Chaucer’s Satire
(An educational view of Chaucer’s use of Satire to reach his intended audience)
Chaucer is arguably the greatest author of all time. The reasoning behind this accusation is because he is the father of the English language. Chaucer is the king of writing of controversial items that highly enrage people. Chaucer writes many satires being very iconoclastic towards many things he doesn’t agree with. Many of these statements anger a lot of people to this day. Chaucer’s “methods of satire seem to have an inevitability and rightness which preclude either surprise or analysis” (Woolf, Chaucer as a Satirist in the General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales). A lot of these satires that Chaucer writes come from the book Canterbury Tales.
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Some even go as far to say that Chaucer’s “literature of the estates is the most comprehensive form of complaint literature” (Tuma, Literature of The Estates). What this means is that Chaucer’s satire towards social classes and estates is most identified by readers. In The Wife of Bath Prologue and Tale Chaucer tells of a fictional character named The Wife of Bath. He uses this character to satirically attack the idea of class and estates of that time. When Chaucer is telling he describes her that “She'd been respectable throughout her life,/Married in church, husbands she had five,/Not counting other company in youth;/But thereof there's no need to speak, in truth.” (Coghill, lines 461-464). Chaucer is using satire to attack social classes by showing a common example of a women in those days. He is basically attacking Plato’s idea from The Republic. Plato said that women should be educated and treated equal to men. Chaucer highly disagrees with Plato. He thinks that women should never be equal to men. He shows this character called The Wife of Bath who is saying that she has had five husbands and is looking for a sixth one. She is starting to claim her own independence. Chaucer wrote this as a satire. He is brutally attacking how independent women are becoming, and how educated they are getting Chaucer. Chaucer thinks they should always be below …show more content…
Many will say “Chaucer's works engage with ethical and moral questions at issue in the late fourteenth century” (Blamires, Ethics and Gender). This means that the problems that Chaucer brings up for the fourteenth century is accurate information. One of the biggest examples of Chaucer’s satire towards relationships in The Canterbury Tales is in The Pardoner’s Tale. It is the pardoner’s turn to tell a story. He tells of a story where three friends are in search of “death” so they can kill him because he’s been killing other people in the village. Instead of finding death they find a huge pile of gold by a tree. This leads to their demise. One leaves and while he is gone the other two have a conversation. This conversation goes like this, “"Now," said the first, "you know that we are two,/And two of us are stronger than is one./As soon as he sits down, as if for fun/Arise as though you'd have with him some play,/Then in both sides I'll stab him right away/While you and he are struggling as in game./And with your dagger see you do the same./Then all this gold, dear friend, when we are through/Shall be divided up twixt me and you.” (Coghill, lines 824-832). All three friends end up dying. Chaucer’s point here is that relationships don’t work out because people are too greedy and that doesn’t work
In the Horatian satire, The Wife of Bath, Chaucer is trying to teach the reader that if you respect others, you will get respect back. When the knight disrespected the maiden in the beginning, he was almost put to death. When he respected his wife as she was in the end, she respected him back. The reader also learns that “the most important thing is doing good deeds.” (Chaucer) Overall, the purpose of The Wife of Bath is to tell the reader how important it is to be a good
In the words of the Broadview Anthology’s introduction to the Wife of Bath, she is “a sexually experienced cynic who teaches young people the tricks of love…. The Wife’s history and the literary shape of her prologue conform to many of the traditional misogynistic stereotypes found in her husband’s book” (Broadview 298). Why would Chaucer write such a clever portrayal of personal pleasure through the eyes of a woman, and yet design her to possess every quality so despised and abhorred within her so-called lifetime? Because the audience of this poem would probably include wives, and because everything the Wife describes is almost laughably vulgar, it can be understood that this poem would not be interpreted literally and women would instead be forced to listen to an account about female power, desire, and pleasure written, unfortunately, as cruel satire of their
However, after hearing his tale it is quite shocking about his frankness about his own hypocrisy. We know that he bluntly accuses himself of fraud, avarice, and gluttony, all things that he preaches against throughout this tale. It is in lines, 432-433 that the Pardoner states, “But that is not my principal intent; I preach nothing but for convenience.” It is here that we truly begin to learn that The Pardoner’s Tale is merely an example of a story that is often used by preachers to emphasize a moral point to their audience. That is why, this tale in particular helps to comprehend Chaucer’s own opinions, and how he used satire to display them.
Chaucer is best known for his works which included the Parliament of fouls. He is also believed to have written many famous poems, but also containing the most famous and obvious, The Canterbury Tales. The Canterbury Tales is Chaucer’s best known work. His plans were to write 120 tales but only reached 24. Sadly the famous English poet died October 25...
In this example, Chaucer, by writing this parody, is trying to express the idea that a lot of the ideals of chivalry are a ...
Every author has a set agenda before writing their piece of literature. Without an agenda, there is no motivation to write such piece of literature. This holds true with Geoffrey Chaucer. In the 14th century, Chaucer read Boccaccio’s Decameron, and was inspired to write his own version of the Decameron essentially. Therefore, Chaucer came up with The Canterbury Tales. Although The Canterbury Tales is very controversial, it was widely famous at the time Chaucer wrote it. Not only was it popular because Chaucer decided to write The Canterbury Tales in “the people’s language,” but he also spoke for many people at the time who shared the same opinions
In The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, the stereotypes and roles in society are reexamined and made new through the characters in the book. Chaucer discusses different stereotypes and separates his characters from the social norm by giving them highly ironic and/or unusual characteristics. Specifically, in the stories of The Wife of Bath and The Miller’s Tale, Chaucer examines stereotypes of women and men and attempts to define their basic wants and needs.
The Canterbury Tales is a literary masterpiece in which the brilliant author Geoffrey Chaucer sought out to accomplish various goals. Chaucer wrote his tales during the late 1300’s. This puts him right at the beginning of the decline of the Middle Ages. Historically, we know that a middle class was just starting to take shape at this time, due to the emerging commerce industry. Chaucer was able to see the importance and future success of the middle class, and wrote his work with them in mind. Knowing that the middle class was not interested in lofty philosophical literature, Chaucer wrote his work as an extremely comical and entertaining piece that would be more interesting to his audience. Also, Chaucer tried to reach the middle class by writing The Canterbury Tales in English, the language of the middle class rather than French, the language of the educated upper class. The most impressive aspect of Chaucer’s writing is how he incorporated into his piece some of his own controversial views of society, but yet kept it very entertaining and light on the surface level. One of the most prevalent of these ideas was his view that certain aspects of the church had become corrupt. This idea sharply contrasted previous Middle Age thought, which excepted the church’s absolute power and goodness unquestionably. He used corrupt church officials in his tales to illustrate to his audience that certain aspects of the church needed to be reformed. The most intriguing of these characters was the Pardoner. Chaucer’s satirical account of the Pardoner is written in a very matter-of-fact manner that made it even more unsettling with his audience. Chaucer uses his straightforwardness regarding the hypocrisy of the Pardoner, suggestive physiognomy of the character, and an interesting scene at the conclusion of the Pardoner’s Tale to inculcate his views of the church to his audience. The way that Chaucer used these literary devices to subtly make his views known to an audience while hooking them with entertainment, shows that Chaucer was truly a literary genius.
In the 14th century Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales, which included a progressive view of women's concerns in "The Wife of Bath." During a time when women were still considered chattel existing almost exclusively to produce heirs, Chaucer takes a stand on issues affecting women that were not commonly given consideration. Writing in the first person, Chaucer is able to describe life from the viewpoint of a woman. Through this style, Chaucer addresses subject matter that would have been too candid for a female writer during his time period. By writing "The Wife of Bath" in a satirical way, Chaucer points out issues facing women regarding double standards, the validity of female desire, and the economic necessity of women to marry well while keeping the text humorous with some common female stereotypes regarding deception that have persisted into present day culture.
In Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath is a strong woman who loudly states her opinions about the antifeminist sentiments popular at the time. Chaucer, however, frequently discredits her arguments by making them unfounded and generally compromising her character. This brings into question Chaucer's political intent with the Wife of Bath. Is he supportive of her views, or is he making a mockery of woman who challenge the patriarchal society and its restriction and mistrust of women? The Wife's comedic character, frequent misquoting of authorities, marital infidelity, and her (as well as Chaucer's) own antifeminist sentiments weaken the argument that Chaucer supported of the Wife's opinions.
The Canterbury Tales is a great contemplation of stories, that display humorous and ironic examples of medieval life, which imitate moral and ethical problems in history and even those presented today. Chaucer owed a great deal to the authors who produced these works before his time. Chaucer tweaked their materials, gave them new meanings and revealed unscathed truths, thus providing fresh ideas to his readers. Chaucer's main goal for these tales was to create settings in which people can relate, to portray lessons and the irony of human existence.
The Prologue to The Canterbury Tales is a masterpiece of satire due to the frequent use of verbal irony and insults towards the characters and their roles in society. A major source of Irony is Chaucer’s representation of the Church. He uses the Prioress, the Monk and the Friar, who are all supposed to be holy virtuous people to represent the Church. In his writing he suggests that they are actually corrupt, break their vows and in no way model the “holiness” of Christianity.
Geoffrey Chaucer was a on a mission when he wrote The Canterbury Tales. That mission was to create a satire that attacked three major institutions. Raphel displays, “Medieval society was divided into three estates: the Church (those who prayed), the Nobility (those who fought), and the Patriarchy. The General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales is an estates satire.” Chaucer wanted to shed light on the institutions that were taking advantage of the everyday man. Chaucer does this by making up tales about certain people that she light to the undercover world of the institutions. In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer uses satire to attack the Church, the Patriarchy, and the Nobility.
Chaucer's Irony - The Canterbury Tales Chaucer's Irony Irony is a vitally important part of The Canterbury Tales, and Chaucer's ingenious use of this literary device does a lot to provide this book with the classic status it enjoys even today. Chaucer has mastered the techniques required to skilfully put his points across and subtle irony and satire is particularly effective in making a point. The Canterbury Tales are well-known as an attack on the Church and its rôle in fourteenth century society. With the ambiguity introduced by the naïve and ignorant "Chaucer the pilgrim", the writer is able to make ironic attacks on characters and what they represent from a whole new angle. The differences in opinion of Chaucer the pilgrim and Chaucer the writer are much more than nuances - the two personas are very often diametrically opposed so as to cause effectual irony.
In this novel, in comparison, there are more men than women. Most of the tales told by the men stretch over a wide range of how female should be. On the other hand, the women tend to focus on one idea and stick to it to prove their point. Since there are more men, the women tend to loose the importance and focus from the men. The women figure in this book are the Prioress, the Wife of Bath, and the Second Nun. Chaucer description of the women in this novel is very stereotypical. Although he describes them with great elegance and respect, there is always a condition to it. These conditions then tend to leave no importance for the reader. The Nun is described a “charitable solicitous” who “weep[s] is she … saw a mouse caught in a trap”1. These small details put a wrong impression on the readers therefore leaving no interest and meaning for the tales the women have to say. Even after the tales are done, the Host says things that discourage the