Chaucer's Use Of Satire In The Canterbury Tales

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How does Chaucer use satire to expose the hipocracy of the church?
Chaucer's use of satire

Geoffrey Chaucer wrote stories to attack the church. He hid behind characters he made up, and made people believe that these were actual people. He wanted to tell people how the world actually is, and did so using his book of stories. He uses characters he made up, and is speaking the truth and the stories through them. One of his key elements in these stories is his use of satire.

His first attack using satire is a direct attack on the church, using the pardoner. He uses the pardoner, because they can't blame him for whast the pardoner says. The pardoner is directly related to the church, and represents all the church's high people. First off, the pardoner admits that he uses a money sermon, saying that money is the root of all evil, so that it makes people want to donate their money. What's ironic about this is that he uses the sermon to promote his evil desires, because he keeps most of the money for himself. The pardoner also goes on to admit that his 'blessed relics,' are just things he found, and were not blessed. This is basicly saying that people will pretty much believe anything. …show more content…
Here, he pretty much says that it's a game between a man and a woman. He uses the Wife of Bath for this. The wife of bath days that a woman's goal is to control a man. She says this in her story about the knight and the old lady. Ironicaly, the women are usually suppressed in the age this was written, but the wife of bath goes on to say that women are actually the ones in control. She says that women are smarter, and use men as puppets. He is most likely wrighting to a male audience, and this will really get them fired up, but they can't hurt him, because he is only the

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