Chaucer: Satire And Humor Essay -- English Literature:

Chaucer Satire And HumorUntil Geoffrey Chaucer wrote the Canterbury Tales, he was primarilyknow for being the writer of love poems, much(prenominal) as The Parliament ofFowls, narratives of doomed passion, and stories of women wronged bytheir lovers. These flora are nothing short of being breath taking,but they do not posses the raw power that the Canterbury Tales do.This unfinished poem, which is about 17,000 lines, is one of the or so splendid works in all of literature. The poem introduces a group ofpilgrims journeying from London to the shrine of St. Thomas a Becketat Canterbury. Together, the pilgrims represent a macroscopical section of14th-century English life. To help pass the time of the journey, thepilgrims decide to tell stories. These tales include a wide variety ofmedieval genres, from humorous fables to religious lectures. Theyvividly describe medieval attitudes and customs in such areas as love,marriage, and religion. Chaucer was a master storyteller, and his withi s shown throughout his work by the use of humor and satire, and itis most present in The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, ThePardoners Tale, and The Wife of Baths Tale.Many people that the most popular par to of the Canterbury Tales itThe Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, which has long been admired forthe lively, secernate portraits it offers. More recent criticismhas reacted against this approach, claiming that the portraits areindicative of social humor and satire, estates satire, and insistingthat they should not be read as individualized character portraits standardised those in a novel (Gittes 15). It is the Prologue to theCanterbury Tales that serves to establish firmly the framework for theentire story- collecti... ...o her husband, and this defeats the whole purpose of the Wife ofBaths entire argument.For almost a seven coulomb year old book, the Canterbury Tales stillis a very irresistible collection of analyses of human life. Not muchhas changed in seven hundred years . Medieval traits that Chaucerdescribed in his tales such as corruption and greed still play a majorpart in our society today. Also, issues such as womans rights thatwere debated back then are still heavily debated today. No otherwriter has been able to duplicate the way Chaucer has canvas anddescribed human life, and no one has even come close to doing it insuch a humorous and satirical way. The Canterbury Tales broughtGeoffrey Chaucer too his full dainty power, and it will foreverremain as one of the most brilliant and vivid piece of literature everwritten in the English language.