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Chaucer's Use Of Satire In The Prologue To The Canterbury Tales

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The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, explores the personalities of an eccentric group of characters who are making a religious pilgrimage to Saint Becket’s resting place. Although Chaucer’s sharp observances and literary techniques are essential to the literature, it is the central theme of humor bordering on satire that is most crucial to pay attention to. Chaucer develops this theme by The Nun, Monk, and Guildsmen are three pilgrims who develop the major theme through their outward appearance. When mocking the Nun, Chaucer observes the quality of clothing. “Her cloak, I noticed, had a graceful charm./She wore a coral trinket on her arm./A set of beads, the guadies tricked in green” (161-163). His ridicule does not end there, however. Chaucer
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Each tale reveals moral lessons that attempt to prevent the reader from performing the same mistakes as the character. “The Pardoner’s Tale” and “The Reeve’s Tale” possess similar themes, distinct differences arise in the topics presented in each passage. “The Pardoner’s Tale” and “The Reeve’s Tale” illustrates how greed corrupts men, how sin leads to more sin, and how revenge drives men to undertake foolish feats. The differences between Chaucer’s tales allows for a humorous yet insightful

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In the three readings, Pardoner’s Prologue, Pardoner’s Tale and Wife of Bath's Tale Chaucer uses satire. Satire is another word for sarcasm. He displays several accounts of sarcasm throughout all three of them. In the Pardoner’s Tale, that is where he displays his satire of the church. In Pardoner’s Prologue he critiques the patriarchy.

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Geoffrey Chaucer - in the description of the doctor- says

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Keeping in mind that they were pilgrims, abiding to what their religion preaches, Chaucer wants us to think about the significance of being a man or a woman in society and to what extent masculinity and femininity is subjective. We wonder whether the question of masculinity and femininity stops only at the physical aspects, more precisely, sex or whether during Chaucer’s time, one’s behaviour and courage or strength gives a clear portrayal of their gender. By representing the pardoner as an ambiguous person, Chaucer wisely decides to play with the audience. He does not really care, and neither

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However, Chaucer never even needs to say this. In his descriptions of her, he uses satire to show what makes her different. She “knew much of wondering by the way” and “knew the motions” of love

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General knowledge of monks suggest that they are meant to live a simple life, studying in their cloisters and devoting their time to public service and work, however we see the exact opposite from the monk in the story. Rather than fulfilling his duties as a monk, the story mentions his love for hunting hares with the greyhounds he owns, and riding his horse (Acosta). Chaucer also notes his robes, which are meant to be plain are instead covered “with fur of grey, the finest of the land”, which further separates this character from the conventional monk (Chaucer 194). With all aspects considered, the Monk is not outright a terrible person; in a reader’s eyes we can infer that he became one due to the order and environment it brings (Acosta). Chaucer’s use of satire in this paragraph is very effective, because it highlights the sharp contrast between the Monk’s description in the prologue and the usual behavior and code of morals exemplified by actual monks without actually mentioning Chaucer’s own thoughts and opinions, at the same time serving to poking fun at how different this man

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In The Canterbury Tales, readers met so many religious figures who amount to a pure source of hypocrisy and contradiction such as the Friar, the Pardoner, the Nun, and more. Geoffrey Chaucer, the author, brought a delightful dose of sarcasm in various descriptions of the religious characters

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Calling the Church body “his apes” exemplifies the opinion Chaucer holds about the Church, as he believes they are like monkeys, blindly following others, unaware of their own stupidity. In terms of blindly following, the double entendre of the word “apes” comes into play, as it is defined as “imitating another person”. The members of the Church blindly imitate what they see in the Church, leading to a society of corrupted followers. Chaucer continues to present the hypocrisy prevalent in the Church through the character of the Pardoner, as he preaches, “For my intent is only pence to win,” (“Pardoner’s Prologue” 117). Through these lines, the audience receives their first image of the Pardoner’s satirical hypocrisy as, in his sermons, he preaches against greed while, at the same time, uses the guilt of his audience to feed his own.

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In the Canterbury Tales written by Geoffrey Chaucer, satire is shown in many characters throughout the poem. The Friar, Monk, and Pardoner may seem like normal, and worthy people, but their true colors will show. Satire brings out the true characteristics of each character. The Frair, Monk, and Pardoner all have something in common. They are all suppose to be holy religious figures.

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The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories that are verbally created as the Host requests that each pilgrim tell a story on the journey to Canterbury. Although this ultimately leads to conflict amongst the pilgrims, the entire spectrum of human personalities is presented by showing each character's qualities, flaws, and hypocrisy. In order to show multiple layers of perspectives, including that of the pilgrims, Chaucer as the narrator, and Chaucer as the writer, The Canterbury Tales is written as a frame narrative. The use of a frame narrative allows Chaucer to convey his own values in humanity by observing and reflecting on the strengths and weaknesses of human nature.

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Chaucer also uses satire in a more comical way to illustrate how women can’t keep a secret. The Wife of Bath reveals this trait when she says “by heaven, we women can’t conceal a thing” (Chaucer 341), mocking the suggestion that women have an inability to keep a secret. Chaucer also makes fun of the knight’s condition using the irony of women being incapable of keeping a secret as the only thing that can save him. Mocking women and their incapability to not share private information only further reveals Chaucer’s satire.

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Chaucer, like many others in the medieval society, expected certain traits within church members. Those expectations focused around being devoted to one’s faith, helping the betterment of the society, and staying true to God. After being analyzed, it is clear that the monk crumbles when held to those standards. On the other hand, the parson seemed to be one of the few characters that is genuine and faithful. Chaucer may have used his satirical work to inspire reform in the church, but further peruse may lead readers to believe that such reform may be needed within their own

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He uses Satire in his writings to get his message across to the common people during the 1300’s. Satire is defined as 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. The main story Chaucer uses satire to criticize the community in which he lives is in his stories the Canterbury Tales. “Despite its distracting tone, there are several important issues at the center of this debate. Questions of puns in Chaucer are not always undecidable, nor need their existence be dependent solely on critical ingenuity or moral delicacy”(Dane).

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In the story, “The Wife of Bath,” Chaucer handles satire to critique class and nobility. Alike today, class and nobility still haunt us. Being that, we still see it in high school, it obviously hasn 't gone away. Chaucer brings forth the issue by sending the Knight on a journey of a lifetime. When he arrives back, he still doesn 't have the answer that he was sent to find.

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The Canterbury Tales is a series of stories told from the view of different characters. Chaucer uses irony to describe how characters from different social rankings are not defined by their positions and jobs but by their hearts. In the “Wife of Bath’s Tale” the Wife does not let the label of “wife” guide her actions. During this time, wives were inferior to their husbands and tended to stay home because they were dependent on others.

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