Chaucer Satire Analysis

Grant Sauber Mr. Jason Robinson English 12 Honors 19 October 2014 Canterbury Tales Essay The use of irony has had a profound effect on the world of literature as it is seen in The Canterbury Tales. Irony can help shape the reader’s perception on the theme of the novel as a whole. Throughout the tales, Chaucer subtly uses irony to criticize different aspects of his society. This irony is namely used in “The General Prologue”, “The Pardoner’s Tale”, and “The Miller’s Tale”.

In Chaucer’s genius work, The Canterbury Tales, the Friar and the Summoner tell tales of mockery about one another. Like the Miller and the Reeve before them the Friar and the Summoner are in rivalry with each other. However the difference between the rivalry between the Reeve and the Miller and the rivalry between the Friar and the Summoner is the competitive spirit. Unlike the Reeve and the Miller, the Friar and the Summoner’s rivalry is not a personal hatred but a hatred for the other’s office.This hatred inspires the tales of both the Friar and the Summoner. The two tell tales

The Friar is one of the biggest examples of hypocrisy in the story. Throughout the Friar’s description, he is shown to take advantage of his position and shun his duties to benefit himself. Instead of conforming to the poor lifestyle of traditional friars, Chaucer’s Friar manipulates people into giving him money and then pockets it for himself. One way he takes advantage of his position is by charging people for confessions: “Sweetly he heard his penitents at shrift with pleasant absolution, for a gift” (103, 225-226). He also makes money by being an excellent beggar, as shown in the quote: “He was the finest beggar of his batch...For though a widow mightn’t have a shoe, so pleasant was his holy how-d’ye-do he got his farthing from her just the same...” (103, 259-261). The Friar also rejects his duties by refusing to associate with the needy, as described in the passage: “ It was not fitting with the dignity of his position, dealing with a scum of wretched lepers; nothing good can come of dealings with the

(An analysis of Chaucer’s use of satire to reach his intended audience in his Canterbury Tales)

In the Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s tale has different themes to his story. Chaucer puts all his imagination to the book for everyone to read and analyze how The Pardoner’s theme relates to the nonfiction texts of “The Dynamic Culture of The Middle Ages” and “From A Distant Mirror”

In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer uses the obscene and the grotesque to illustrate to the readers the bawdy stories of the pilgrims on the journey and highlight their class differences. Although the members of the lower class use elements of the vulgar and grotesque, the erasure of some of the more obscene scenes by the storytellers indicates Chaucer’s humor to the audience as it is a rhetorical device. In “The Merchant’s Tale,” Chaucer gives the merchant, whose position is caught between the higher classes and the lower classes, the power to perform paralipsis to cheekily clue the audience in to the more vulgar moments of the story as well as depicting monstrous imagery.

That is how the Friar works for the church is he makes the money for the church by making people ‘right with God’. Chaucer is trying to show that the Friar is not doing his job like he is supposed to. Chaucer is showing the wrongs of the

For example, the Wife of Bath is described with a massive gap in her teeth, which resembles someone who is adventurous and loves to make love. With no shock or surprise, the narrator is satisfied that his observation is confirmed with the selected characteristics. Chaucer also criticizes the Church often with the Pardoner. He writes about men who chose lives of hypocrisy instead of dedicating themselves to the faith. These are interesting contrasts because The Wife of Bath is a woman who is an advocate for social change and practices what she preaches, whereas the Pardoner is a cheating conman who exhibits qualities that should not be connected to the Church. The Wife of Bath says, “I’ll make no boast about my own estate/ […]/ Not every dish and vessel’s made of gold,/ Some are of wood, yet earn their master’s praise” (Coghill). I appreciate this section because she is loud but humble and she represents goodness and light when she is looked down upon by the Church. In opposition, the Pardoner preys on the lowly and less fortunate and takes advantage of these desperate and naïve people. He is an appointed official of the Church and he represents all evil and the seven deadly sins, as we have discussed in class. These are obvious triggers for conversation and contradictions which are why satire is a core part of our curriculum. The disturbing truths written by Chaucer make for good conversations as satire

Chaucer uses satire to point out the problems within the noble class through the character the Knight. The Knight gets alienated by the society because of his actions. The Knight, who is sought to be honorable and noble, is quite the opposite in this situation. The Knight is accused of rape and is “sent a summons” (GP76) from the queen to decide his fate. Chaucer decides to have his character, the Knight, act like this to demonstrate that not all noble people are good people. The Knight is otherred by his society and queen unless he can tell the queen the “thing that women most desire” (GP81) within a year. If the Knight can do that, the queen will not kill him. That’s not the only way that the Knight is otherred in the canterbury

Satire is a grand literary device used by many authors to subtly make fun of a certain person or group. A way to mock them or make fun of their stupidity, and in the Canterbury tales there is a lot of satire that is discretely hidden between the lines, in forms that may not be so easily noticed in today’s world. Throughout the Canterbury tales, the descriptive lines depict not only fourteenth century England down to the T, but they also reflect Chaucer’s personality and wit. He allowed people to take a deeper look into himself, through the words and descriptions hat can be found in the Canterbury Tales. The Canterbury tales is broken up into many sections and examples of satire can be found in all of them, however, some are more prevalent

We are first introduced to the Friar in this section of the story. Chaucer introduces him as, “one of the better Friars”. This is an example of satire because the Friar, who is supposed to be a holy man, likes to sleep around with women and get drunk. “But first I beg of you, in courtesy, not to condemn me as unmannerly if I speak plainly and with no concealing’s and give account of all their words and dealings using their very phrases as they fell.” Chaucer quotes on page 115 of the hymnal. This is Chaucer’s second use of satire in the General Prologue. This is satire because Chaucer made these characters up and is making the words for these characters. He quotes, “I’m short of wit.” So if he says something people disagree with he is going to claim he is stupid and is just quoting what these people

The first place that Chaucer uses satire in is the church. There is this guy named the friar who runs the church and it has certain

The Medieval Period in history brought along scores of fables about everything from knights engaging in courtly love to corruption in the Catholic Church. The Canterbury Tales written by Geoffrey Chaucer expertly encapsulates many of the great motifs of the era. The Tales are a series of stories and descriptions of characters of all social classes that were composed in the late 1300’s. Chaucer utilizes a multitude of literary techniques to convey his personal views of people, and ultimately, what they represent in society. The author uses such devices when depicting two morally contrasting characters, the Parson and the Summoner, that are documented in the Prologue.

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 aim of any true satirical work is to poke fun at a certain aspect of society, while also inspiring reform to that very same aspect in one way or another. In Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Chaucer satirizes the Medieval Church and those associated with the church. Medieval society was centered largely around the Church. Ideally, the people were expected to understand that earthly possessions were meaningless when compared to the prospect of closeness with God. Man was expected to work until he died, at which time he would receive eternal salvation. This eternal salvation was achieved by obeying God's commandments. This theory, however, was becoming progressively corrupted as hypocrisy began to pollute the Church, particularly at the higher