"The Canterbury Tales": Satire Notes and Prologue

As we begin our new unit over "The Canterbury Tales," we must also discuss the genre of this text: satire.

Below are some notes regarding satire as well as the outline for these notes.





A few general points about satire:

• Satire is not about guilt, it is about humor. Good satire usually makes a lot of people laugh and a small group of people (usually the people being criticized) very angry. 

• Modern satire is sometimes accused of overstepping the boundaries of "decency," but its goal is always to make people change their thinking or their behavior.
• Some modern examples of satire that we discussed in class are:
• The Simpsons
• Saturday Night Live
• Family Guy
• American Dad
• The Daily Show
• Robot Chicken
• Moral Orel
• Various late shows
• Last Week Tonight

We then began with the prologue of "The Canterbury Tales." Now, the prologue is long, so we will not be reading all of it. In the prologue, Geoffrey Chaucer introduces us to all 29 of the travelers. These travelers are called pilgrims, much like the Pilgrims that we know that came and settled in America. Much like these Pilgrims, a pilgrim is someone who goes on a journey, usually a very long and difficult one, as a sign of religious devotion. Pilgrimages still exist today- the one most of you have probably heard of is the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. The pilgrimage is supposed to symbolize a religious journey, sometimes one of growth, sacrifice, or even enlightenment. 

The fact that Chaucer chooses to focus on the stories of people making this religious trip implies that this will be a story that deals with religious growth, though in Chaucer's case, he is hoping people will outgrow the corrupt practices of the Catholic church and seek for reform. 

Chaucer was very aware of the impact that first impressions have in terms of how we judge people. Since satire is all about making judgments, Chaucer goes to great lengths to give us a detailed description of each of the pilgrims and their background, mannerisms, and appearance. These descriptions are supposed to give us a perspective on each of these individuals. Some of them are actual members of the Catholic hierarchy - the Nun, Friar, Monk, etc. - while some are members of the "upper class" - the Knight - and others are just plain citizens - the Yeoman, the Wife of Bath. 

No detail is pointless in these descriptions. They all give us an impression of how we are supposed to feel about each of the pilgrims and how we should interpret their stories.

In the Prologue, we will meet a few specific characters: The Knight, the Squire, the Friar, the Wife of Bath, the Nun, and the Pardoner.

You can find the text of the Prologue HERE. These are the sections we are reading:

• Lines 1 - 102: Introduction and meeting the Knight
• Lines 122 - 166: Meeting the Nun
• Lines 169 - 211: Meeting the Monk (this is a change from what we did in class; I will explain on Tuesday)
• Lines 455 - 486: Meeting the Wife of Bath
• Lines 689 - 734: Meeting the Pardoner

As we read, we will be completing the following study questions. This handout is due tentatively on Tuesday, October 16th.