Geoffrey Chaucer, fondly called the Father of English Literature is one of the greatest humorists of fourteenth century. His humor is not exaggerated but appears naturally within the character and never deviates from the entities of the storyline. Through his comic satire he cleverly represents the depraved, illicit characters in sympathetic humor that makes us think while we literally laugh.
Chaucer’s careful experimentation can also turn an unusually fickle incident to a realistic and a sensible one. His satire is always positive and concentrates more on the humor. As always, Chaucer entertains his audience with the characteristics of his pilgrims in an unsurpassed way. Stories of pilgrims in the Canterbury tales range from energetic amusement to open mockery. Chaucer also focuses the cunning suggestions in the Summoner’s story and makes thoughts moderate by extracting the story from the nun’s priest who tells a common folk’s tale.
Chaucer’s element of satire is in accord with the real character of the pilgrims. Chaucer’s mode of satire also resembles those of Shakespeare’s. His characters namely Sir Toby of Twelfth Night and Falstaff of Henry IV portray similar attributes of Wife of Bath’s. An important quality of Chaucer is that he concentrates more on the character instead of focusing on the background. It makes the story more interesting and never diverts the attention of the reader ensuring fair amount of humor.
An age old depiction of characters is what Chaucer has eliminated in the Pilgrimage. The weird qualities of each pilgrim are explained clearly such that it stays in the reader’s mind as a fun element. This way Chaucer has made it easier to amuse people with his subtle satire. Examples are the wife of Bath’s hat that weighs around 19 pounds, the reeve’s thin legs, miller’s wart on the nose and the squire’s locks that look like as if it were pressed. Never did Chaucer employ any degree of mockery in his poetic writing.
Humor has taken different identities in each pilgrim. In case of the Wife of Bath’s it is half silly and open. The Friar, the Monk, the summoner and pardoner are depicted with harsh satire contrary to what Chaucer usually does. The summoner is lecherous and hideous and the character isn’t subject to any kind of comedy. However, the pardoner’s sly humor of calling the host to buy his relics as he is the most sinful makes us laugh. It shows his silly behavior and stands a best example to Chaucer’s amusing comic satire. As in case of prioress, she pretends to be a courtly damsel and sings in her nose and speaks incorrect French. This is once again a piece of comedy that shows how a prioress really shouldn’t be.
In the Canon’s yeoman’s depiction of the tale, Chaucer brings to light the word Alchemy or the chemistry of metals which the Yeoman uses to conceal their profession of coating heavy metals with gold and silver, promising the customers to make it tenfold.
Chaucer’s irony occupies limited space in the Canterbury tales. Like in the instances of the merchant, monk, prioress and physician irony wins. When Chaucer says “worthy man withal” about the Merchant, it means that the merchant keeps borrowing to keep his business in balance and still boasts about his trading abilities. With the Physician “ verray parfit praktisour” ironically presents the physician’s quality of failing to investigate poor patients. And in the Monk’s which says “a manly man, to been an abbot able” clearly symbolizes that the monk isn’t all that pious to live a life of sacrifice and priesthood. He really likes to go hunting and loves to lead a life of innovation. In the prioress’s prologue, the satirical part comes thereafter in which Chaucer says that to pretend like a courtly damsel, she weeps when an animal dies, but to feed her own dog she prepares roasted meat, vividly portraying the hidden meaning inside. Her love and care are confined within the boundaries of her own properties.
As a comic satirist, Chaucer has definitely proved to be an icon. Chaucer’s quick wit and entertaining humor have certainly played major roles in the Canterbury tales. Chaucer’s attitude of being less harsh towards his pilgrims from the unorthodox men to medieval stereotypes casts everlasting lovely impressions throughout reading.
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