Comment on Chaucer's use of irony in the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales?

In satire, there is the use of irony, humor, and
exaggeration to criticize the foibles and vices of people. Chaucer cleverly satirizes
many of the pilgrims as he points to their hypocrisy.

In
the Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer creates what is known as
estate satire. In Medieval times, an estate was a division of society; there were three
estates: the Clergy (those who prayed), the Nobility (those who fought) and the
Peasantry (those who labored). The largest target of this satire is the Clergy because
it is rife with hypocrisy.

Besides the Pardoner, who has
previously been mentioned, the Prioress is another member of the estate of the Clergy
whom Chaucer satirizes in his own inimitable way. The
Prioress is a nun who ranks just below the abbess, and she serves as an example to the
other nuns. However, the Prioress in Chaucer's Tales is anything
but an example of humility and poverty. On the contrary, she is
ironically affected as sings

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...with a fine
intoning through her
nose,....
And she spoke daintily in French, extremely,
...French in
the Paris style she did not know.....
for courtliness she had a special
zest

" a fine intoning" is
verbal irony as Chaucer writes the opposite of what he
means: she is affected in her manner.

Not only is the nun
affected in her mannerisms, she is vain as Chaucer points to her wearing "a coral
trinket on her arm," and a golden brooch of brightest sheen." These are certainly not
the sort of things that a humble nun would own, so there is more
irony.

The Monk, too, is also
pilgrim whom Chaucer satirizes. Chaucer criticizes the
monk's lack of humility with verbal irony:

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...a monk out of his cloister
That was
a text he held not worth an oyster;
And I agreed and said his
views were
sound.

The
monk also ignores his vows of poverty and humility, and Chaucer is again
ironic as he describes what a good hunter the Monk is. He
owns Greyhounds and hunts, "sparing no expense." He also dresses
luxuriously:

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...he spared no expense.
I saw his
sleeves were garnished at the hand
With fine gray fur, the finest in the
land,
And on his hood, to fasten it at his chin
He had a
wrought-gold cunningly fashioned pin:
Into a lover's knot it seemed to
pass.

Not only has he ignored
his vows of poverty with his dogs and fine horse and his clothes trimmed in fur, and
humility as he possesses eyes that Chaucer describes
ironically, writing that they "glittered like flame." Apparently, the
Monk has also violated his vow of chastity, as well, as he wears a lover's knot. In
addition, the monk is guilty of the cardinal sin of gluttony as,
ironically, Chaucer writes that he enjoys "a fat swan
best."