Irony in

1
Irony in The Pardoners Tale

• How does irony effectively express Chaucers
  criticism of the church?

2
The Pardoners Tale

• 3 young men of drunk and riotous behavior search
  for Death.
• An old man whom they insult tells them that Death
  lies up the hill under a tree.
• They find bags of gold and plot to send the
  youngest for food and wine and then kill him for
  the gold.
• He returns with poisoned wine.
• They all die.

3
Some Background

• Pardoners sold pardonsofficial documents from
  Rome that pardoned a persons sins.
• The Pardoner in Chaucers The Canterbury Tales is
  dishonest.
• The Pardoner often preaches about how money is
  the root of all evil.

4
Chaucers dissatisfaction

• There was widespread dissatisfaction with
  pardoners (as also with money-loving Friars) in
  Chaucer's time, and both were popular subjects of
  satire and joking.
• The Pardoners Tale is an allegorical,
  satirical, and ironic conveyance of the greed of
  the church and the recognition that the church
  was corrupted during this time period.

5
TYPES OF IRONY

• Situational
• The opposite of what is expected to happen occurs
• Dramatic
• The reader knows something the character does not
• Verbal
• The opposite of what is meant is said (sarcasm)

6
Situational Irony

• The fire safety lectures were canceled because
  the screen caught on fire.
• An ambulance runs over a pedestrian.
• If you have a phobia of long words you have to
  tell people that you have Hippopotomonstrosesquipe
  daliophobia...

7
Why is this ironic?
8
(No Transcript)
9
(No Transcript)
10
(No Transcript)
11
(No Transcript)
12
Dramatic Irony

• Scary music in a horror movie only the audience
  can hear, so we are prepared for what is to come
  while the characters are not.
• In Titanic, we know the boat is going to sink.
  The people on the boat are unaware of the actual
  dangers the iceberg presents.
• In Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet, the audience
  knows the fate of the two lovers before they do

13
Verbal Irony
Verbal irony is slightly different than
situational irony in that verbal irony involves
saying what one does not mean. Verbal irony
uses sarcasm, understatement and overstatement
When in response to a foolish idea we might say,
What a great idea!
14
(No Transcript)
15
(No Transcript)
16
What does the Pardoner always preach about?

• The root of all evil is greed
• What makes this ironic?