General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales

by Geoffrey Chaucer

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Chaucer's use of humor and irony in "The General Prologue" to The Canterbury Tales

Summary:

Chaucer uses humor and irony in "The General Prologue" to The Canterbury Tales by creating exaggerated and often contradictory descriptions of his characters. For example, he portrays the Prioress as overly concerned with her appearance and manners, which contrasts with her religious role. Similarly, the Friar is depicted as more interested in profit than piety, highlighting the hypocrisy within the Church.

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How does Chaucer use irony in the General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales?

Many of Chaucer’s characters in the Prologue to The Canterbury Tales are presented with an ironic twist. Chaucer uses irony to expose the dishonesty and greed that he sees in people who have legal and religious authority and power. Considering the time in which it was written, the Middle Ages, it is a strikingly honest portrayal of man’s propensity for such evil.

The last character presented in the Prologue is the Pardoner. In the Middle Ages a pardoner was a church official who was supposed to administer pardons issued by the Pope to absolve sins. Pardoners were notoriously liable to accept bribes in the granting of such pardons and to cheat parishioners in other ways. Chaucer’s Pardoner did this and also carried with him a collection of fake religious relics that he used to make money (by charging people a fee to view them):

. . . he in one day got himself more money

than the parson got in two months.

And thus, with false flattery and tricks,

he made monkeys of the parson and the people.

The irony comes in how the Pardoner behaves in church. Although he is a cheat, he acts pious in church:

He could read a lesson or a history beautifully,

but best of all he sang an offertory;

The Pardoner puts on a good face, but as Chaucer warns us, that doesn’t mean he is above taking advantage of the less fortunate.

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How does Chaucer use irony in the General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales?

Chaucer the pilgrim, as opposed to Chaucer the poet, is a congenial travel companion, but not a very bright or discerning observer of humanity. Although he is somewhat obtuse, his observations of his fellow pilgrims afford Chaucer the poet an opportunity to use irony as a way of allowing us to see some pilgrims—such as the Prioress and the Friar—as what they are rather than what they appear to be. Chaucer the pilgrim's lack of discernment ironically pulls these characters into sharper focus.

Madame Eglentyne, the Prioress, is introduced as a very refined, gentile lady:

Who was very simple and modest in her smiling;/ Her greatest oath was but by Saint Loy;/ And she was called Madam Eglantine (ll. 119-121)

Readers (or listeners) of the poem in the 14th century. would immediately suspect this lady—who carries a very typical title and name for a woman of the secular upper class rather than a woman who is head of a convent—is an atypical Prioress. The fact that her strongest oath is "by Saint Loy" would also cause some smiles in that Saint Loy is a reference to St. Eligius, most famous for his goldsmithing work for the Merovingian Dynasty and known for his courtly behavior.

In addition to her courtly manners and speech—more evidence that she belongs in a courtly romance instead of a convent—Chaucer points out that she is traveling with lap dogs:

She had some small hounds that she fed;/With roasted meat, or milk and fine white bread. (ll. 146-147)

Her kindness to her animals is certainly not objectionable, but Chaucer's irony here is palpable—prioresses and nuns during this period were expressly forbidden to have domestic pets. Madame Eglentyne is carefully depicted by Chaucer the Poet as the antithesis of a conventional and dedicated prioress.

Another clerical pilgrim, the Friar, is described as

There was a FRIAR, a pleasure-loving and merry one,/ . . . He had made very many a marriage/Of young women at his own cost. (ll.208-13)

Chaucer the pilgrim does not seem to understand the implications of his own description here. The "pleasure-loving" Friar has apparently used his own funds to provide the dowries of "many" young women, clearly an indication to more astute observers that the Friar is making sure that women he has had relations with find suitable husbands.

Worse than his dalliances, however, is the Friar's approach to sin and its absolution. Rather than requiring sinners to perform actual penance, the Friar is extremely lenient with certain of his sinners:

He heard confession very sweetly,/And his absolution was pleasant:/ He was a lenient man in giving penance,/Where he knew he would have a good gift. (ll.221-24)

Although couched in humorous description, in the 14th century, the act of confession and penance is a profoundly serious undertaking. By exercising leniency on the basis of payment, the Friar is essentially subverting an important underpinning of the Catholic faith.

Chaucer's use of irony skillfully establishes a tension between what at least two of the pilgrims appear to be to their companions and how harmful they really are to their respective true religious duties.

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How does Chaucer use irony in the General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales?

The primary way Chaucer's persona creates irony is his naivete.  He seems to accept and praise each of his fellow pilgrims, and in this acceptance and praise, the reader is able to gather some unflattering information.  We see this type of irony first in the description of the yeoman who is a "proper forester, I guess."  The "I guess" at the end throws suspicion on the fact that the yeoman really is all that experienced.  In contrast to the knight's clothing and equipment, the yeoman's tools are shiny and bright as if they have never been used.  Later we see this same type of irony used when the narrator describes the nun's table manners and French (not the Paris style) rather than the virtues that nuns should have such as piety and charity. We see this same type of naivete in the descriptions of the friar and monk whom we learn through the narrator's seeming praise are quite despicable characters.

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What are some examples of humor and irony in "The General Prologue" to The Canterbury Tales?

Irony and humor, and indeed ironic humor, often appear side-by-side in “The General Prologue” to The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer. Examples include the following:

  • The claim that the prioress never let a morsel of meat fall from her lips – which on the one hand suggests her obsessive attention to good manners while on the other hand suggesting that she is gluttonous (128).
  • The reference to the prioress’s “conscience” (142), followed ironically by her somewhat comic concern for mice caught in traps (rather than for poor, sick, or otherwise needy people).
  • The delicate (but humorous) observation that the prioress was not “undergrowe” (i.e., undergrown) – a polite way of stating that she is fat (and thus, symbolically, attached to the world and the flesh).
  • The comic depiction of the monk, who has so many bells attached to his horse that when he rides his bridle can he heard jingling

. . . in a whistling wind as clere

And eek [i.e., also] as loude as dooth the chapel belle . . . (­171-72).

Such phrasing comically demonstrates how the monk uses bells to try to call attention to himself, even as it ironically reminds us that the purposes of church bells are to call attention to worship of God.

  • The comic reference to the monk as “a lord full fat and in good point” (200), which ironically makes him sound like an animal and which also ironically associates him with the sin of gluttony and with attachment to the world and the flesh.
  • The description of the cook as having a “mormal” (388)on his shin – a kind of pussy ulcer often associated with venereal disease. Immediately after noting this fact, Chaucer ironically (and with black humor) notes that the cook’s specialty was white sauce (!).
  • The description of the Wife of Bath becoming comically (but also ironically) angry at church (453) if anyone happened to get before her in the line to present her offering (not exactly the best Christian behavior).
  • The description of the Wife wearing fine scarlet leggings to church, not to mention head-covers weighing ten pounds (455-59), as if church were a fashion show or an occasion for displaying wealth.
  • The reference to the Wife’s expertise in “the olde daunce” (i.e., the tricks of the sexual trade, which one of my students once memorably described as “the horizontal mamba”; 478).
  • The comic description of the miller as someone who could break down doors by ramming them with his head (552-53), which is funny in itself but which also implies that he is not the brightest pilgrim in the group.
  • The description of the miller's face, which comically makes him resemble an animal but which also, for that reason, ironically suggests that his behavior will not live up to the highest human ideals (554-58).
  • The description of the summoner's love of garlic, onions, and leeks, which humorously suggests that in addtion to his other problems he stinks, but which also ironically alludes to the Biblical book of Numbers, 11:5:

We remember the fish that we ate in Egypt free [of]  cost: the cucumbers come into our mind, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic.

In other words, Chaucer subtly and ironically compares the summoner to the Hebrews who complained to Moses, suggesting the continual bondage of both to the flesh and the world.

Chaucer's humor is almost always ironic in the sense that it is meant to show how far some of the pilgrims have strayed from Christian truth.

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What is an example of humor and irony in the General Prologue to "The Canterbury Tales"?

Just to continue the above answer and offer you another example of irony and humor in Chaucer's The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, the doctor is also presented with irony.  The doctor is unmatched in, indeed, talk:

No one alive could talk as well as he did

On points of medicine and of surgery,...

And why can he talk so well about his profession?  Because:

"...being grounded in astronomy,

He watched his patient's favorable star

and, by his Natural Magic, knew what are

The lucky hours and planetary degrees

For making charms and magic effigies.

Nothing qualifies a man for medicine and surgery like a knowledge of astrology and charm making!  There is a fine line between irony and humor, and, in fact, surprise is the essence of both.  In these few lines about the doctor, Chaucer achieves both. 

Closely connected with the above is Chaucer's reference to the contemporary belief in the four humors and the horrible medicine the belief led to.  The most common remedy for most illnesses was blood letting, thought to balance out the four fluids within the human body.  Chaucer's juxtaposition of the doctor's love of astrology with his belief in the four humors and therefore blood letting may not be accidental.

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What is an example of humor and irony in the General Prologue to "The Canterbury Tales"?

Probably one of the best examples of irony in the General Prologue is in the description of most of the members of the clery, Parson excepted.  Particularly look at the description of the Prioress.  The Prioress is described as very lady-like and proper and she has a very tender heart when it comes to the treatment of animals.  She is dressed very well and has superb manners.  No where, however, does Chaucer indicate that she is pious and devout, as a nun in charge of a priory should be.  That her outstanding qualities are not piety and devotion, but are good manners and sentimentality show great irony of character.  The Friar is another good example of a member of the clergy with misplaced devotion.  It seems his devotion is to himself and having a good time.  We're told he extorts money from people in return for absolution and that he knows women and the inside of bars better than he knows the inside of a church.  This time the greater emphasis is on the more humorous qualities of the Friar rather than on his other qualities.  Whereas the Prioress seems to want people to think she is very devout, we get the impression that the Friar doesn't really care if people question his devotion to God.  He's just enjoying his position and what he can get from it.

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How does Chaucer incorporate humor in the General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales?

Much of the humor is based on understanding the outlook that those hearing the tales would have brought with them as part of their culture at that time. As the travelers are introduced and described, humor may be found in understanding references that carry more significance than what the narrator of the Prologue apparently understands. Some examples:

The Physician is credited with loving gold above all else "For gold in physic is a fine cordial" - the narrator thinks the Physician prizes gold for its curative powers rather than for its monetary value.

The picture of the Wife of Bath is calculated to be humorous. She is a weaver of "kerchiefs of finest weave and ground" although they were so heavy ("a full ten pound") as to be useless. Her history includes five husbands and "other company in youth" and the listener's imagination is allowed to run wild in considering "the remedies of love she knew."

Both the Monk and the Summoner have, at times, arranged marriages for young women of their acquaintance. While it is never explicitly stated, listeners in Chaucer's time would understand his implication that these marriages became necessary after the arranger of the marriage had gotten the bride-to-be pregnant.

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How does Chaucer use humour and irony in "The Prologue" to The Canterbury Tales?

Reading through the account of the pilgrims, who they all are and some of the interactions between them reveals the customary humour and wit of Chaucer, that is clearly revealed in the way that he presents himself and in the way that he presents others. One way in which this humour is revealed in his self-critique as narrator. He apologises for having to use the rather crude words that some of his characters use but he says that to maintain the authenticity of his tale he simply has to report his characters' words as accurately as possible. Then he apologises again for not listing his characters in order of social rank:

Also I beg you to forgive it me

If I overlooked all standing and degree

As regards the order in which people come

Here in this tally, as I set them down:

My wits are none too bright, as you can see.

The way that he presents himself as a rather dim and unintelligent individual is of course belied by his shrewd presentation of the other characters. He is clearly anything but "none too bright." Note too the irony that he uses in presenting a character as being one thing than revealing him or her to be something else. The following quote describes the host:

A handsome man our host, handsome indeed,

And a fit master of ceremonies.

He was a big man with protruding eyes...

Clearly, "handsome" cannot be taken too literally in this sense. Chaucer's humour in this section of his famous work is thus based around caustic irony as he presents himself as being something less than he actually is whilst presenting those around him as something that they are actually not.

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