Use Of Satire In Canterbury Tales - 1301 Words

Chaucer’s Satyric Attack (An analysis of Chaucer’s use of satire to reach his intended audience in his Canterbury Tales) Satire is defined as â€Å"the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize peoples stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues† (Oxford). Another term that people would be more familiar with to describe this would be sarcasm. Language can be utilized in a nasty way, especially when wanting to demoralize another. Sarcasm is evil in and of itself and is a very Odyssean way of attacking someone. This is a powerful weapon used in Chaucer’s, Canterbury Tales. â€Å"The Canterbury Tales is the major work by Geoffrey Chaucer, medieval Englands leading†¦show more content†¦It is so obvious what Chaucer is stirring up here that one would have to be completely oblivious to miss it. Chaucer is taking a figure who is held in high regards by everybody in the church and reduces him down to the level of scum. He portrays that mighty figures have many hidden reasons to be disrespected. These â€Å"great† people like the Friar are telling the people of their church to do one thing, but then they themselves go and do another that completely and utterly disprove what they just taught their people. These people that follow the leaders of the church are called yokels, and are Chaucer’s intended audience. Chaucer is stating that people like the Friar, who are in charge, take advantage of their ignorance and stupidity to feed their selfishness. This supports Chaucer’s argument for the hypocrisy in the Roman Catholic church. Chaucer’s next utilization of satire in The Canterbury Tales is in his attack of the patriarchy. Epistemologically, economically, and ontologically, women were held on a lower level in regards to men. That was the natural way that they world was. This is characterized in Chaucer’s literature, The Wife of Bath’s Prologu e. Chaucer uses the Wife of Bath to argue the fact that women are not only equal to men, but even superior to them. â€Å"Thus in speaking, the Wife of Bath attempts to overcome, and is yet caught in, the double bind of endeavoring to give voice to distinctively female experience in the face of authorityShow MoreRelatedThe Use Of Satire In The Canterbury Tales By Geoffrey Chaucer1406 Words   |  6 Pages Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales, using his characters as the mouthpiece for his iconoclastic views. Chaucer had serious issues with the hypocrisy of the church as well as, many other sacred institutions. The only reason that Chaucer was not exiled or even imprisoned for his views is the way in which he exposed them. Through the allegorical meanings of this text and Chaucer’s claim that he is simply retelling the events of his pilgrimage to Canterbury as it occurred, Chaucer is savedRead MoreGeoffrey Chaucer View and Change on Judgement968 Words   |  4 Pages gender differences, and hypocrisy. He wrote about these problems in a set of tales widely known as The Canterbury Tales. The first is The General Prologue which describes a pilgrimage to Canterbury that many people endure, but on this specific journey, twenty-nine different people travel together to Canterbury. He uses two types of satire to relinquish these opinions, juvenile and horacian. A general definition of satire is saying one thing, but meaning another. The author Cynthia justifies my definitionRead MoreGeoffrey Chaucers Use of Characterization Essay1308 Words   |  6 PagesChaucer’s Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer uses thoughts and actions, his word, and satire to characterize The Squire and The Wife of Bath. 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With some of the characters he creates, Chaucer finds himself apologizing in advance for what he is about to say; or what the characters were about to say. By doing this Chaucer is using satire. Satire is when you say something but mean another or the opposite of the thing you say. Most of Cha ucer’s tales are not