How Does Chaucer Use Satire In The Canterbury Tales

Formalism and Satire in the Canterbury Tales In the beginning Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, a number of characters are introduced, each one having joined in the pilgrimage to Canterbury. Chaucer, serving as the narrator, provides the reader with a description of each individual, including their profession, their history, their behavior, and much more information to paint a picture of the kind of person that character is. While Chaucer thinks highly of some characters, Chaucer indirectly criticizes others, mostly people of religious backgrounds, through satire in his writing, which can be seen using the formalist critique. In the General Prologue, Chaucer’s use of satire and irony is increasingly prevalent as each character is described, and we see

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