Estates Satire In Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales

Known as the father of English literature, this story was written by Geoffrey Chaucer, who is best known for his greatest unfinished poetic work in English, known as Canterbury Tales. Within “Canterbury Tales”, there are three different “estates” discussed. The first estate are a few individuals of hereditary aristocracy (the Knight, Yeoman, and Squire) whose mission on earth was supposed to be to rule over and defend the people of the nation. Then the clergy (Monk, Prioress, and Friar, Parson) whose duty was to look after the spiritual welfare of others. Finally there was the large group of common people who were supposed to do the work that provided for its physical needs. The genre is called “estates satire” which sets out to expose and …show more content…
. She likes to talk, laugh, indulge in a good time and can become very argumentative while doing so. She writes her prologue as if it was an autobiography and tells her views on life and marriage. Her tale compliments her prologue, because it supports the theme of dominance of men by women which she tried to have with all of her husbands. Being that the Wife of Bath is worldly, both literally and figuratively, she has traveled all over the world and seen many different lands, as well as experienced the world, in love and sex she is a women like no other. Beginning in her youth she began having many affairs with men, then, going on to be married five times to five different men. Along the way she has learned some valuable information or lessons which have allowed her to make advancements in her life. She claims that happy marriages occur only when a wife has sovereignty over her husband. She married her fifth husband for his money rather than love. She has common sense intelligence but lacks when it comes to intellectual intelligence. After experiencing several different marriages with different men, she has learned how to get what she wants at the other person’s cost. The way she got what she wanted was by using her body as the bargaining tool. If she made a request her husband would do as she wished if he had any intentions of having sex with her. If for some reason the husband did not fulfill …show more content…
He has a high pitched voice is tall. The Pardoner is viewed as one of the most corrupt of the church men pilgrims on this voyage. He has just returned from Rome with pardons and indulgences to sell to the ignorant charged with sin, with great profit to himself. He is very good at preaching but admits to his hypocrisy, stating that he preaches only to get people’s money by making them feel guilty not to correct their sin. He realizes he is in the position to use this method to get revenge against someone who has wronged him or someone close to him, not by directly calling their name, instead by giving hints that will allow everyone to catch on to who he is talking about. The very thing he preaches about, greed is the root of all evil, is the very thing he is guilty of. He flat out owns up to the fact that he practices fraud, has an ever so growing want for wealth, and is beyond greedy for the things he doesn’t even need. He shows no remorse in his confession, and actually boasts in the depth of his corruption. The “Pardoners Tale” speaks on the disastrous effects of greed as well as the corruption of clergymen during the Medieval Time. His tale is delivered so well, he is even able to incorporate his sermon and cite bible scriptures that coincide