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While Medieval monks were supposed to stay cloistered and devote their lives to the study of scripture, the Monk in The Canterbury Tales proudly dismisses this dictate. A devoted outdoorsman and huntsman, he spends his money on hunting expeditions, equipment, and lavish clothing. In addition to such frivolous spending being against behavioral convention for monks, hunting itself was considered improper behavior for members of the clergy. The Monk has a strong physical presence, harkened by the loud bells on his horse’s bridle. These bells are apparently as loud as a chapel bell, which emphasizes the Monk’s skewed priorities. The Narrator describes him as a “manly man,” and in the Monk’s prologue the Host remarks that if the Monk had not joined the clergy he would have wooed many women. Nevertheless, the Monk tells a tale quite suited for his station, a dower cycle of tragedies from Classical, Biblical, and Historical sources that he claims to know hundreds of. As the Monk begins this tale after the Host’s comment that he doesn’t look like a Monk and shouldn’t have become one, we can read the Monk’s conventional tale as a rebuttal to the Host’s teasing.
