preview

Examples Of Verbal Irony In The Pardoner's Tale

Decent Essays

During the Middle Ages, The Canterbury Tales was the first major English literary work of Geoffrey Chaucer. One of Chaucer’s classic tales, “The Pardoner’s Tale,” establishes a concrete image of the Pardoner’s greed. Chaucer uses “The Pardoner’s Tale” to expose that “greed is the root of all evil” through verbal, situational and dramatic irony. Chaucer uses verbal irony to prove that “greed is the root of all evil.” Verbal irony is when a person says the opposite of what he or she means. An extraordinary example of verbal irony is when the three rioters claim that they are going to slay Death: “’And we will kill this traitor Death, I say!’” (91). The three rioters demonstrate verbal irony due to the fact that they cannot kill Death. Geoffrey Chaucer exposes that “greed is the root of all evil” through verbal irony in “The Pardoner’s Tale.” …show more content…

There are two examples of situational irony in the tale. A first example that Chaucer uses is when the three rioters head to the tree to find Death. However, when they arrive under the tree; the three rioters find gold rather than Death: “At once the three young rioters began/ To run, and reached the tree, and there they found/ A pile of golden florins on the ground” (162-64). Situational irony is used by Chaucer making his reader think that Death will be found by the rioters under the tree; instead the three rioters find gold. Second, the Pardoner is another example of situational irony. Rather than forgiving the people of the village from their sins, the Pardoner charges money to forgive the sinner. Situational irony is demonstrating that “greed is root of all evil” in “The Pardoner’s

Get Access