Humor, Irony and Satire in the Prologue of The Canterbury Tales

A good sense of humor is one of the essential skills of any great writer. Geoffrey Chaucer is one of those artists who exerts a puzzling amount and variety of humor, and wields it in a remarkably subtle manner. He makes the common reader laugh and the intelligent reader smile. He is the first great humorist in English literature.

Chaucer's humor is refined. The purpose of humor in Chaucer's poem is not to hurt others, but just to illuminate and illustrate just what they are. It is said that Chaucer's humor is gentle because he has a deep affection for humanity. He is a lover of mankind, a philanthropist. He loves men equally, whether good or bad. He neither condemns fools nor shows disgust for rascals. He gently unmasks their nature, manner or behavior. He wants to give pleasure by portraying their funny traits artistically revealing the secret of their foibles. He intends to amuse or delights the reader. His humor is free from biting satire. However, he exposes the vices of the society in a subtle and gentle manner. The test of a humorist is his readiness to laugh at himself as much as at others and Chaucer emerges successful in this test. He evokes humor at his own cost as well as at the cost of his pilgrims. He spares not even himself and cracks many a jest at his own expense.

The Canterbury Tales reveal Chaucerian humor in all its varieties. In the Prologue, every character is dexterously enlivened by humorous touches, and the pageant of merry pilgrims lives vividly in our memories. There is the light-hearted touch of a genial humorist when Chaucer presents the Prioress. Chaucer makes a sly dig at her tenderness when he says that she is so charitable and tender-hearted that she would weep if she saw a mouse caught in a trap. Though a Prioress, she indulged in love-making. To Chaucer, with his frequent voyages to foreign countries, her French appeared perhaps rather Londonish and hardly Parisian.

His characterization of almost all the characters here is, indeed, humorously satirical. We do have examples of pure humor also in the Prologue, for example, we laugh at the Squire's lovesickness, the leanness of the Clerk of Oxford and of his horse which is compared to a rake. The motive behind this kind of humor is laughter for its own sake. But irony becomes much more conspicuous in Chaucer's treatment of characters, especially when the poet shows a corrective motive. However, Chaucer, as an ironist and satirist, is not out to reform people, but he surely finds amusement in the absurdities, affectations, and some of the minor vices of the people he deals with. The chief point to note about his use of ironical satire is that he does not, like Swift, feel enlarged or infuriated by the weaknesses and shortcomings of human beings because his attitude towards them is not only tolerant but also indulgent. This reason helps temper his irony with humor, making the overall satire thoroughly delightful and free from the taint of cynicism and pessimism.

We find kindly and patronizing humor in the case of the Clerk of Oxford. The Oxford Clerk was a scholar in shreds, but he loved to learn and to teach. Chaucer's humor becomes broad and semi farcical in the case of the Wife of Bath. She was a little deaf and gap-toothed. All her life she was an honorable woman. She had five husbands at church door, besides other company in her youth. All the remedies of love were at her fingertips. There is an ironic humor in the case of the Doctor of Physik. Chaucer's humor becomes coarse and rough when he presents the Miller and the Reeve. The satirical tone of Chaucer's humor is well represented in the character of the Monk, the Friar, the Pardoner and the Summoner. These ecclesiastical characters deserted their religious duties. Materialistic and amorous things became the part and parcel of their lives. Chaucer mildly satirizes the monk who became a worldly person and loved hunting and riding. The Pardoner was a cheat and a hypocrite. By his feigned flattery he duped innocent persons and squeezed money out of their pockets. The Summoner was a rogue. If a person greased his palm, he was above the law and could do wicked things for a full year. Chaucer’s humor is not tinged with bitter satire. Chaucer looked on and smiled on the follies of the people. He was a master of irony and sympathetic humor. Chaucer's humor is almost innocent fun.

Satire is found in the world of Chaucer, but it is rarely coarse, seldom severe, and never savage. His humor is not tinged with fierce and biting satire. He did not lash the strongholds of corruption mercilessly; he simply laughed at them and made us laugh. Bitter satire, in fact, did not penetrate the sympathetic and genial outlook of Chaucer. His interest lay in the portraiture rather than in an exposure. His object was to paint life as he saw it, to hold up mirror to nature.

Chaucer's use of irony to build up a satirical portrait and to make us laugh is clearly seen in his presentation of the Prioress. The Prioress speaks French fluently, according to the school of Stratford-at-Bow. This is an ironical reference to the Prioress's aristocratic breeding. Her dress and her fashionable manners are also ironically described. Her charitable nature too is depicted in such a way as to amuse us. Her spirit of charity is seen chiefly in her feeding her pet dogs with expensive foods, a clearly ironical fling. The ironic implication throughout the portrait of the Prioress is that, in spite of her holy calling, she is more concerned with worldly things than with the spirit. At the same time, Chaucer makes the Prioress quite amiable by emphasizing her essential femininity. The portrait of the Prioress is thus a prominent example of Chaucer's tolerant view of human failings textualized in an amusing and delightful, manner in which he reveals them to us.

The Monk, too, is portrayed satirically. He is fond of hunting; he keeps a large number of fine horses in his stable. When he rides, the jingling of the bells on the bridle of his horse is heard at a distance; he finds the rules of monastic discipline to be old and therefore out of date; he does not wish to drive himself mad by studying too much and so on. The worldliness of this Monk is clearly exposed by the ironic stroke and the whole portrait is rounded off with a reference to his partiality for a roast, fat swan, even as the Prioress's portrait is rounded off with an ironical reference to the inscription—"Love conquers all" on her brooch. Irony is also employed in the portrait of the Friar. Here are the most ironical lines in this portrait: "He was a noble pillar of his order". This line amuses us, especially when we know that the man is mercenary. We have some of Chaucer's most bitter ironies when he describes the Friar as telling the sinners that they have merely to give money to men like him to order to obtain divine forgiveness. Ironical humor occurs in the portrait of the Merchant when Chaucer tells us that the Merchant is so dignified in his dealing and his bargaining that no one could judge that the Merchant was in debt. The Lawyer amuses us by pretending to be busier than he is. The Lawyer's fraudulent transactions are not made by Chaucer an object of any vehement criticism; these are simply hinted at in order to amuse us by pointing out the incongruity between his vast legal ability and his essential dishonesty and cunning. But Chaucer does not castigate the Lawyer. Chaucer's spirit of toleration and indulgence is clearly seen here.

Thus we find that humor including irony and satire is the most conspicuous ingredient in Chaucer's characterization of the pilgrims in the Prologue. Chaucer's humor lends a most distinctive quality to his character-sketches.

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Shrestha, Roma. "Humor, Irony and Satire in the Prologue of the Canterbury Tales." BachelorandMaster, 16 Mar. 2018, bachelorandmaster.com/britishandamericanpoetry/humor-irony-satire-canterbury-tales.html.