Use of Satire in Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales
"The Canterbury Tales" was a novel written by Geoffery Chaucer in 1386. In the prologue to Chaucer's work, he describes certain characters using the literary device known as satire. His descriptions of the characters do a few different things. First, they give the reader an accurate vision of the time period that the novel takes place, fourteenth-century England, through the context of the character descriptions such as their dress. Second, his characterizations reflect Chaucer's own personality, one of wit and humor, but also of seriousness. Chaucer's own personality diffuses from his pen and onto the paper, allowing readers take notice of the satire in his work. If Chaucer does not feel that the life style of a character is one of great morality, one can tell through his use of satiric humor. He seems to know exactly how to get his point across about his feelings of a character, but without being bitter. He shows certain characters phoniness, conceitedness, etc. To prove my above thesis, I will give three examples of characters that Chaucer has described, using satire, in the prologue to the "Canterbury Tales".
Through the understanding of the satirical characterization that Chaucer uses in the prologue of "The Canterbury Tales," it is obvious that he has a comical wit about himself, and is a skilled in using the literary device of satire. By using satire, Chaucer depicts certain characters in a much more interesting manner than that of other writers, and this is an asset that has probably attributed to the wide success of his works. Another character that Chaucer describes with great use of satire is the Prioress, or the Nun. Nuns are supposed to live plain and simple lives, but Chaucer's nun is characterized by her excessive concern about her appearance, mainly her cleanliness. She did not let a morsel from her lips fall, kept the smallest drop of food from falling upon her breast, would wipe her upper lip so clean that not even a trace of grease could be seen. Nuns are also not supposed to attract wide attention to themselves, but Chaucer's nun sang very loudly at all the masses, through her nose. She also spoke in French to try to impress others. She smiled a phony smile, just to make it seem like she was a pleasant, compassiona
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Approximate Word count = 768
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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