Canterbury Tales Essay

Chaucer spent a lot of time travelling the world and meeting a vast array of people. He met poor people, rich people, titled people, church people, and many other different people with varying social classifications. This is why in his book The Canterbury Tales he used modern English. He wanted everyone to be able to read his book no matter what class they were. This suggests that his purpose in writing the story was to question the social class system and to question the established literary traditions of his time period. However, his story also honors the class system and literary techniques of his time through the use of societal traditions to write his story. Chaucer both honors and questions the social and literary system of his time in The Canterbury Tales by using a satirical tone to develop his characters, by using humor to emphasize his characters’ traits, and by using irony to question tradition.

Throughout the story Chaucer has a satirical tone that mocks and criticizes his characters’ weaknesses, but he also has an underlying tone of respect for tradition. In The Sea-Captain’s Tale Chaucer uses a tone of mocking when he describes the wife’s predicament. Her husband doesn’t want to pay for her dresses and lavish parties, so she must obtain money from another man. His tone is very satirical in describing what she views as a problem because her weakness is that she cares so much about how people view her. Chaucer also has a satirical tone when describing Brother John because he is very conniving and he uses the husband’s money to pay to sleep with the wife even though he is a monk.  Although Chaucer’s main goal was to provide commentary on society, he does show a level of respect for certain traditions. In The Knight’s Tale Chaucer uses the traditions of chivalry and courtly love to tell the story of Palamon and Arcite’s love for Emily. This shows that he does honor some traditions of society, even if he is criticizing it.

Chaucer uses humor to call attention to his characters’ best and worst traits. In The Sea-Captain’s Tale Chaucer uses humor when the wife describes the husband’s performance in bed as horrible in the beginning and great at the end. This parallels her selfishness in not getting what she wants in the beginning, and her being content in the end because she got the money. Chaucer also uses humor to call attention to the merchant’s stinginess when at the end the wife offers sex as payment. In The Knight’s Tale Chaucer uses humor to bring attention to Arcite’s love for Emily by making him sing ridiculous lamentations while frolicking in the flowers. Chaucer’s humor serves to mock the characters’ traits and make them seem even more ridiculous.

There is a lot of use of irony in Chaucer’s stories because he wants to make commentary on how the characters are perceived in society, and what they are actually like. In The Sea-Captain’s Tale Chaucer uses irony when he describes a rich merchant who doesn’t want to pay for any of his wife’s expenses. He also uses irony when he describes Brother John who is a monk, but he lusts after the wife despite his vows. Chaucer uses irony in describing the wife because she only cares about her reputation and how people view her, and yet she would betray her husband to uphold her reputation. In The Knight’s Tale it is very ironic that the knight’s code of chivalry and courtly love is what comes between two knights. It is ironic because one wouldn’t expect the knight’s code to elicit jealousy and deceit. Chaucer’s use of irony is very important because it makes his social commentary very obvious and provides the audience with insight into social problems.

Chaucer encountered many people in his travels, and that shaped his opinions of society and its traditions. He tried to battle the status quo by producing literature in a form that all could read, and by commenting on the illusions society had of certain people. He did honor some societal and literary traditions in his writing by including chivalry and courtly love to tell the knight’s story, but ultimately he criticized a lot of social problems through his use of a satirical tone, through his use of humor, and through his use of irony.