Promiscuous Celibacy 

As countless students around the world attempt to understand and study British Literature they encounter Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales: an expansive and difficult to read collection of fictional tales. The fact that the work is essentially in another language (Middle-English) mixed with the fact that the word takes up about 17,000 lines of text with about 25 pilgrims makes this work an extremely difficult one for high school students to comprehend especially with Chaucer’s inherit ability to fill every single line with meaning and purpose.  In an attempt to understand each character more in depth students are created a representation of an character from the Canterbury tales through a modern lens, and this page is for the Friar. Friars in this time period were people who had sworn their life to god and given up most material needs: mainly money. Friars would travel and receive donations and confessions from people so that they could repent their sins. The ironic twist with this particular Friar is that this Friar is much more obsessed with materialistic goods and the seduction of women for his pleasure and their money. This Friar goes around seducing even the poorest widow and steals all of their income, then moves on his way. The best way to present this character’s character through an Autobiography was a dating profile where the Friar could craft his outward image with ease and seduce all the women he wanted. In addition, the Friar had many quarrels and problems with other people such as summoners and a twitter was the best way to show these fights. The twitter highlights the ease of communicating with other people and parallels well with the Friar’s mobile life as he travels. It is suggested that as one reads this page that they listen to the song to the right. 

The Dating Profile: A Spitting Image

With the emergence of countless social media outlets, it is no surprise that the people of the 21st century care more about their image than almost any other aspect of their lives. This inherit need to have full control about ones own outward image parallels perfectly with the Friar’s behavior, and a dating profile was the best way to represent this characteristic.  Each profile on a dating website presents the user in their best light, their best angle, and with the best lens allowing the Friar to place a spotlight on his good characteristics and make sure viewers forget about his negative side. In the time a Friar was famously poor and asked for confessions from people to repent their sins, and this Friar wanted to break that stereotype. He can be seen doing this in The Canterbury tales by the way he dresses in a double lines robe or the way he “knew the taverns wel in every town,/ And every hostiler and tappestere,/ Bet than a lazar of a beggestre” (Chaucer 240-242). He presents this facadical image of wealth by spending time with the successful and shunning the poorer members of the town. This also speaks into his materialistic tendencies as he gains the most amount of money from these groups of wealthy individuals in a job that essentially pledges to a life of poverty. In addition, this Friar loves manipulation: a staple for dating websites. Another truth of the Friar was his ability to influence even the poorest female to give him money. Chaucer describes The friar has “maad ful many a marriage/Of yonge women at his owene cost” (Chaucer 212-213). Based on the context we are to extrapolate that the Friar had taken advantage of these women and had to marry them off as payoff. These seductive and manipulative tendencies can be perceived through the text of the dating profile. 

The Twitter: A Message Board of Statement

Twitter was a great way to represent the Friar’s social companions. In our modern century we seem to care more about the number of followers that one has and we try to degrade that one person that seem to have more followers than we do all in favor of stealing their followers. Although, it might not be that aggressive in our 21th century it is however the spitting image of an intense twitter war between the Friar and the summoner. There are five tweets and two retweets on the friar’s twitter page that is directly associated with the summoner. How far will the Frair go to ruin the summoner’s reputation just for more followers? You will find out as we dive into the Friar’s side of the twitter war. The Friar’s tweet describes the summoner as a selfish person. He shows a picture of him eating all by himself showing that he only cares about himself and no one else.  The second tweet shows a picture of the summoner bribing a bar lady. The Friar proves that the summoner is not as pure and honest man as people portray him as. The third tweet shows a picture of the summoner lying to a couple with a straight face at a holy place.
The Friar tries to convince summoner’s followers that the summoner speaks nothing but false truth. This battle between the Friar and the summoner seemed to be going very well for the Frair with nine followers already stolen from the summoner’s followers. The first retweet, however, did not go so well for the Frair. He criticized the summoners looks (the way they dressed) and lost five followers. The Friar now gave personal and more secretive tweets. He became the number one nemesis of the summoner. He was bound to win himself the entire twitter followers of the summoner’s followers. The Friar’s last but one tweet is a picture of a yeoman on a horse and the tweet is about the yeoman disguised as the devil. In the tale the summoner and the yeoman meet up and they quickly becomes friends when the yeoman openly tells the summoner that he is like him (steals, cheats, and lies). The yeoman also tells the summoner that he is literally the devil in disguises. The summoner, however, does not seem to be bordered by his Yeoman friend being the devil. In the end the devil offers the summoner redemption but he does not take it; “So take your part of what to you they give And I'll take mine, that both of us may live;And if one of us has more than the other, Let him be true and share it with his brother." "I grant it, by my faith," the devil said” (Friar 1531-1535). The Friar proves that the summoner is as good as the devil himself (if not worst). The Friar’s last tweet is picture of when the summoner goes to a crone to collect a payment of his services and demands a sum that was higher than she realized; "Yes," said the summoner, "pay now--let's see--Twelve pence to me, and you I shall acquit My profit from it's just a little bit. My master gets the most it isn't me” (Friar 1596 -1601).  She begs him to reduce the amount but he doesn’t. In the process an argument, she ends up cursing him to go to hell: “And never with my body was untrue. Now may the devil, black, rough-hided too, Take both your body and that pan from me!" (1621-1624). The curse comes to pass and his yeoman friend disguised as the devil takes him to hell; “Now, brother," said the devil, "don't be mad; Your body and this pan are mine by right   To hell is where you'll go with me tonight” (Friar 1635-1637). The lesson behind it is that what comes out of ones month has the power to affect someone either in a positive or negative way. The Friar’s last tweet proves that following the summoner would only lead you to the path of hell. ​

In Conclusion...
All in all, as the dating profile highlights the Frair’s personal information of his entire activities, however, one would agree that he is in fact the mirror image of the summoner in his tale. Both Frair and summoner love to manipulate others for their own benefits. Both Frair and summoner want to see each other fail. With the knowledge we know about both Friar and summoner, we can concluded that the Frair although as corrupt as the summoner is more righteous then the summoner. The reason being that his tale about the summoner is actually the lesson that made him repent. 
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