Paper Summary:

This paper examines Chaucer's use of irony in the "General Prologue" to the "Canterbury Tales". It also looks at the characters of the "General Prologue" to which Chaucer has attached the most ironic descriptions. Considerable time is spent tying together parallel character sketches, as well as offsetting the ironic characterizations against those of the more revered characters i.e. the Knight and the Yeoman.

From the Paper:

" Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is arguably the definitive piece of literature for a time rife with change, growth and economic upheaval. The Hundred Years War was in full swing, the Church was being torn apart from the inside, and the royal powers of the secular heads of state were changing hands almost annually. This theme of change, as well as the rise of a powerful middle class in Chaucerian England speaks directly to the construction and motifs of the Canterbury Tales. The tales of course weren't meant for a large audience in Chaucer's time - but subsequently became so popular that they are credited with changing the entire direction of the evolving English language. Chaucer has become the definitive author of Middle English poetry. Whatever Shakespeare was to Modern English, Chaucer is generally considered the father of a simplified and unified Middle English that paved the way for the endeavors of Shakespeare and other modern writers centuries later."

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