How Does Chaucer Use Satire In The Canterbury Tales

During the Middle Ages, at the time where Geoffrey Chaucer was alive, the Church was the highest in power in Europe. They were above the entire caste system, and they owned more land than anyone did at the time. Chaucer, as the son of a wine merchant and someone living in a Church-dominated society, had probably witnessed the dealings and actions of the Church and its associates of the time. As a satirist, Chaucer incorporated his skill of observation into his narration of The Canterbury Tales, and used it with satire to play the humor to his advantage, from poking light fun at some of the pilgrims to employing mocking sarcasm towards some of the others. This, of course, on a religious pilgrimage in the Middle Ages, includes the mocking of

In the opening of his long narrative about the Parson, Chaucer observes and notes that he is "[a] holy-minded man of good renown"(Jago, 275, ln. 487) and praises him for "truly [knowing] Christ's gospel and [preaching] it."(Jago, 275, ln. 491) The Parson is "physically poor, but rich in thought and work" (Jago, 275, ln. 489) and is devoted to his parishioners, in giving everything that he has to them, and in teaching them, doing all the required roles as a head of a parish should; Chaucer notices that nothing seems to stop the man from doing his work, yet "[w]ide was his parish, with houses far asunder, / Yet he neglected not in rain or thunder / In sickness or in grief, to pay a call" (Jago, 275, lns. 501-503). Chaucer continues on in his narration that the Parson lives by the motto: "If gold rusts, what will iron do?"(Jago, 276, ln. 510) He, the Parson, understands that, as a religious leader of a lower standing, if he were to begin committing heinous acts of sin, he would begin to "rust," and soon enough his parishioners would follow suit and "rusting" would commence for them as well. The Parson asserts that "[t]he true example that a priest should give / [i]s one of cleanness, how the sheep should live" (Jago, 276, lns. 515-516), seeing him as the humble shepherd that leads his flock. Chaucer rounds off his characterization with no "ill will" in sight, and

The Pardoner follows his basic duty of selling pardons and indulgences, as noted by observation of Chaucer that that "[h]is wallet lay before him on his lap, / [b]rimful of pardons come from Rome, all hot" (Jago, 283, lns. 706-707). However, from his observation, Chaucer knows that the relics the Pardoner sells "on the side" are not true relics, just items he finds and claims are relics. Furthering Chaucer's disapproval is that when the Pardoner "found some poor up-country parson to astound" (Jago, 284, lns 721-722), he guilts him into buying a relic for his pardon; from these dubious acts he ends up in the end "[drawing] [m]ore than the parson in a month or two" (Jago, 284, lns. 723-724), and with his "flatteries and prevarication" (Jago, 284, ln. 725) makes fools out of the laity that buys from him. Chaucer also draws the conclusion that the Pardoner only really tries to perform his duties with perfection and "[sing] so merrily and loud" (Jago, 284, ln. 734) to "win silver from the crowd" (Jago, 284, ln.