Chaucer's Satirical Analysis

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Are You Being Serious?
(An Analysis of Chaucer's use of Satire to Reach His Audience)

Have you ever used sarcasm in your life? Have you ever used it against something that you didn’t like? Chaucer uses satire many times in his writings. He uses it to show his audience that he doesn’t agree with certain things. In his writings, Chaucer criticizes the hypocrisy of the church, the patriarchy, and the notion of class, using satire. The first thing that Chaucer challenges is the hypocrisy of the church. Chaucer mentions that there is something fundamentally wrong with all religious people of the church. He also calls preaching a game. He thinks that all preachers want is the money from the people of the church. One message that comes from this criticism is that money is the root of all evil. All the church cares about it money. After they get the money, the people of the church could just go to Hell for all they care. He states, “for though I am a wholly vicious man don’t think I can’t tell moral tales, I can!” Basically what he is saying is that he is also a wholly man. He is also saying that just because he is religious, …show more content…
Back then, women aren’t considered equal to men. It is an organic view that humans are put in a class view, and woman are placed below men. Chaucer doesn’t agree with this way of thinking. For this story, he tell it through a woman's voice to make a point. In this story the woman had been married five times, and is waiting for her sixth husband. She thinks the role should be reversed and the women should be able to tell the men what to do. She quotes, ““Men may divine and glosen up and down / But wel woot I express withouten lie / God bad us for to wexe and multiplye / That gentil text can I wel understone” (lines 26-30) She is basically saying that she is perfectly capabale of doing the things that men can do too. She thinks that she is able to do anything she sets her mind to
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