Use Of Satire In Canterbury Tales

Is Satire Early Sarcasm?
(An analysis of Chaucer’s use of satire to reach his intended audience in the three texts Pardoner’s Prologue, Wife of Bath’s Prologue, and Wife of Bath’s Tale) “His mood and sense of humor, we may guess, is the reason behind the many different angles of his writing. Perhaps this was a clever move on his part when he involved both, serious and sarcastic tales in his writing. This way no one will ever be absolutely sure about the meaning” (Garay). Chaucer is known for his texts in Canterbury Tales that were never finished, due to his death and how he was phenomenal at using satire to get his point across. Satire is more easily defined in modern terms as being sarcastic. The best part about satire or irony is that typically …show more content…
Chaucer hides behind his witty satire to express his opinions on extremely radical topics for the time in which he wrote the tales. In doing so, Chaucer creates characters to hide behind and claims that he is merely a messenger so that the people of his time cannot be furious with him personally. In three of Chaucer’s texts, Pardoner’s Prologue, Wife of Bath’s Prologue, and Wife of Bath’s Tale, Chaucer uses satire to convey three main radical concepts. Chaucer uses his, Pardoner’s Prologue, to express his disdain for the hypocrisy of the church. The character the Pardoner is not as most pardoner’s in that day were like. It is a pardoner’s duty to help individuals repent for their sins and to give any money earned to the church, as people of the church were not to be greedy. The Pardoner is a man who tells the group conflicting things about himself, but overall, it can be deciphered that he is not a very honest individual. “He says he preaches for no motive but avarice and he is also guilty of this sin. Then, he adds he can make other people depart from avarice and repent sorely. However, he frankly admits that that is not his primary purpose, because