Thesis Statement

Chaucer satirizes ideas of marriage of his time through the use of his characters by mocking the idealistic view of marriage, the desire for an older man to want to marry a younger woman, and the role of women in a marriage.

Topic: Marriage and the role of women

Q: What ideas of marriage of his time does Chaucer satirize through the use of his characters in The Canterbury Tales?

    

    In "The Pardoner's Tale" and "The Pardoner's Prologue" by Geoffrey Chaucer, the Pardoner reveals that he is a deceptive, greedy, and hypocritical man. The Pardoner who preaches and grants indulgences for a price, deceives the people with his preaching by "speak[ing] some words in Latin-- just a few -- to put a saffron tinge upon [his] preaching." (241) He also deceives the people into think that a bone dipped into a well can do a few unrealistic things, one of which is to cure jealousy. According to the Pardoner, if you "use but this water when you make his broth, and never again will he mistrust his wife." (242) The Pardoner uses his job solely for "the pence, and specially for [himself], for [his] exclusive purpose is to win." (243) He does not use his job to preach Christianity, he uses it for a profit out of his own greed. The Pardoner preaches how bad gluttony is and how it is "our first distress...[and the] cause of our first confusion, first temptation, the very origin of our damnation." (245) However, the Pardoner drinks "a draught of corn-ripe ale" right as he is about tell his tale, showing his hypocrisy. (244) The Pardoner's deceptiveness, greediness, and hypocrisy are revealed in his prologue and tale and describe him as a person.

    Through the Pardoner, Chaucer tries to show that the Church is corrupt, self-indulgent, and untrue to their principles. From the way Chaucer shows how the Pardoner deceives people into buying pardons/indulgences that have no meaning, he is trying to show how corrupt the Church is and their goal to gain money and deceive people by offering a way to grant a pardon for a price. The Church convinces and deceives the people by telling them that if they pay a certain fee, their sin will be pardoned, which obviously is not true since sins cannot disappear with a fee. The Pardoner who uses his job only for "the pence, and specially for [himself]," is used by Chaucer to show the greed and self-indulgence that the Church has. (243) They make people pay a fee to have their sins pardoned for profit of the Church. Chaucer utilizes the Pardoner's behavior to signify the Church's values and how they do not follow them. The Pardoner drinks "a draught of corn-ripe ale" although the Church teaches that gluttony is "the very origin of our damnation." (244,245) The Church in making pardons that cost a fee are not sticking to their own values of the Church. Chaucer points out the Church's corruptness, self-indulgence, and inability to stick to their own values through the Pardoner. 

Wife of Bath Inferences/Facts

Dominant

"in the married life in which I've been an expert as a wife, that is to say, myself have been the whip." (263)

Manipulative

"But as I had them eating from my hand and as they'd yielded me their gold and land... I set them so to work." (264)

Talkative

"But listen. Here's the sort of thing I said..." (264)

Confident

"No sooner than one husband's dead and gone some other Christian man shall take me on" "I am free to wed, o' God's name, where it pleases me." (259)

Feminist

"One may advise a woman to be one; Advice is no commandment in my view. He left it in our judgement what to do." (260)

Sure of Her Ideas

"God bade us all to wax and multiply." "No word of what the number was to be, then why not marry two or even eight?" (259)

Lusty

"In wifehood I will use my instrument as freely as my Maker me it sent." (262)

Greedy

"I never would abide in bed with them if hands began to slide till they had promised ransom." "His pleasures were my profit." (269)

Stubborn

"Young, strong and stubborn, I was full of rage and jolly as a magpie in a cage." (270)

Well Informed on Bible

"I know Abraham was a holy man and Jacob too... yet each of them, we know, had several brides, like many another holy man besides." (260)

According to Chaucer, how are the poor more wealthy than those with great loads of money?

    In "The Wife of Bath's Tale" by Geoffrey Chaucer, according to Chaucer, the poor are more wealthy than people with great amounts of money because the poor have greater knowledge through God, better wisdom, and do not have to worry about having something stolen. The poor become very wealthy from the knowledge they obtain whenever they feel lowly, which bring themselves closer to God. They gain their knowledge from learning what is holy. Poor people are wealthier than rich people, also, because they have wisdom that rich people are not capable of having. This wisdom is from working hard to improve their social standing patiently, but accepting where they are at the time. Rich people always live in worry and fear of having something stolen from them, while poor people can be relieved that they do not have anything to be stolen. Because poor people have nothing to be stolen, they can live better lives with a wealth of knowledge, wisdom, and happiness. Because poor people do not have any money, they learn important aspects of life and become wise and knowledgeable with wealth, much more than the wealth that rich people have.