Chaucer's Use Of Satire In The Canterbury Tales

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Sarcasm and mean words that weren’t really his, but they actually were. (An analysis of Chaucer’s use of Satire in the Canterbury tales) In Canterbury Tales, Chaucer uses satire in many ways to criticize many different things. The General Prologue, The Pardoners Prologue and Tale, and The Wife’s Prologue and Tale are the three parts of Canterbury Tales that we see satire in. Chaucer has issues with many things in his day and is not okay with things that are going on in the church and he creates characters to criticize the actions that he is not okay with. He creates characters and a town that are fake and they say things that he feels are true, but when people get mad at him, he says that it was not him saying the things, it was these other people. The irony in this is that the characters are all…show more content…
In The Wife of Bath’s Tale, the old lady gives the handsome knight his answer if she promises to give her what she wants. She afterwards tells him that she wants to marry him, but he complains and says that she is old, she is of low birth, and she is poor so he does not want to marry her. After their wedding, he says to her, “You’re old, and so abominably plain, So poor to start with, so low-bred to follow; It’s little wonder if I twist and wallow!” (Lines 246-248, page 146, of The Wife of Bath’s Tale). She replies to him that it is Christian to be poor, nobility does not come from when you are born, but by the acts you preform after you are born, and men are supposed to respect their elders. She tells him that if she is his wife as an elderly woman, she will be the most faithful woman ever, and his best friend, but if she uses magic to become young and beautiful, he will always have to wonder about her faithfulness. She asks which he wants and he lets her decide, so she kisses him, turns young and becomes the most beautiful, and most faithful wife
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