Depicting church corruption could be risky.
Chaucer likely wanted to distance himself from the Pardoner to critique the corruption and hypocrisy within the Church during his time. By portraying the Pardoner as morally corrupt and deceitful, Chaucer could satirize the Church's practices without directly implicating himself. This distance allowed Chaucer to criticize societal issues and individuals while maintaining a level of plausible deniability.
Depicting church corruption could be risky.
Chaucer The narrator of The Canterbury Tales The Pardoner The tale the Pardoner tells
In the exchange between the wife and the Pardoner in "The Wife of Bath's Tale", the humorous element lies in the wife's cunning manipulation and mockery of the Pardoner. She cleverly teases him by pretending to believe his fake relics are real and then turning the joke on him by suggesting his relics are phony. This playful banter showcases the wife's wit and subverts the Pardoner's attempts to deceive others for profit.
Multiple unreliable narrators Distance between the narrator and the characters Natural and realistic characterization
The knight
The Knight intervenes and prevents a fight between the Pardoner and the Host by calming them down and redirecting the conversation to a more pleasant topic.
The verbal irony is when the the three rioters swore to protect each other and destroy death, but ended up killing each other."Hold up your hands, like me, and we'll be brothersIn this affair, and each defend the others"(lines 94-95)
The Wife of Bath prevents a fight between the Pardoner and the Host by offering to share the storytelling and keep the peace. She uses her wit and charm to diffuse the tension between the two men.
Indirect characterization relies on inferences, where is direct characterization does not.-Apex
Chaucer wrote most of his works between 1373 (when he was thirty years old) and 1384.
Geoffrey Chaucer's book Canterbury Tales (1392) is the earliest recorded association between April 1st and foolishness.