The Use Of Satire In Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

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When someone is trying to prove a point or make a statement, what do you think is the most effective was to do so? Do you think using sarcasm is an efficient way to do so? Do you think that by using sarcasm you will just anger the party that you’re trying to get your point across to? What if the person or group of people doesn’t understand what you’re trying to say or still doesn’t agree with the point that you’re making? Chaucer, a very controversial writer, uses sarcasm, or satire, to get his points and views across in a very alarming way. What Chaucer did in the mid 1350’s was very controversial and had a lot of repercussions, although many of them could be seen as good. Chaucer is considered the father of the English language because he …show more content…

After reading The General Prologue, it is quite clear that Chaucer’s idea of the church isn’t necessarily a very appreciative one. He makes it very obvious right in the beginning that he thinks the church is a game and that it’s not actually a legit institution. “I have a text, it always is the same and always has been, since I learnt the game, old as the hills and fresher than the grass.” (Page 125, Lines 5-7) Already by line 7, Chaucer has made it clear what he thinks about the church. He says that being a Pardoner for the church is just a game, and that it’s not actually legit. He will go on to talk about how the church and all of the people who run the church are just greedy individuals and they are just doing it for the money. And he will also state that the people that attend the church and believe in what it is doing are just yokels. Yokels are unsophisticated people living a rural are. Chaucer means that the people who attend church are stupid people who will believe anything that the church tells them. This is all very ironic and satiric considering that Chaucer says all of this through a Pardoner, who at the end of the story asks the people to pay him to pardon them. Even though they just listened to him tell the story of how the church is a game and that he is just doing it for the …show more content…

In The wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale, Chaucer suggests that we shouldn’t have different classes throughout communities. He says that having lower, middle, and upper classes isn’t right and that a man’s worth shouldn’t be decided because of how much money he has. “Such as descends from ancient wealth and worth. If that’s the claim you make for gentlemen such arrogance is hardly worth a hen. Whoever loves to work for virtuous ends, public and private, and who most intends to do what deeds of gentleness he can, take him to be the greatest gentleman.” (Page 146, Lines 256-262) Chaucer is suggesting that just because you have a lot of money, doesn’t mean that you’re a gentleman, and just because you’re poor, doesn’t mean that you’re not a gentleman. Chaucer suggests that this idea of different classes is non-Christian, and that it isn’t right for the church to believe in this. Chaucer is challenging something very controversial again because the rich and wealthy have all of the power, and he is saying that they

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