Chaucers Irony - The Canterbury Tales Essay -- English Literature

Chaucers Irony - The Canterbury TalesChaucers IronyIrony is a vitally valu subject part of The Canterbury Tales, andChaucers ingenious use of this literary device does a spate to providethis book with the classic status it enjoys even today. Chaucer hasmastered the techniques compulsory to skilfully put his points acrossand subtle irony and satire is curiously effective in making apoint. The Canterbury Tales are well-known as an attack on the Churchand its rle in fourteenth century society. With the ambiguityintroduced by the nave and ignorant Chaucer the pilgrim, the writeris able to make ironic attacks on characters and what they representfrom a whole upstart angle. The differences in opinion of Chaucer thepilgrim and Chaucer the writer are much(prenominal) more than nuances - the bothpersonas are in truth often diametrically opposed so as to cause effectualirony.In the friars portrait, he is delineated and depicted by riddles ofcontradictory qualities. Chaucer expertly uses ironic naivet tohighlight the Friars lack of moral guilt. When the reviewer is toldthat the Friar, knew the taverns wel in every toun (l. 240), we cantake it to mean that he spends very much time drinking, flirting andsocialising in pubs. The Friar is superseded to be a holy man, but wesee that he knew the landlords and barmaids much kick downstairs than thepeople he has meant to be consoling, praying for and helping out ofthe vicious traffic circle of poverty. Chaucer the pilgrim explains howimpressive the Friars generous charity is and has respect for the wayhe marries reach young girls with suitable husbands and pays for theceremony. However, he neglects to mention that the only reason theFriar does this is because he has illegi... ...Of course, Chaucerthe pilgrim simply sees this as being elegant and sophisticated.Throughout The world-wide Prologue we see how Chaucer the pilgrim hasbeen swayed and convinced by what the other pilgrims tell him. So muchso that he reports qua lities that are often the opposite of the truepersonalities of the characters he is describing. This ambiguityreveals a very clever sort of irony on behalf of the writer - whileChaucer the pilgrim is easily drawn in by their regardmisrepresentations, it is up to the readers to see how wrong he is anddraw their own, more accurate, conclusions. It shows numerous of thepilgrims to be very different people than those symbolised by theideal qualities they requisite others to see. This astute technique isparticularly effective in pointing out the finesse and corruption inthe Christian Church during Chaucers time.