Essay about Geoffrey Chaucer Used Satire in His Tales

To begin, back in the days on Geoffrey Chaucer, religion was ruled by one and only one church, the Roman Catholic Church. He never really agreed with the ways of the church so he wrote a series of tales making fun of the people of England and the ways of the church. Even though he was purposely making fun of the church, he had to be careful of the way he said some things. 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 Chaucer’s tales are not appropriate for high schools, but of†¦show more content†¦It tells in his tale that the Pardoner’s favorite thing to preach against is greed, but what people don’t know is that he is only the pardoner because he likes the money; he is greedy. Chaucer uses this type of sa tire to help illustrate that the Pardoned is a hypocrite. â€Å"Out come the pence, and specially for myself, for my exclusive purpose is to win and not at all to castigate their sin.† When the pardoned says this he is basically saying that I’m only doing this job for the money, and that he could care less about the people he is supposed to help. That is how Chaucer uses satire for the Pardoner. Lastly, The Wife of Bath’s Tale is wronged because it goes against the idea of patriarchy. Patriarchy goes all the way back to Aristotle who said that there was a pyramid of life; gods on top, the men, and last women and whatever was left. Women, back then, were to obey their husbands, and if they didn’t their husbands were allowed to beat some sense into them to put them back in line. With that information comes the Wife of Bath who stands up in front of the group and explains how she would trick her husbands and proved that she was just as smart, maybe eve n smarter. Moving onto her tale which also has to do with a woman tricking a man. In the tale a knight is set on a journey to find out what women want. While on his journey he comes in contact with an old lady who makes a deal with him; if he does whatShow MoreRelatedGeoffrey Chaucers Use of Characterization Essay1308 Words   |  6 Pageswork fame or shame. Geoffrey Chaucer, a pioneer of English Literature’s works carried mass appeal. His best known works appealed to those of all walks of life. Chaucer’s work resulted in mass appeal because it used many forms of characterization to present the characters to the reader. In Geoffrey Chaucer’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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