Say One Thing, Mean Another
(The Use of Satire in Canterbury Tales)
“Filth and old age, I’m sure you will agree are powerful wardens upon chastity”(Chaucer). Chaucer, the father of English literature wrote a tale called Canterbury Tales where he told a story about a religious journey. This tale is made up of many different stories by characters that Chaucer made up to prove a point. Chaucer doesn 't agree with a lot of things that are going on in his society so Chaucer uses satire. Which is the use of humor, or irony to expose people 's stupidity. Chaucer uses satire in the Canterbury Tales to attack three institutions, the church, patriarchy, and class nobility.
In the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer addresses the church hypocrisy with many different characters, one that includes the Pardoner. Chaucer isn 't anti church, he just believes its a hypocrisy. He uses the Friar, the Summoner, and the Pardoner to express his views of the church. Chaucer wrote a prologue for the Pardoner and in the prologue the Pardoner states the following about the church, “Then priestlike in my pulpit, with a frown, I stand and when the yokels have sat down, I preach,a s you have heard me say before, and tell a hundred lying mockeries more”(9-12). The Pardoner is calling the people that believe him yokels with is calling them all dumb for believing what he preaches. He is also saying the church isn 't true, and the people that preach aren 't all what they seem to be. Its the use of satire in those