Chaucer's Literary Devices

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Another literary device that Chaucer employs in his tale is personification. A typical literary device used in fables, Chaucer personifies the chickens and fox in this tale by giving them the ability to speak and read, and describes the animal characters in a very anthropomorphic way, calling the hen Pertelote “the fair damsel”(50). The very fact that Chauntecleer and Pertelote are able to carry out a conversation shows that Chaucer treated personification in such a way that the “Nun’s Priest’s Tale” is considered to be a beast fable. One other literary device that Chaucer utilizes in the telling of the “Nun’s Priest’s Tale” is irony. Not only is irony an important part of the fable tradition, it is deeply integrated into Chaucer’s writing