Jonathan Hobbs - - 28/04/2007
Chaucer's Irony
Irony is a vitally important part of The Canterbury Tales, and Chaucer's ingenious use of this literary device does a lot to provide this book with the classic status it enjoys even today. Chaucer has mastered the techniques required to skilfully put his points across and subtle irony and satire is particularly effective in making a point. The Canterbury Tales are well-known as an attack on the Church and its rôle in fourteenth century society. With the ambiguity introduced by the naïve and ignorant "Chaucer the pilgrim", the writer is able to make ironic attacks on characters and what they represent from a whole new angle. The differences in opinion of Chaucer the pilgrim and Chaucer the writer are much more than nuances – the two personas are very often diametrically opposed so as to cause effectual irony.
In the Friar's portrait, he is delineated and depicted by riddles of contradictory qualities. Chaucer expertly uses ironic naiveté to highlight the Friar's lack of moral guilt. When the reader is told that the Friar, "knew the taverns wel in every toun" (l. 240), we can take it to mean that he spends very much time drinking, flirting and socialising in pubs. The Friar is superseded to be a holy man, but we see that he knew the landlords and barmaids much better than the people he has meant to be consoling, praying for and helping out of the vicious circle of poverty. Chaucer the pilgrim explains how impressive the Friar's generous charity is and has respect for the way he marries off young girls with suitable husbands and pays for the ceremony. However, he neglects to mention that the only reason the Friar does this is because he has illegitimately gotten them pregnant in clandestine, despite claiming to be celibate. When Chaucer the pilgrim tells us "famulier was he...with worthy wommen of the toun" (ll. 215, 7), we can be fairly certain that these women were far from worthy – in fact, they were more than likely to be practising prostitutes. The word "worthy" is used again in line 243 to describe the Friar. For any reader of The Canterbury Tales, the veil concealing the irony of the use of this word throughout the book is very thin indeed. Similarly, the Friar is called "virtuous" (l. 251) when he is clearly not. Chaucer hits the nail on the head by following that with "he was the beste beggere in his hous" (l. 252) – this insinuates that instead of helping beggars with munificence, the Friar is accustomed to getting money out of people by unscrupulous methods. By saying "plesaunt was his absolution" (l. 223) he implies that the Friar would disregard sins and readily absolve people for very little penance, should they be willing to make a substantial donation. Chaucer the pilgrim praises the Friar for not wearing threadbare robes and, instead, says he dresses elegantly; "dighted lyk a maister or a pope" (l. 263). However, while Chaucer perceives this as a positive trait to be proud of, one wonders whether it is not something that says a lot more about the kind of person the Friar is – he is not marked by meekness at all, and dresses with ostentatious extravagance whilst comparing himself to the Pope. Chaucer cunningly uses this technique throughout The General Prologue: making the pilgrim miss seemingly obvious character flaws and instead ironically reporting an opposite, contrasting view thereby illustrating to the reader just how unethical his fellow pilgrim is. When a portrait is laden with irony such as this, it reinforces the immorality of the Friar when even the ignorant pilgrim can see that he is a "wantowne" (l. 208) person without a modicum of conscience.
