How Is Satire Used In The Canterbury Tales

hroughout history, many people have used writing as a way to recount events and express opinions on social issues surrounding them. This can be seen today in newspapers such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and practically anywhere one goes. However, this use of prose and satire is also particularly applicable to the Medieval times when war, sickness, and other calamities made relations tense among all those living. One noteworthy book that exemplifies this commentary is Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer. Canterbury Tales describes many of the groups in Medieval society while favoring those who protect society and criticizing women. To begin with, Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales recounts social groups existing in Medieval

More particularly, people such as the lawyer and the knight are liked by Chaucer as shown by their positive virtues. Of the lawyer Chaucer says, “A sergeant of law, wary and wise… There was also, compact of excellence. Discreet he was, and of great reverence… his words were so wise” (10). Instead of making fun of the lawyer or questioning any aspect of him, Chaucer creates an image of someone who’s to be trusted - someone who has achieved “excellence” and should be treated as such. In respect to the knight, Chaucer says, “he a worthy man, who, from the moment that he first began to ride about the world, loved chivalry, truth, honor, freedom and all courtesy” (2). Further, in a later story told by the wife from Bath, she tells of a knight who was condemned for a horrendous deed, but was given a chance for redemption. At the end of his journey towards redemption, he has ‘learned his lesson’ by learning to respect women, which is what got him in trouble in the first place, and is rewarded with a beautiful, dedicated wife (135). This representation of a knight who even though he has fallen to disgrace, rises up again to a man of honor exemplifies the admiration that Chaucer holds for knights. Ergo, through depictions and stories, Chaucer illustrates favoritism for lawyers and knights, the protectors of Medieval

This is exhibited in the knight’s tale where a woman is shown as being a weakness to two knights, in the Miller’s tale where a woman is shown as being highly immoral, and by the wife from Bath where, although she depicts women as being powerful in her story, the description of her by the narrator makes one question Chaucer’s true thoughts about women. In the knight’s tale, he tells of two knights, Arcita and Palamon, who fall in love with a girl named Emily. This led to a war between them, in which one of the knights died a tragic death. The narrator reflects, “where at least Arcita and Palamon had fought for love, with no man else between… he’d make a pyre and have the funeral” (76-77). In this story, a woman lead to the destruction of an honorable knight, showing her in unfavorable light. In the Miller’s tale, the Miller tells of a carpenter, John, his wife Alisoun, and a student named Nicholas. In this tale, unbeknownst to the carpenter, Alisoun and Nicholas have an affair, but events begin to take a crazy turn when a local parish clerk tries to convince Alisoun to have an affair with him as well (99). In this case, women, through Alisoun, are rendered immoral - a trait that no one desired. Finally, in the story told by the wife from Bath, women are portrayed as being powerful and worthy of respect, as previously discussed. However, all one has to do to discover more about