Satire In Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales

Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales consists of a General Prologue and a collection of twenty-four tales, two of which are fragments, told by a group of thirty pilgrims, including Chaucer the Pilgrim himself, on their journey from Southwark, directly outside London, to Canterbury in order to visit the shrine of St. Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. Chaucer uses the frame narrative technique in The Canterbury Tales, a story within a story. The outer frame’s pilgrimage sets the scene for the inner frame’s tales. Throughout The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer uses satirical elements in the General Prologue character descriptions and the characters’ tales to reveal character faults through wit and ridicule with hope for reform along
Pardoners were properly conducted, altruistic members of the clergy. The Pardoner Geoffrey Chaucer introduces to the reader, however, is a “conman” (Brosamer 1), full of lies and deceptions. He spends his time slyly stripping people of their money for fake religious relics. Thus, Geoffrey Chaucer uses the Pardoner’s greed and selfishness as a satirical element of irony in the Pardoner’s Tale, which tells of “three rioters who go out seeking to slay Death, and are themselves slain by their own greed,” (Rossignol 1), the same greed that motivates the Pardoner in his
The Pardoner’s Tale has the most moral plot but is being told by the least moral pilgrim. “The irony of his lecture is that these are sins, like gambling and drinking and swearing, that the Pardoner himself is guilty of” (Hacht 18). The Pardoner applies his moral issues to produce captivating stories to recite to his congregations. His moral and pure tales make the people of his audience feel remorseful for their personal greed, resulting in their extravagant offerings for the Pardoner to keep secretly. He is an incredibly hypocritical man in that he states that greediness is the root of all evil, but he then acts in a greedy manner himself as he sells pardons to people in hope to get into Heaven but keeps the money instead of giving it to the Church and declaring the process a profession. Because of this Tale to teller relationship, the pilgrims are left with a great problem: “Should we trust, or believe in, or even listen to the tale of an untrustworthy teller?” (Rossignol 7). The Pardoner chooses to steal from his audience despite his understanding of his immoral