Satire

Satire Webster’s Dictionary says that satire is “the use of ridicule and sarcasms to attack vices, follies, ect.” Using that definition, I think that all the Pilgrims in the Canterbury Tales have some sort of satire in them to some extent. Some are more subtle and some are more extreme and noticeable than others. The Knight is one of the pilgrims that Chaucer used more subtle satire with in the Prologue. The first way satire is used in the Prologue is with the Knights character. Chaucer wanted to present a realistic knight, but he also wanted to give that knight some very real and obvious flaws on the way that knights were viewed in the 14th century. Chaucer described the realistic knight in the beginning of the Prologue as a “worthy man…Truth and honor, freedom and courtesy, full worthy was he in his Lord’s war…and honored for his worthiness.” This puts the reader at ease and makes the knight look somewhat noble in the beginning. Toward the knight, chaucer, satire, prologue, way, voice, tales, knights, canterbury, worthy, wanted, viewed, very, subtle, realistic, puts, pilgrims, honorable, first, describe, courteous, clean, beginning, always, writing, worthiness, worldly, without, webster’s, war…and, voices, vices, using, two, toward