Use Of Irony In The Pardoner's Tale

Throughout The Canterbury Tales Chaucer uses elements of irony. The Canterbury.Tales is a frame story compiling the tales of a number of characters on their way to the Canterbury Cathedral. This Middle-English work was never completely finished due to Chaucer’s death in 1400; however, the twenty-four completed stories have been passed down through hand-written manuscripts.The Pardoner’s Tale and The WIfe of Bath’s Tale both feature a number of ironic statements from the characters within each story. With his extensive use of irony Chaucer conveys his true feelings toward those he wrote of in the tales.

During the Medieval Ages indulgences sold as a way of salvation. These indulgences, sold by the Catholic Church erased one's sins. The Pardoner's Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer demonstrates the religious way of life of commoners in order to show how the Catholic church was in the Medieval Ages.

In The Canterbury tales, there is satire in which case gives the reader a comedic, exaggerated, and sarcastic overview of the characters actions or background. Chaucer gives the readers a taste of how he distributed satire within each individual character’s persona within the exposition. For starters, The Prioress’ role and or actions during this journey, Chaucer had written the following, “That she would weep if she but saw a mouse Caught in a trap, though it were dead or bled. She had some little dogs, too, that she fed On roasted flesh, or milk and fine white bread. But sore she'd weep if one of them were dead, Or if men smote it with a rod to smart: For pity ruled her, and her tender heart.” (Chaucer 144-150). Given this information about

Farce is the most obvious form of humour in the Miller's Tale, but I think irony is the most important. Chaucer plays off text against text to great ironic effect, both inter and extra-textually. In fact, the carpenter is a perfect ironic antidote to the Miller's advice of the Prologue. We read there that the best way for husbands to escape the humiliation of being cuckolded is that:

The way Chaucer uses satire is with irony. The squire comes off as such a different character from the knight. The knight is a man but the squire is a boy. It’s ironic how the prince is dressed compared to the knight. In those times squires were usually young boys without much and knights when out of their armor wore fancy clothes.

(Such as the nun not allowing food to fall from her mouth). He felt that it was necessary to mention that food did not fall out of a woman’s mouth to symbolize her neatness. Chaucer used a great amount of satire in The Canterbury Tales. It shows readers foolishness and corruption in a way that may be weird and hard to understand. The satire also has a purpose in The Canterbury Tales. “…which deftly brings together fabliau and anti-fraternal satire to produce these twin elements: the comic humiliation of an individual, Friar John, and the broader condemnation of the religious order to which he belongs. For various reasons, however, the alignment of fabliau and anti-fraternal satire is, as we shall see, less straightforward.” (Salter Page 4 Paragraph 1) He also talked about a man’s pimple-filled face to represent his ungodliness. Finally, he used a knight’s attire to show that the man was brave but not

This line from Friedman’s article specifically interprets how exactly the tale is difficult to be taken as satire. Nothing in the tale itself has a satirical element to the writing, it all appears gruesome and does not have a part of the tale where the reader can identify Chaucer’s true intention. If the reader cannot find the evidence to prove that the tale is satire then the reader must read the story in its literal format, which shows a very horrific tale of anti

The reading of the tales we see how Chaucer uses satire to bring to life the social life of a woman who back then was out for herself, with the husband. There was probably talk from everyone, but in today’s world there would not be that much talk. It was not something that women done back then, more commonly in today.

Chaucer uses a great deal of satire in his poem to show the difference in the social groups and how corrupt the world really is. this is a stroke of genius on Chaucer's part for if he had come out and bluntly say what he was thinking he would have most likely been beheaded. By using satire he not only got to keep his head but also got to express his opinion in a was all educated people understood.

Chaucer wrote poems of the medieval society and its social classes. These poems contained a lot of detail about the types of people in the classes. Chaucer used satire and irony to convey the corruption taking place in each and every social classes. In this time period if you spoke bad about the Aristocrats then you would get the death penalty, but Chaucer’s use of irony and especially satire was perfectly ok. The only reason he was able to write these poems in the first place was because the king liked his poems.

Back in Chaucer's time things were very corrupt. The most corrupt part part of the medieval society was that the church was used as a money making business instead of being used for people to worship God. One way chaucer used satire to address this is he Gave the Monk from the story some qualities that weren't

Satire is a literary device used in “The Friar’s Tale”. The use of satire greatly impacts the purpose of Geoffrey Chaucer’s famous anthology and the motivation behind why he composed it. Satire is a technique that uses humor, irony, sarcasm, exaggeration, and mockery to expose human vices and follies (Mazzei). Therefore, it is prominent to understand that Chaucer used satire to negatively represent summoners amid the Middle Age time period. The purpose behind “The Friar’s Tale” was to ultimately make improvement in society. By doing so, numerous satirical writers, like Chaucer, seeked to enhance humanity and furthermore encouraged the people they condemned to overcome their flaws (Mazzei).

The Age of Chaucer was an age of unrest and decay in all the fields of life. The corruption and decay was particularly reflected in the Christian Church of that age which gave rise to many satirical writers like Chaucer, Gower and Langland. Geoffrey Chaucer who was a representative writer of the age portrayed with crisp laconic vividness the materialism and avarice of the clergy as well as the moral laxity and luxury of the laity. His `Canterbury Tales' can be called an estates satire, in which the people belonging to the different layers of the class are satirized. As Chaucer himself belonged to the middle class and therefore he has chosen for his theme the portraits of people from the upper middle class and

In The Canterbury Tales, humor is a vital component for the readers to understand in order to appreciate the folly of man in terms of education, religion, and society. Geoffrey Chaucer creates humor not only through devising comical plotlines, but by also using poetic devices to deliver his wit to his readers and create entertainment at many different literary levels. In “The Prologue to the Monk’s Tale,” Chaucer reflects the humor of attitudes held towards class and religious stereotypes by having the host insult the monk’s overly masculine appearance and his dedication to the church, using techniques such as euphemism and hyperbole.

“Man should not treat in earnest what is a game,” (Chaucer 1, “The Miller’s Prologue”) Geoffrey Chaucer makes a moral judgement by telling his readers they “should not” take his words at face value in a strictly literal manner. Whereas, the sentence before he asked the reader not to pass judgement or blame upon him for the story they are about to read. Chaucer passively calls his story a game to show his humorous view on the subject he will be telling. Due to his gift of satirical storytelling skills, Geoffrey Chaucer became known as the father of English Poetry. His use of rhyming couplets in iambic pentameter, similes, and deep imagery the reader might gain an insight of how Chaucer viewed the world he lived in. While this was an exceptional feat for one man to accomplish, he also received repercussions for his risqué writings; thus, inadvertently setting himself apart from those around him. During the late Middle Ages, Chaucer did what few men were capable of doing; he worked his way from the lower class into high society. Though people respected him in both high and low statuses, Chaucer’s distance allowed him to critique both the aristocracy as well as the common man in a humorous fashion that calls to attention the differences in their societal views without outright offending.