Saint Thomas Becket had died in Canterbury. The two deaths, the death of Jesus and the death of Saint Thomas Becket correlate; Quinn goes to point out “But they had this in common: the belief that a martyrdom had occurred, that the site of this martyrdom was sacred.” This analysis helps readers of the twenty first century understand the motive for the ancient custom of pilgrimage. This analysis not only clearly establishes the motive, but in doing so also adds to the background of the story for readers who aren’t familiar with the customs of the fourteenth century.

The pilgrimage to Canterbury, being a religious pilgrimage, has several mentions of penitence that Quinn determines to be essential in order to understand how Chaucer portrays the pilgrimage. She makes the point that “Chaucer moves from the actual custom of erring humans making pilgrimages into the idea of pilgrimage.” Quinn later identifies this as moving from a customary to a conceptual pilgrimage. This analysis points out how Chaucer’s underlying theme of pilgrimage keeps the readers aware of the religious environment that Chaucer, and subsequently his characters, lived in. Quinn points out that the Parson serves as a foundation to keep the theme of penitence reminding us that even in the midst of the uncouth tales of the pilgrims such as the Miller and the Reeve that all of the pilgrims are professing Christians who are assumed to understand the penitential aspect of the pilgrimage. This fixed attention to penitence and the framework of pilgrimage in The Canterbury Tales by Quinn is useful in the sense that the readers can understand the differences in religious piety in the characters and therefore how Chaucer decides to portray his conceptual pilgrimage.

In the literary analysis, Quinn makes several valid remarks about the pilgrims motives for undertaking the pilgrimage. She makes the remarkable point that while the pilgrimage is a religious journey the motives for going on the pilgrimage may not have much to do with religion but rather “assuaging a sense of guilt or completing a penance imposed on one's confessor.” This perspective sheds new light on the story, telling us that while the pilgrims are all Christians that some of them may just be going because they feel guilty about past sins committed rather than to experience the same journey that a martyr had. At first it could be assumed that the pilgrimage could be used for penitential reasons and that therefore the motives of many of the pilgrims were soundly religious. Quinn easily puts this to rest saying “There is little sense of this (penitence) in the beginning of Chaucer’s Canterbury pilgrimage.” This analyzed point could be dismissed as subjective but later Quinn cites evidence suggesting that the Host’s story telling game minimizes any aspect of a penitential pilgrimage from the work. Quinn goes on to point out that the Canterbury pilgrims “are such rascals: they drink to excess, swear, quarrel, deceive others and themselves; in short they exhibit every form of vice and folly.” Quinn missed an apt opportunity to point out that some pilgrims may have even been on the journey for purely social reasons. She does explain that “associations of food, drink, lodging, and conviviality [sociability], establishes humanity’s physical dimension.” but she fails to expand on what could be seen as a possible motive for certain characters who need a social outlet in the midst of a high demand to be pious. Quinn does draw out the motive of penance very well and gives an adequate amount of detail to the religious part of the pilgrimage that, based on the characters motives, turned social.

Quinn’s analysis not only broadens the readers understanding of the Canterbury tales and the time period that it was written in but it also provides speculation as to why some pilgrims would undertake such a voyage while providing valuable historical insight that is necessary to fully appreciate Chaucer’s work. While she misses opportunities to expound on the social aspect of the pilgrimage, Quinn effectively analyzes the topic of religion as applied to The Canterbury Tales. Quinn is ultimately able to draw very apt and specific details from the text to effectively expound on Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales.