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Luca Bonini
Ms. Thompson
Honors Brit Lit, Skinny A
February 28, 2015
Geoffrey Chaucer: Irony in the Canterbury Tales
Even though he was born into an opulent life, Geoffrey Chaucer faced many difficult
adversaries in his quest to write The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer was a writer and one of his most
well-known works was The Canterbury Tales, a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as
they travel together on a journey from Southwark to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at
Canterbury Cathedral. the tales constitutes perhaps the richest fullest portrayal of a world and
its people ever achieved by any writer, (Howard 14). The reason for this is that Chaucer has
family connections that allowed him to experience various perspectives of medieval life.
(Howard 14). Using his vast experiences, Chaucer wrote the Canterbury Tales using a mix of
satirical and actual versions of all the various trades of the medieval ages, with characters such as
the Knight, Pardoner, and Monk.
Firstly, knights are often known as being valiant, virtuous heroes whom ride into battle
with fortitude to defend their countries, masters, and ideals even at the cost of their lives, and in
The Canterbury Tales the Knight character is depicted as being such a man, which is what we
know as the classic knight, but knights were not typically like that in the medieval ages. The
Knight in the story was not loyal to anybody and At the time and for some time to come the
armies of Christendom were feudal in character, (Rowling 66). In feudalism a knight pledges
his life to serving a master which was typically a lord or lady at this time. The Knight in the story
was what was known as a free company, a knight without a master, which was actually quite

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common and quite infamous at this time. Free companies were more often than not known for
their cruelness and ruthlessness because they would do almost anything for money. (Rowling 71)
The knight however did not have the qualities of the typical free company, he instead was
satirized to be the quintessence of a true knight. Chaucers portrayal of the knight is an example
of one of the characters he depicted in an satirical way..
Secondly, in a time where religion was such a big deal, it is very ironic how little people
actually took up a religious trade fully with their hearts in their religion. There were a total of
four men who took up a religious trade in The Canterbury Tales, the most prominent of the four
being the pardoner who, ironically, might need a couple of pardons himself. As the name states,
the Pardoners job was to give out pardons from sins, for a small fee of course. (Rowling 164)
The idea of the trade was actually well intentioned but the pardoners were always almost never
the same, most, such as the Pardoner in the story, were in it only for the money. Abuse of ones
position, especially with religious hands, was a common occurrence during the medieval ages
and the pardoner was no different, Although a church official, the Pardoner is one of the most
churlish and unsavory characters taking part in the pilgrimage to Canterbury; he describes
himself as one who would take money from a widow even if it meant her children would starve,
so that he might continue his life of debauchery, (Sollars 1490). This description of the pardoner
further shows how cruel of a person he was and how far he was willing to go to satisfy his own
desires. But one must remember that the pardoner in the story was not an exception, almost all, if
not all, pardoners were also like this. The pardoner is a perfect example of a character in The
Canterbury Tales illustrated as he actually was in the medieval ages even though it might seem
like irony.

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In conclusion, Geoffrey Chaucer is a phenomenal author who utilized literary devices far
before they were known as literary devices. Irony and satire is a literary tool that has been used
throughout the ages and Geoffrey Chaucer used it quite often in his story The Canterbury Tales,
through his characters such as the Knight, Pardoner, and Monk. Chaucer has left a lasting effect
on literature with his tale, and he will be revered for now and for many years to come.