Chaucer the Joker
(An analysis on Chaucer’s use of satire to reach his intended audience)
As the great Jonathan Swift once said, “Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own.” In Chaucer’s writing he uses satire to describe many different ideas. First Chaucer is trying to trick people, and trying to make them laugh. In the three sections, general prologue, the Pardoners tale, and the Wife of Bath Tales, all have specific examples of satire. Satire is the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues. Chaucer is very witty when it comes to his terms of using satire. In Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tale he uses satire to reach his intended audience in three different parts of the writing, the general prologue, the Pardoners tale, and the Wife of Bath’s tale.
To begin, in the general prologue there are many examples, of satire that are displayed. He begins this prologue with the discussion of spring, and how everything comes back to life during the spring time. Spring is supposed to be the time of rebirth, when all the leaves are growing back, and the flowers are sprouting, the grass turns green, and baby animals are being born. These is ironic, because all of the people that are gathered in this square are about to be jacked. Even though there are some characters that beg to differ on the whole getting jacked thing. “To ride abroad had followed chivalry, Truth, honor, generousness, and courtesy, He had done nobly in his sovereigns war.” (pg;.98) This quote expands on the kind of person that the Knight was. You could tell all of these things about him...
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...l, each tale within Chaucer’s Canterbury Tale relates to satire, in which he is intending to reach is audience. To begin, in the general prologue there are many examples, of satire that are displayed. Secondly, the Pardoners tale also has excess amounts of irony and satire in it. Lastly, the Wife of Baths prologue is the one that most people get offended by. Satire can be used in a good way or a bad way, it just depends on how you apply it. In the way that Chaucer applied it he wanted to make a lot of people mad and he accomplished just that. All in all, Chaucer did an excellent job when it came to using satire to reach his intended audience. Chaucer’s General Prologue is a masterpiece of satire due in large part to his frequent and often viciously funny use of verbal irony. Henry Kewt says here, that he is the king of irony, when it comes to The Canterbury Tale.
Not many authors will express their honest opinion. However in The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer will use sarcasm for the characters he dislikes, but will express his appreciation for the ones he admires. He will introduce each character on the journey to Canterbury. In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer values the qualities of leadership brought about by the Knight, moral brought about by the Parson, and cheerfulness brought by the Franklin.
Satire is form of comedy in which flaws in people or society are chastised in order to prompt change in the objects of criticism. Regardless of how long ago comedy itself may have existed, the concept of satire was introduced by the Roman satirists, Juvenal and Horace. The tones conveyed in their writing characterize the main modes of satire, being Horatian and Juvenalian, and are still used in satire today. Presently, two popular forms of comedy that employ satirical elements include parody news sources and comedic performances. Although satirical writing has evolved throughout history, many aspects of satire are still apparent in both the articles of parody news sources, like The Onion, and the performances of professional comedians, like
Chaucer’s Use of Satire (An in depth analysis into the General Prologue, Pardoner's Tale, and the Wife of Bath.) What does it mean for literature to be characterized as a type of satire? According to Oxford Dictionaries, “Satire, is the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.” There are countless examples of how satire has enabled great writers to achieve their ultimate goals. In fact, many of the modern stories and works of literature that we study, have, in one way or another, some type of satire.
...irony, the corruption he believes can be found in the Church, pointing at its common tendency in this time to take advantage of the people through its power. He also shows through the Pardoner that perhaps immoral people cannot guide people to morality, through subtle lines such as “For though myself be a ful vicious man,/ A moral tale yit I you telle can” (GP 171-172). Through Chaucer’s portrayal of the Pardoner in this tale, the audience is able to see that the Pardoner is a self-absorbed, greedy man that mirrors what the author thinks of the Church, and that the Pardoner is the exact opposite of what he preaches, which also points towards the supposed corruption of the Church. The irony found throughout this work serves the important purpose of bringing attention to the dishonesty and fraud Chaucer believes can be found in the Roman Catholic Church at this time.
Satire is used in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen to show the deficiencies in morals and ethics of the characters that Austen disapproves of. Satire is used to "attack" characters and to bring about change. The different characters types she satirizes are "suck-ups," hierarchical, and/or ignorant.
In The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, the stereotypes and roles in society are reexamined and made new through the characters in the book. Chaucer discusses different stereotypes and separates his characters from the social norm by giving them highly ironic and/or unusual characteristics. Specifically, in the stories of The Wife of Bath and The Miller’s Tale, Chaucer examines stereotypes of women and men and attempts to define their basic wants and needs.
This begins in the General Prologue There are many different ways we see satire throughout this tale in many different ways and the causes of corruption in people. Chaucer speaks on the immoral actions of the Pardoner as a preacher. The Pardoner’s display of himself and his “corrupt nature of his professional practice threatens to disrupt the pilgrimage’s entire spiritual purpose.” (Whitney) During the Prologue of the Pardoner’s tale, we see a proud and unapologetic pardoner of his corrupt actions. He clearly shows he is not remorseful for his action in the prologue stating “For myn entente is not but for to wynne, and nothyng for correccioun of synne.”(Chaucer 403-404) In this quote, the Pardoner clearly states that he preaches only to receive the pence, and does not think of this as punishment for individuals sins. The Pardoner tricks poor people gaining from their ignorance believing the intentions of the church officials. Chaucer continues to throw satirical references at readers that highlights the hypocrisy of church officials. He uses religious idea of indulgences to trick people out of their money with no intentions of freeing them from their sins. As a preacher, this shows that the Pardoner does not follow the religious teachings on the idea of greed. Overall this is satirical because
Chaucer uses his satire to tear down the walls of the Church by relating the parishioners who go their. Chaucer uses the Pardoner's tale as a horse in which he piggybacks his radical ideas. Donald Miller from Storyline expresses, “People who care about the truth understand they are capable of self-deception and surround themselves with accountability.” This quote shows the a person who understands the inside of an institutional like the pardoner, can manipulate lesser knowers of the church. A quote
The Prologue to The Canterbury Tales is a masterpiece of satire due to the frequent use of verbal irony and insults towards the characters and their roles in society. A major source of Irony is Chaucer’s representation of the Church. He uses the Prioress, the Monk and the Friar, who are all supposed to be holy virtuous people to represent the Church. In his writing he suggests that they are actually corrupt, break their vows and in no way model the “holiness” of Christianity.
According to Jeffrey Helterman, “The poet Chaucer, with stories told in different styles by distinct storytellers, plays games with the idea of narration.” (Helterman 10) It is well known that Chaucer uses many different techniques to write his stories, but specifically in the Canterbury Tales he used satire. Satire, as defined by Merriam Webster consists of “humor that shows the weaknesses or bad qualities of a person, government, society, etc.” (Merriam Webster) Throughout the Canterbury Tales Chaucer uses satire to depict the Pilgrim’s lives and reveal corruption in the Church. At the end of the 14th Century the church started to get rich because they governed land that was very profitable. The
Chaucer is known for his satirical writings, they offer a different light on the middle ages than most traditional writing styles. In the Canterbury Tales his use of irony is how he displays the people of the middle ages are corrupt. For example when the three friends went looking for death, but then forgot all about death when they found money under the tree. Only little did they know death found them instead. Then in the Wife of Bath's tale, the Knight committed a horrible crime against a women, and instead of dying he had to find the answer the question what do women all want. This is ironic because he was so disrespectful to women and for his punishment he must please the women in order to gain the information. Satire is used throughout all of the tales, especially the Millers uses crude language to get the message across to the reader, as well as irony in this case they all were greedy and
From generation to generation there have always been people who want to drastically change the way the human system has been set up. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 50’s and 60’s with civil rights; or Christ himself about 2000 years ago, they wanted to change the way we a human's looked at the world. Geoffrey Chaucer, commonly referred to as the “Father of English Literature” because he was the first poet to write in vernacular english instead of Anglo-Saxton or Latin. He is also referred to as iconoclastic for the ways he attacks most of 1300 Europe and the way it has operated for hundreds of years. In his story The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer writes of
Geoffrey Chaucer was a on a mission when he wrote The Canterbury Tales. That mission was to create a satire that attacked three major institutions. Raphel displays, “Medieval society was divided into three estates: the Church (those who prayed), the Nobility (those who fought), and the Patriarchy. The General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales is an estates satire.” Chaucer wanted to shed light on the institutions that were taking advantage of the everyday man. Chaucer does this by making up tales about certain people that she light to the undercover world of the institutions. In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer uses satire to attack the Church, the Patriarchy, and the Nobility.
Chaucer's Irony - The Canterbury Tales Chaucer's Irony Irony is a vitally important part of The Canterbury Tales, and Chaucer's ingenious use of this literary device does a lot to provide this book with the classic status it enjoys even today. Chaucer has mastered the techniques required to skilfully put his points across and subtle irony and satire is particularly effective in making a point. The Canterbury Tales are well-known as an attack on the Church and its rôle in fourteenth century society. With the ambiguity introduced by the naïve and ignorant "Chaucer the pilgrim", the writer is able to make ironic attacks on characters and what they represent from a whole new angle. The differences in opinion of Chaucer the pilgrim and Chaucer the writer are much more than nuances - the two personas are very often diametrically opposed so as to cause effectual irony.
The Canterbury Tales is a great contemplation of stories, that display humorous and ironic examples of medieval life, which imitate moral and ethical problems in history and even those presented today. Chaucer owed a great deal to the authors who produced these works before his time. Chaucer tweaked their materials, gave them new meanings and revealed unscathed truths, thus providing fresh ideas to his readers. Chaucer's main goal for these tales was to create settings in which people can relate, to portray lessons and the irony of human existence.