Prologue To The Canterbury Tales Essay Research

Prologue To The Canterbury Tales Essay, Research Paper

In the Prologue to the Caterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer is almost always polite and respectful when he points out the foibles and weaknesses of people. He is able to do this by using genial satire, which is basically having a pleasant or friendly disposition while ridiculing human vices and follies. Chaucer also finds characteristics in the pilgrims that he admires. This is evident in the peaceful way he describes their attributes.

The Nun is one of the pilgrims in which Chaucer uses genial satire to describe. He defines her as a woman who is, “Pleasant and friendly in her ways, and straining/ To counterfeit a courtly kind of grace” ( l.l. 136-137). Instead of bluntly saying she is of the lower class and trying unsuccessfully to impersonate a member of the upper class Chaucer suggests it gentle, therefore the reader must be attentive to pick up on it. He also pokes fun at the Nun’s impersonated French accent when he says that she spoke:

with a fine

Intoning through her nose, as was most seemly,

And she spoke daintily in French, extremely,

After the school of Stratford-atte-Bowe;

French in the Paris style she did not know. (l.l. 120-124)

Chaucer finds the Nun’s speech amusing but he carefully chooses his words so as not to be disrespectful. Chaucer also uses genial satire when illustrating the Nun’s size; “She was indeed by no means undergrown” (l. 154). He puts the fact that she is fat in a polite way because he finds the Nun “very entertaining” (l. 135) and thus doesn’t speak ill of her even though there is much ill to be said. Instead he uses genial satire to describe the Nun so that he may remain courteous and respectful.

Chaucer finds the Monk less amusing and more repulsive than the Nun but none the less he describes him in a polite manner so that the reader must pay attention in order to fully realize the Monks faults. The main problem that Chaucer has with the Monk is that he shows very little religious devotion. The Monk frequently engages in activities opposite in nature to that which is expected from a man of his position:

He did not rate that text at a plucked hen

Which says that hunter are not holy men

And that a monk uncloistered is a mere

Fish out of water, flapping on the pier,

That is to say a monk out of his cloister.

That was a text he held not worth an oyster;

And I agreed and said his views were sound;

Was he to study till his head went round

Poring over books in cloisters. (l.l. 175-183)

A monk is expected to show his religious devotion by following the text of the bible as best he can, stay in his cloister and study constantly. This monk however does not follow the text as he hunts, is out of his cloister and has never been seen studying. Chaucer could be have been very straight forward and critical of the Monks poor choices but instead he uses genial satire to show the Monks faults without disgracing himself. Chaucer even jokes at the end of the above quote when he agrees with the Monk and says, “Was he to study till his head went round”, of course he was he is a monk (l. 182).

Chaucer uses genial satire in a slightly different way when describing the Oxford Cleric. Instead of forming a clear impression in the readers mind as too whether or not the Oxford Cleric is a good man he simply tells it as it is thus leaving the reader to determine it for themselves based on their own values. Chaucer describes the Oxford Cleric as a man who’s:

horse was thinner than a rake,

And he was not too fat, I undertake,

But had a hollow look, a sober stare;

The thread upon his overcoat was bare. (l.l. 291-294).

This is a polite way of saying that the Oxford Cleric not only neglected his own health and personal appearance but also the health of his horse as they were both extremely skinny and his clothes consisted of bare threads. He neglected his and his horse’s heath because he spent all his money and some of his friends money on books, which Chaucer also pokes fun at using genial satire:

By his bed

He preferred having twenty books in red

And black, of Aristotle’s philosophy,

To having fine clothes, fiddle or psaltery.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

He had not found the stone for making gold.

What ever money from his friends he took

He spent on learning or another book

And prayed for them most earnestly, returning

Thanks to them thus for pay for his learning. (l.l. 297-306)

Like a lot of modern day students the Oxford Cleric is broke, for he spends all his money on learning and books. When he receives money from his friends he has no intention of paying them back, instead he prays for them in return. Some may find these particular qualities to be bad ones. That is why Chaucer is very genial when describing the Oxford Cleric, he wants the reader to form their own impression of him.

Chaucer finds the Knight’s characteristics admirable. He describes his as a “most distinguished man” who “follow[s] chivalry” (l.l. 43, 45). Which was looked upon highly in Chaucer’s day. Chaucer portrays the Knight as a man of “truth, honor, generos[ity] a

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