نبذة مختصرة : Introduction: The discourse of labor (and idleness) is theorized in ancient classical times by Hesiod who regarded labor as an affliction, and the aris tocratic Plato-Aris totelian circle of thought who ignored its value since they attributed it to the slaves, celebrating ins tead the man's 'Noble Idleness'. The theory of labor developed in the medieval period by the ambivalent Church fathers who related it to the Fall of man, and the consequent s trife as penance. In the late medieval, however, the attitude to labor changed dramatically, as is manifes ted in the thoughts of late medieval Church fathers such as Thomas Aquinas, who valued labor as a virtue, fores talling the more secularized Renaissance, which is anticipated in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Background of the Study: With the advent of Chris tianity, the decline of the ancient slavery sys tem and the rise of the feudalis t sys tem in Europe, attitudes to labor and wealth were modified. Chris tianity broke radically with the previous view of labor, yet labor was s till seen as a punishment for the Fall of Man. However, in the late fourteenth century England the es tate of the clergy encountered a paradoxical attitude towards labor. On the one hand, according to the Biblical ins tructions, labor is necessary and virtuous, and idleness or sloth is a deadly sin, on the other hand, this praiseworthy labor is allotted to the peasant es tate, leaving the role of the clergy s till uncertain. The clergy are mos tly consumers rather than. Methodology: In late medieval England, the development of the middle class and the rise of mercantilis m on the one hand, and the long futile wars, famine, and death tolls caused by the plagues on the other hand secularized Europe and highlighted the value of laboring bodies. Attitudes to labor changed, especially labor for food production. The attitude of the clergy, however, was paradoxical towards labor. According to the Chris tian doctrine and ethics, work was a virtue, but practically in the feudal sys tem of the medieval period manual work was allotted to the peasants. To cope with this ideological flaw, the clergy triumphed in their (non-productive) clerical labor and services in their meditative and ascetic lives. Failure in achieving these ideals is satirized by the pilgrim-Chaucer's highlighting the significance of food and food-makers. Accordingly, labor and the images of labor are praised in the "General Prologue" as useful in contras t with the idleness or uneconomic labors of the clergy. The praise is often applied to those pilgrims who are involved in productive labor, or more specifically, in food production, namely, the Plowman, the Miller, and the Cook. In connection with food production, the motifs of eating, consumption, and gluttony are also related, to the medieval mores. Conclusion: Chaucer cons tructs binaries in the "General Prologue", such as the Parson-Plowman / the Summoner-Pardoner binary that dis tinguishes between the two groups of ideal bodies and the idle ones. The pious Parson-Plowman brotherhood, their economic function and practice, and their relation to society and nature are in contrast with the Summoner-Pardoner connection, with their unnatural fellowship and chrematis tic approach to society. The dis tinction is epitomic of the other occupations in the "General Prologue", in which they are contras ted in their economic versus chrematis tic attitudes to life and society. That is, their productive properties are useful and economic for both the agent and the society versus non-productive, exploitative, chrematis tic, defunct, or unnecessary occupations, without any service for the welfare of the society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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