How Does Chaucer Use Irony In The Knight's Tale

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Recommended: Chaucer uses humorous irony throughout his stories to make his points and share personal criticisms of medieval society as he knew it

The Canterbury Tales is a frame story written by Geoffrey Chaucer in England. Canterbury Tales is one of the most excellent frame stories. The Canterbury Tales is full of irony, beginning with the characters description all the way to the end of the story. Like everyone in the world, Chaucer had his own opinion on this time period, and he would tell it through the characters. Throughout the stories, Chaucer uses literary devices, such as, irony, symbolism, allusions, and allegory to indulge his stories to the reader. The Canterbury Tales was written between 1387-1400. Its sole purpose was to study the travel of thirty pilgrims to England/Canterbury. The pilgrims are from every level of society, they are not all poor and they are not all rich. …show more content…

In the Knight’s tale, prisoners Palamon and Arcite adore Emelye. Ironically though Palamon and Arcite hate one another. Irony then occurs when Arcite is released from prison, and secretly goes and works for Emelye’s family; shortly after Arcite was released, Palamon was released and noticed that Arcite was working for Emelye’s family. Palamon and Arcite then prayed to the Greek Gods for Emelye’s hand in marriage. Ironically though Emelye prayed to find true love and to be single. This is Chaucer’s way of pointing out how unpredictable life is, and how life is not fair. Also, he points out that life can be filled with happiness and sorrows. Another example of irony in the Canterbury Tales is during the Pardoner’s Tale. The main purpose of this tale was to explain how greed is the base of evil. Three men were on a mission to kill Death when they upon bags of gold, and all of sudden forgot about their real mission; which was to kill Death. This shows the reader irony because the purpose was to prove how greed is the basis of evil, and the three men took the bags of gold, which made them …show more content…

“Women may go saufly up and doun. In every bussh or under every tree. Ther is noon oother incubus but he, And he ne wol doon hem but dishonour.(884 – 887).”The ironic thing is that she claims to be an expert on marriage yet she has been married five times already and she was abused by the fifth husband whom she actually loved. Another one is the monk. According to the basic codes for monks and nuns, they have certain standards they have to follow (Puchner). They cannot hunt, they cannot expose any skin, and they have to take a vow of poverty (Puchner). This simply means that they must give away all their worldly possessions and live in a monastery. The ironic thing with him is that he owned a horse which signifies that he has money. He wears fur which means that he hunts and shows that he is greedy. All three of these things go directly against the teachings of being a

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