Chaucers Canterbury Tales - Comparing The Pardoners Tale and The Nuns

Irony in The Pardoners Tale and The Nun's Priest's Tale    Irony is the general name given to literary techniques that involve surprising, interesting,or amusing contradictions. 1   Two stories that serve as excellent demonstrations of irony are "The Pardoners Tale" and " The Nun's Priest's Tale," both from Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. Although these two stories are very different, they both use irony to teach a lesson.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Of the stories, "The Pardoners Tale" displays the most irony. First and foremost, the entire telling of the story is ironic, considering just who is the teller.   The Pardoner uses this story to speak out against many social problems, all of which he himself is guilty of.   He preaches about drunkenness, while he is drunk, blasphemy, as he attempts to sell fake religious relics, and greed, when he himself is amazingly greedy. Yet there are also many ironic situations in the story itself.   The irony starts when, in the begining of the story, the three rioters make a pact to "be brothers" and "each defend the others" and "to live and die for one another" in protection from Death, (lines 37-43) and then in going out to fulfill their vow, they end up finding money, and killing each other over it. Even more ironic, is how they end up killing each other.   After finding the money, the men plan to stay with it until it becomes dark and they can safely take it away.   To tide themselves over until then, they send the youngest one out to get food and wine, and while he is away they plan to kill for his share of the money.   Ironically, the youngest one is planning the same thing so he slips poison into the drinks... ...tion.   By teaching this in two very different stories Chaucer makes it very clear that irony is an extremely effective method of teaching a lesson.    Works Cited and Consulted Arrathoon, Leigh A. "The Pardoner's Tale," Chaucer and the Craft of Fiction. Ed. Leigh A. Arrathoon, Rochester, Michigan: Solaris Press, Inc. 1986. 241-318 Beidler, Peter G. "The Nun's Priest's Tale" Chaucer Review Vol: 34, Issue: 4. April 01, 2000. 388-397 Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales: Riverside Chaucer Third Edition. Ed. Larry D. Benson. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company,1987. 3-328 Secondary Taavitsainen, Irma. "Personality and styles of Affect in the Canterbury Tales" Chaucer in Perspective. Ed. Geoffrey Lester.Midsomer North, Bath: Sheffield Academic Press Ltd. 1999. 218-232 White, Annie "Irony in Chaucer's Tales,'" 20 Jan. 2001.