Preachy Chaucer

Frankly I think it's pretty funny that the Canterbury Tales doesn't end with a tale, but instead a sermon about penitence. It was probably a good thing that the entire reading of Parson's Tale since the structure stayed the same the whole time, and there wasn't much different between the tale itself and a Medieval Sunday mass.

Chaucer's intentions with this piece were, as always, a bit unclear. Maybe G.C. wanted the reader to walk away remembering to live a sin-free life. Maybe he wanted to establish himself as a religious man and give props to Jesus for the completion of the tales. It can't be for certain, but what Chaucer does accomplish with this tale is completing small anthology of the various types of tale-styles. Looking back through the Canterbury Tales, we definitely read through a gauntlet of genres (the hag tale, the martyr tale, etc.) and the last horizon for Chaucer needed to explore at the end of the Canterbury Tales was the full-blown sermon. Obviously Chaucer had further intentions with his religious dialogue at the end of this piece, but at least he completed the genre set.