Satire In Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales

Improved Essays
In the Prologue to Canterbury Tales, Chaucer uses satire to poke fun at the feudal system of the medieval society. Chaucer uses satire as he describes each character in exaggerated, superlative terms in order to make each character appear as the perfect ideal, while simultaneously incorporating overlooked flaws. The narrator begins by describing the Knight, “a most distinguished man” (4), who is the highest ranked character in the feudal system and who is generous, honorable, and wise. Chaucer exaggeratingly describes how the Knight has fought in just about every battle. The narrator then describes the Squire, the Knight’s son, who is second in the feudal ranking. While the Squire is strong and agile, he is caught up in the idea of love and

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    In his prologue to the Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer initially sets the tone for the prologue by providing the reader with in-depth detail on the setting. He then proceeds to introduce every pilgrim he meets at the Tabard Inn by revealing the characteristics they possess and ranking each individuals’ social status from highest to lowest. Chaucer therefore begins with the highest ranking pilgrim, the Knight, and depicts each pilgrim in detail through the last and lowest ranking character described, the Host. H.S. Bennett said, in reference to Chaucer’s writing, that “no detail was too small for him to observe, and from it he could frequently draw, or suggest, conclusions which would have escaped many.” Bennett’s words emphasize the…

    • 247 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A New Kind of Language (A Critique of Chaucer’s Use of Satire in The Pardoner’s Tale and the Wife of Bath’s Tale) Becoming aware of the alternating types of language occurring in everyday speech can help inform and teach others about the wide range of communication. Some of these types of languages could be positive while others are more negative. A negative form of language type is satire, which is defined as the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues. Chaucer masters the use of satire in his works of The Canterbury Tales.…

    • 860 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The movie “The Holy Grail and The Monty Python” Uses lots of satire of many beliefs of the middle ages. There are many different aspects that the movie uses to make fun of the ideals and literature that comes from this time period. They make fun of a few things directly and a few things not so directly. The things that they make fun of directly is the black plague and science and magic.…

    • 277 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The magnitude of characters in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales creates some very interesting relationships. An example of one of these relationships would be the connection between Alisoun of Oxenford and Alisoun of Bath and how these characters fit into the natural sex ideology. In some aspects, these women are very similar, but they also have significant differences. The natural ideology of sex is defined by Alfred David as, “being neither too obsessed with physical gratification and domination, nor too fixated on some goal apart from the pleasure of sex itself” (Zumdahl 2).…

    • 1949 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Satire Within Monty Python and the Holy Grail The film Monty Python and the Holy Grail tells the story of King Arthur of Camelot who gathers his knights of the Round Table and leads them on a quest to find the Holy Grail. The knights eventually find the castle that houses the Holy Grail, but once there, they are stopped by French soldiers and the police. In the scene “Witch Village,” a mob of villagers has captured a woman and has dressed her up like a witch. The villagers are convinced that she is a witch despite a lack of evidence and insist on burning her.…

    • 1058 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In medieval England, social status and rank were an important part of everybody’s life. It decided what your job would be and who you could marry. It also limited them to that class. A Knight’s Tale was a good example of how the classes worked and how people could sometimes “change their…

    • 482 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The Middle Ages is often portrayed as an era of strict adherence to religion and its faith-based social hierarchy. The General Prologue to Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales demonstrates the influence of this feudal system while also revealing its shortcomings, specifically concerning the unethical behavior of individuals across all classes. In his General Prologue, Chaucer uses his ironic writing style to expose an assortment of moral and behavioural flaws among the seemingly virtuous pilgrims. One type of flaw Chaucer reveals is the pilgrims’ compulsion to obsessional behaviour.…

    • 1785 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As the story unfolds, the motley crew of pilgrims is on their way to Canterbury. Along the way, the pilgrims are convinced to share their stories in a contest to determine the best story and storyteller. The Host recommends the characters tell two stories on the way to Canterbury and then two stories on the return trip. The winner of the best storytelling contest will receive a free dinner at the Inn at the conclusion of their journey.…

    • 1324 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    How Is The Squire Alike

    • 292 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Squire: The Squire is an interesting character in the Canterbury Tales because his uniqueness adds a lot of dimension to the tales. The Squire is the Knight’s son who’s main job is to assist his father. The Squire has served multiple times in Cavalry raids in Flanders, Picardy and Artois in northern Europe. Physically, he is a very strong and physically fit boy with very curly hair. He wears a very colourful long shirt with wide sleeves that resembles a field of white and red flowers which represents his vanity.…

    • 292 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    People usually respect the code of chivalry, yet it has many parts that are fatuous. Among the many different kinds of satire being used, the most prominent technique is exaggeration, with many different examples of this throughout the scene. One example is when Arthur is fighting the Knight, where he cleaves off the Knight’s right arm, and when he…

    • 1186 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, the Knight is an ideal, honest knight. Described as a highly respected figure in society, Chaucer gives no satirical comments and offers nothing but praise for this man of arms (Rossignol 138). By offering no ironic interpretation, unlike most of Chaucer’s pilgrims, the Knight is often referred to as an ideal knight. The tale the Knight narrates is the first told in The Canterbury Tales due to the Knight’s status. In The Knight’s Tale, the Knight reflects his steadfast personality by describing two knights following the code of behavior.…

    • 2146 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In every book, story, biography, or novel ever written, the author has projected his bias into his writings. Sometimes it can be picked up on immediately and others the reader must search and dig deeper into the work. Geoffrey Chaucer, author of the Canterbury Tales, is most known for his style of writing that avoids authorial responsibility. He releases his accountability on what topics and values are brought up in his stories. Even with that said, his unavoidable bias comes out in his works, especially the Merchant’s Tale.…

    • 928 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    In The Canterbury Tales the General Prologue, Chaucer use of satire to show how the characters dressed and acted due to the church and the king. Chaucer description of the people made them seem like they were living well but they were living wrong. In The Canterbury Tales there are many examples of satire with the religious figures, starting with the Nun, her name was Madame Eglentyne.…

    • 370 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Before Martin Luther posted his 95th thesis on a church door in Worms, Germany so as to publicly air his grievances against the Church, another prominent figure also criticized the abuses of the Church. This man was no clergyman or ruler; he was a prominent literary figure of his time. This man was Geoffrey Chaucer. Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, in part, deals greatly with the abuses and scandalous behaviors of authority figures in the Catholic Church. Before Luther and before changes were made, Chaucer’s novel sheds light on some of the more questionable behaviors of those in the Catholic Church.…

    • 1437 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Although the Canterbury tales is a satiric story about pilgrims, each character presents personality traits, appearances and tales that do not fit them in to absolute good or evil. However, instead of leaving the sinful characters to only be defined by their evil deeds, Chaucer manages to rationalize their deed to be a result of their nature. Giving them more of an amplified version of evil characteristics every human beings possesses. Through this rationale, Chaucer was able to show that no matter what their social status was, they were all Firstly, The gender parallels of each character reflect some of the worst characteristics in each other only adjusting their wrongdoings to be more fitting to their gender. For example, The Pardoner of…

    • 1673 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays