Character Satire in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

Satire. Satire is a biting literary tool, one that Geoffery Chaucer used liberally when he wrote his Canterbury Tales. Webster's New World Dictionary says that satire is "the use of ridicule, sarcasm, etc. to attack vices, follies, etc." Using that definition, I think that all of the pilgrims in the Canterbury Tales are satirized to some extent; some of the satirizations are more subtle than others. The Knight is one of the pilgrims that is more subtly satirized.

The Knight and the Nun are two significant pilgrims in Geoffrey Chaucer’s famous poem The Canterbury Tales. The Knight is respected by many and his main job was to defeat enemies successfully. The Nun had a lower social position than the Knight and her overall job was to praise the Lord and serve others. While the Knight appears to be a more respected pilgrim in comparison to the Nun, Chaucer uses both of the characters to contribute to the overall theme of humankind’s tendency to strive to be accepted and respected by their peers.

In The Canterbury Tales, the knight is a modern type of knight. Although the description of this character’s personality is vague, it is not hard for modern day people to visualize him. In the prologue, it mentions that the knight follows the five basic ideals that a good knight should possess: “chivalry, Truth, honour, generousness, and courtesy” (Chaucer 4). The knight fought in the Crusades, wars in which Europeans traveled by sea to non-Christian places and tried to convert people’s culture by brute force, which was considered noble and brave hearted. From his love of the five basics ideals previously mentioned to his impressive military career, the knight is a perfect example of how a knight should be represented. Indirectly, the tale is discussing both the knight and the idea of how a knight should be. The tale does not describe much about the knight as in physical appearances and characteristics of this knight but as the tale comes to an end, the book starts to unfold how this story connects with this character. The tale itself is not important yet it’s what the tale represents that is important, such as pursuing courtly love, risking death, and respecting women. All of the previously mentioned attributes are ones that knights should possess to achieve expected standards.

In Geoffrey Chaucer’s poem, The Knight’s Tale, the author encapsulates chivalrous characteristics in his telling of a battle for love. In its fundamental form, chivalry idealizes a knight’s conduct, both on and off the battlefield (Gregory-Abbott). Chaucer employs this “heroic code [of] bravery, loyalty, and service to one's lord” to illustrate the idillic knight throughout the narrative (Rossignol). Chaucer’s poem, The Knight’s Tale, exhibits the ideals of chivalry in the form of two knights, desperately in love with the same woman, and a wise Duke who embodies the voice of reason. Each knight upholds honor through compassion, troths, and heroism on the battlefield, despite their afflictions with each other.

The Canterbury Tales is a poem written by Geoffrey Chaucer in 1392. In this poem each character tells four stories, two on the way there and two on the way home, to provide entertainment for the people on the pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral. One part of Chaucer’s tales that truly stands out is the character prologue where he introduces all of the characters on the pilgrimage and conveys the narrator’s opinions of them using satire and other literary devices. Of characters that Chaucer’s narrator describes, two are the Parson and the Friar. Both of the characters share similarities in their social status and job position however greatly contrast in morals and character. In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer uses contrasting characteristics to convey an idea that teaches that power does not always lead to corruption.

Upon entering his description of the Knight, Chaucer wastes no time to praise this pilgrim in every way. Not only does he note the strength and bravery that the Knight shows in his battles but also his “softer side”, where he speaks about how he “never had foul-spoken in his life”, and wears chainmail “begrimed with rust” (Chaucer 4-5). Compared to the descriptions of many of the other pilgrims, Chaucer only states positive things about this character, using no time to speak negatively about his life. Even when speaking about his “dated” clothing, he spins it around to make it sound like a positive by showing off his selflessness. Along with this, the Knights section

Written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the fourteenth century, The Canterbury Tales is a poetic masterpiece. This work is rather unique because of its format and use of satire. The story is a framed narrative, a story within a story. The outer frame is a pilgrimage to the shine of Saint Thomas Becket, the martyred Archbishop of Canterbury. This journey is made by thirty pilgrims, including Chaucer the Pilgrim, who vary in social standing, ranging from aristocrat to peasant but excluding royalty and serfs. Chaucer often utilizes satire to draw attention to how well or how poorly suited a pilgrim is to his or her social status. The pilgrims gather at the Tabard Inn in Southwark, England, outside London. Harry Bailly, the owner of the Inn, proposes a story-telling contest among the pilgrims to keep them entertained along the pilgrimage. He offers to accompany the pilgrims at his own expense in order to judge the contest. The plan is for each of the thirty pilgrims to tell four tales, two on the ay to the shrine and two on the journey home. The individual tales comprise the inner frame. Of the proposed 120 tales, the story that is considered most entertaining and most moral will be selected as the winner. The teller of that story will receive a dinner at the Inn upon his or her return at the expense of the other pilgrims. Despite the planned 120 tales, only twenty-two full tales and two fragments exist. One completed tale, told by the Wife of Bath, epitomizes Chaucer’s uncanny ability to match each tale to its teller.

of the poor outfit of the Knight. Instead he attempts to point out that the

Geoffrey Chaucer used sarcasm to describe his characters in "The Canterbury Tales." It will point out details that are seen in the book that help explain how he used this sarcasm to prove a point and to teach life lessons sometimes. I will also point out how this sarcasm was aimed at telling the reader his point of view about how corrupt the Catholic Church was. Chaucer uses an abundance of sarcasm, as opposed to seriousness, to describe his characters in "The Canterbury Tales."

Chaucer’s most brutal attack was on the high ranking class and nobility, his use of satire allowed for him to make accusations of their lack of accountability for their actions. This concept was outlined in the Wife of Bath’s Tale, where a young knight physically assaulted a maiden the instance was brought to a court of the king and the knight was then sentenced to execution. The queen, however, chose to spare the knight’s life if he was able to find what women desired most within one year. He returned to the court a year later and revealed that women wanted freedom more than anything, and in return he was forced to marry an old lady that revealed the secret to him. This was what taught him the ultimate lesson. The old lady made a deal with the knight, he could have her old and ugly, but loyal or he could have a young and beautiful wife that he could not trust; when presented with the choice the knight chose to let the woman decide. “The knight thought long, and with a piteous groan at last he said, with the care in life, “My lady and my love, my dearest wife, I leave the matter to your wise decision. You make the choice yourself, for the provision of what may be agreeable and right in honor to us both, I don't care which; whatever pleases you suffices me.” (lines 374-381) The knight has learned that he cannot control his wife and have her love him, as a result of this revelation the lady changes herself into a loyal and beautiful wife. This lesson

The Knight, for example, is chosen to narrate the first tale. He is in the highest position from a social standpoint and displays the most admiring virtues for a medieval Christian man-at-arms: bravery, prudence, and honor. In contrast, belonging to the clergy, the Pardoner serves the author’s purpose of criticizing the church, as the character is exceptionally good at faking relics and collecting profits in his own benefit. Chaucer portrays in this tale the disagreement with the excess wealth and the spread corruption in Church at that

To begin, back in the days on Geoffrey Chaucer, religion was ruled by one and only one church, the Roman Catholic Church. He never really agreed with the ways of the church so he wrote a series of tales making fun of the people of England and the ways of the church. Even though he was purposely making fun of the church, he had to be careful of the way he said some things. With some of the characters he creates, Chaucer finds himself apologizing in advance for what he is about to say; or what the characters were about to say. By doing this Chaucer is using satire. Satire is when you say something but mean another or the opposite of the thing you say. Most of Chaucer’s tales are not appropriate for high schools, but of

       The characters introduced in the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales each represent a stereotype of a kind of person that Chaucer would have been familiar with in 14th Century England. Each character is unique, yet embodies many physical and behavioral traits that would have been common for someone in their profession. In preparing the reader for the tales, Chaucer first sets the mood by providing an overall idea of the type of character who is telling the tale, then allows that character to introduce themselves through a personal prologue and finally, the pilgrim tells their tale. Through providing the reader with insight about the physical and personal traits of

In Chaucer’s famous novel: The Canterbury Tales, he describes many characters in a satirical way, while others he describes with complete admiration. The narrator (a constructed version of Chaucer himself) is staying at the Tabard Inn in London, when a large group of about twenty-nine people enter the inn, preparing to go on a pilgrimage to Canterbury. After the narrator talks to them, he agrees to join them on their pilgrimage. Although, before the narrator progresses any further in the tale, he describes the circumstances and the social rank of each pilgrim. There are two characters in these tales of the same social class, but Chaucer’s opinion on them vary greatly. These two characters are the beloved Parson, and the loathed Pardoner.

Geoffrey Chaucer wrote the Canterbury Tales from the view of a pilgrim journeying with many other travelers who all had tales to tell. I believe that the stories told by the characters in Chaucer's book gives us insight into the individual spinning the tale as well as Chaucer as the inventor of these characters and author of their stories. There are three main characters whose stories I will be using as examples: The Knight's Tale, The Miller's Tale, and The Wife of Bath's Tale.