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How Is Satire Used In The Canterbury Tales

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Satire
In the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer used satire in many of his writings including the monk the general prologue and the friar. There are many satirical targets including the church. Out of everyone in his writings, he uses the friar, the pardoner, and the prioress to show his satirical views of the church. He isn't targeting the church but he is targeting church hypocrisy. “Hypocrisy is a detriment to progress, There's always a hidden agenda” (Larry Flynt).
The first person Chaucer used is the friar in Canterbury Tales. The friar is used for satire because he practices a religious calling that specializes in hearing the confessions of wealthy people. He use this to get money out of them. There are many problems of the church but he can't expose them because if he does people might not believe in it and that would be very bad on his part. “Baseball is like church. Many attend few understand” (Leo Durocher). This quote is very relevant because in this time frame all the people of the church cared about was money. Few truly understood. …show more content…

He uses relics that forgive and remove a person's sins, but for a large price. This is another time where the church is failing. Chaucer cant expose how unethical they are being. They are selling the people of the catholic church relics that make them believe they will be better for it. “People do bad things in their lives. And those sort of things are forgivable. That's half the point of having confession in church - you need to be able to fess up to what you've done” (Macaulay Culkin). This quote is very relevant because they should have confessed. THe church fed everyone lies, and not what is actually

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