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Satire examples in the canterbury tales
Satire examples in the canterbury tales
Satire examples in the canterbury tales
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In some pieces of literature, an author may use satire. Satire is a type of writing that ridicules human weakness, vice, or folly in order to bring social reform. In order to portray personal beliefs through satire, the use of literary devices, elements, and techniques can include subtle hints regarding a much larger and/or serious matter. The Canterbury Tales, is an example of satire as it comments and makes fun of the Seven Deadly Sins, specifically avarice and lust during the Middle Ages. The author, Geoffrey Chaucer, uses verbal irony, situational irony, and characterization to satirize numerous aspects of medieval society, revealing corruption. This corruption is most evident in the Prologue, the Pardoner’s Tale, as well as the Wife …show more content…
Of Bath’s Tale. One of the Seven Deadly Sins that is most evident in Chaucer’s writing is avarice. Avarice is extreme greed.
In the Prologue, avarice stands out in the character description of the Pardoner and the Doctor. The Doctor is known for taking advantage of his sick patients. The Doctor would charge sick patients, “And kept the gold he won in pestilences./Gold stimulated the heart, or so we’re told./ He therefore had a special love of gold” (Prologue 452-454). When patients need the Doctor’s help, they are willing to pay anything even though the Doctor knows he cannot save them from the Plague. Through characterization, Chaucer satirizes the Doctor’s greed by describing a man who is supposed to care for the sick and needy, not take their money while they are on their deathbed. Also, Chaucer writes about the unethical agreement between the Doctor and the apothecaries. The Doctor would prescribe unnecessary treatments to patients and “All the apothecaries in a tribe/ Were ready with the drugs he would prescribe/ And each made money from the other’s guile’ (Prologue 435-437). Using verbal irony, Chaucer satirizes a mutual greed between a physician and an apothecary. In the description of the Doctor, Chaucer describes him as a perfect practicing physician, yet he takes advantage of his dying patients through sly dealings. In the same fashion, three best friends from the Pardoner’s Tale
allow greed to prevent them from doing what is ethically correct. The three friends stumble upon a pile of gold. Two of them create an alliance, agreeing to kill the third, but the third friend has a plan to kill the other two. All three ended up dying. The two friends “fell on him and slew him, two to one” (Pardoner’s Tale 277). The third friend gave the two others poison disguised as alcohol; one “drank; and his companion, nothing loath,/Drank from it also, and they perished both” (Pardoner’s Tale 283-284). By using situational irony, Chaucer satirizes greed amongst the common people. The two friends were planning killing the third, taking a larger share of gold, and the third friend was planning on killing the other two, taking all of the gold for himself. No one was able to have the gold as greed killed them all. Similarly to the three friends, the Pardoner also possesses avarice. In the Pardoner’s Tale, the Pardoner preaches about how not to let greed cloud your judgment and immediately after, he goes against his teachings. Shortly after he finishes the tale, he say “And I advise our Host here to begin,/ The most enveloped of you all in sin./ Come forward, Host, you shall be the first to pay” (Pardoner’s Tale 313-315). Chaucer satirizes greed with the clergy by using verbal irony. The Pardoner says one thing and then acts hypocritically by doing the opposite. Chaucer’s use of both verbal and situational irony, as well as characterization satirizes the sin of avarice, revealing corruption amongst Middle Age citizens. Additionally, the Deadly Sin of lust is very abundant in Chaucer's writing. Lust is sexual desire. Lust can be found in the Prologue as well as the Wife of Bath’s Tale. Chaucer uses characterization to paint a picture in the reader’s mind about the personality of the Friar. For example, the narrator describes the Friar by saying “He’d fixed up many a marriage, giving each/ Of his young women what he could afford her./ He was a nobel pillar of his Order” (Wife of Bath’ Tale 216-218). Chaucer uses verbal irony in his characterization of the Friar. He refers to the Friar as nobel when his actions are actually cowardly. He helps the women find a marriage to hide his sin to only repeat his lustful behavior. If he was truly noble, he would repent his sins and leave the clergy. Similarly, the Wife of Bath is a very lustful lady. For example, the Wife of Bath says that what women want most is a man who respects their sovereignty. She then says, “In perfect bliss; and may Christ Jesus send/ Us husband meek and young and fresh in bed,/ And grace to overbid them when we wed” (Wife of Bath’s Tale 434-436). The Wife of Bath says women want men to respect their sovereignty, yet she prays for women to find young rich men and for old men stingy men to drop dead. Chacher satirizes the sin of lust by using verbal irony; he makes the Wife Of Bath’s actions stand out to the audience by making them hypocritical. Another example of satirizing lust is when the knight from the Wife of Bath’s Tale rapes a virgin. The knight saw a woman and “By very force he took her maidenhead” (Wife of Bath’s Tale 64). He was then sent on a mission to find what women most want. After he did his research, he was told the answer is “A woman wants the self-same sovereignty/ Over her husband as over her lover” (Wife of Bath’s Tale 214-215). This storyline not only uses situational irony to satirize a knight not following the code of chivalry, but it also pokes fun at how lust clouded the knight’s judgment. If the Knight had know the answer prior to raping the woman, he most likely would not have taken her maidenhead. Using verbal and situational irony as well as characterization allowed Chaucer to satirize characters who committed the sin of lust. Chaucer’s piece of literature, The Canterbury Tales, is a narrative that tells the story about several Middle Age citizens on a religious pilgrimage. Through the narration, literary devices are used to satirize or comment on sinful pilgrims. The Doctor, the Pardoner, and the three best friends from the Pardoner’s Tale are guilty of having avarice. The Friar, the Wife Of Bath, and the knight from her tale are all guilty of being lustful. The use of situational and verbal irony, as well as characterization allowed Chaucer to poke fun at those characters, revealing corruption in the Middle Ages. Although Chaucer is notorious for the use of satire, satirical language is still used today. Writers, cartoonists, and scriptwriters still use satire in an attempt to reform society. Similarly, Chaucer is striving to reform the Middle Ages.
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.
Through the Prologue to the Pardoner's tale, the character of the Pardoner is revealed. Although the Pardoner displays many important traits, the most prevalent is his greed. Throughout the prologue, the Pardoner displays his greed and even admits that the only thing he cares about is money: "I preach nothing except for gain" ("Pardoner's Tale", Line 105). This avarice is seen strongly in the Pardoner's tale as well. In the Pardoner's tale, three friends begin a journey in order to murder Death. On their journey, though, an old man leads them to a great deal of treasure. At this point, all three of the friends in the tale display a greed similar to the Pardoner's. The three friends decide that someone should bring bread and wine for a celebration. As the youngest of the friends leaves to go buy wine, the other two greedily plot to kill him so they can split the treasure only two ways. Even the youngest decides to "put it in his mind to buy poison / With which he might kill his two companions" (383, 384). The greed, which is evident in the character of the Pardoner, is also clearly seen in the tale.
In “The Pardoner’s Tale,” Geoffrey Chaucer masterfully frames an informal homily. Through the use of verbal and situational irony, Chaucer is able to accentuate the moral characteristics of the Pardoner. The essence of the story is exemplified by the blatant discrepancy between the character of the storyteller and the message of his story. By analyzing this contrast, the reader can place himself in the mind of the Pardoner in order to account for his psychology.
In the beginning of The Pardoners Tale he talks about his qualifications and what he does, talking to several people. The pardoner tries to use his story to get the audience to give him money for their greedy sins. Then he tells a story about three young men who find an old man and they talk about age, the younger kids say the don’t want to grow old like the old man. The old guy tells the kids that they can find death by a tree. Excited to see death, the kids go to the tree and discover a pile of gold coins instead. Excited they decide to draw lots to decide which one would go down to the store, and who gets to stay with the money. The one who lost would have to go down to a store and buy some bread and wine that is later poisoned. Meanwhile, back at the gold, the other two conspire to kill the guy that is walking to the store by stabbing him to death, so instead of splitting the money three ways there would be more money apiece by splitting it two ways between them. So when they guy who walked to the sore gets back they stab him (he dies). Then the two drink the poisoned wine afterwards and they died from the poisoned wine.
myself be a full vicious man, A moral tale yet I you telle kan.’ The
After some time, the Pardoner is ready to present his tale, including both moral interjection and a merrier tone. The Pardoner begins by describing a group of young Flemish people who spend their time drinking and indulging themselves in all forms of excess. He continues to tell the tale, in which the people eventually end up drinking positioned wine and all die. As is, there are more details in the tale that we did not go over, there are some key elements that help us to better understand the Pardoner upon hearing his tale. First of all, we know from The General Prologue that the Pardoner is just as bad or corrupt as others in his “profession”.
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.
Mad Magazine, The Simpsons, Saturday Night Live. In our society, satire is among the most prevalent of comedic forms. This was not always true, for before the 18th century, satire was not a fully developed form. Satire, however, rose out of necessity; writers and artists needed a way to ambiguously criticize their governments, their churches, and their aristocrats. By the 18th century, satire was hugely popular. Satire as an art form has its roots in the classics, especially in the Roman Horace's Satires. Satire as it was originally proposed was a form of literature using sarcasm, irony, and wit, to bring about a change in society, but in the eighteenth century Voltaire, Jonathan Swift and William Hogarth expanded satire to include politics, as well as art. The political climate of the time was one of tension. Any criticism of government would bring harsh punishments, sometimes exile or death. In order to voice opinions without fear of punishment, malcontented writers turned to Satire. Voltaire's Candide and Swift's Modest Proposal are two examples of this new genre. By creating a fictional world modeled after the world he hated, Voltaire was able to attack scientists, and theologians with impunity. Jonathan Swift created many fictional worlds in his great work, Gulliver's Travels, where he constantly drew parallels to the English government.
“The Canterbury Tales” was written in the 14th century by Geoffrey Chaucer. These tales constitutes a frame story which each pilgrim has to tell their own story to the Chaucer, the pilgrim; not the poet. As we know, the tale itself is a satire, but the stylistic structure in the tales creates a sense that can be a parody as well. To support this idea of parody, it is need to know the definition of parody and how Chaucer use this style to make his own ideas clear through the general prologue and the tales such as “The Miller’s Tale” and “The Knight’s Tale”.
During Chaucer’s time, there was only one church, the Roman Catholic Church. There is only one church because the Protestant movement hasn’t started yet, it started in the 16th century. Anyone who was a member of the Roman Catholic Church, for example a Pardoner, a Summoner, or a Friar, are not to have sex, or party around, as well as not having money. Chaucer notices that some of these people in the Church break these rules repeatedly. Chaucer uses satire to brilliantly describe the hypocrisy in the church. Although Chaucer may come off as anti-religious, he is religious, he is against anti-hypocrisy. The first character Chaucer uses satire on is the Friar. Chaucer tells his audience that the Friar liked to sleep around a lot with women. The Friar also got lots of girls pregnant and then married them off to men in the church. The Friar was also very wealthy, and liked to party. Which are clear violations of the church’s code. To make things worse, Chaucer said that this particular Friar was better than others. The next characters that Chaucer introduced were the Pardoner and the Summoner. The Summoner’s job in a church is to find people who have committed sin and bring them to the church so that their sins can be forgiven by the Pardoner. However, the Summoner abused his power by blackmailing people to go see the Pardoner or else they
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.
Sexuality has been a repeated and imposing question throughout many of Geoffrey Chaucer’s tales. Some characters have used their voluptuous body parts to obtain revenge and vengeance where other’s human sexualities are probed as a whole. In The Pardoner’s Tale, the Pardoner’s sexuality is the most difficult to determine. Throughout the lines of the text, there is no present and clear evidence that reassures the sexuality of the Pardoner. However, the possible answer to the Pardoner’s true identity is evident and marked through examining his individual personality, presence of transgressive sexuality and interactions with peer individuals.
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.
...ething which is supposed to make them rich and full of life, and end up dead from events that have to do with the gold. This tale ends in a short sermon, asking God to forgive the mistakes of good men, and warning them about the sin of greed, before inviting the congregation to offer their wool in return for pardons.