Pardoner's Tale

      There is a song called Irony by Alanis Morissette. Irony is in life everywhere. It is in songs, movies, life and even books. Irony can be found during day and night far and wide it can be found in big and small, or even in poetry. The most common reference of irony in poetry is Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Another poem that shows a lot of irony is the Pardoner's Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer. In the Pardoner's Tale, Chaucer uses irony around every corner; for example death, dishonesty, and greed.

       Death has irony around every corner which is commonly found in music and poems. In the Pardoner's Tale the three drunkards want to kill Death. This part of the tale shows several different interpretations of the irony of death. For example how the three men sought to kill Death but instead Death kills them. Another form of irony in death is how the men wanted to kill each other for the money instead of killing Death like they planned. A song thats shows irony in death is "Leaving on a jet plane" by John Denver.

       Dishonesty is a ironic example in the Pardoner's Tale. Dishonesty is shown by the Pardoner himself and through the old man. The pardoner is dishonest to his customers by trying to sell them fake idles or other fake merchandise. The irony is he sells that stuff to "help" others to grow more Godly but in doing so he is tainting himself.  The old man shown dishonesty when he lied to the three men. The irony from that is he was accused of beings deaths collaborator. He said "no I am not but I seen death over there by that tree." in doing so it led them to their demise by death. That makes him a collaborator to their deaths. A excellent song with an fantastic guitar jam is Cause of Death by Obituary.

       Greed is possibly the most noticed form of irony that takes place in the Pardoner's Tale. The pardoner himself is very greedy, so are the three men. The pardoner was really greedy and is always trying to gain more money out of those he can extort. The ironic part is he tills a whole tale on how being greedy is crooked and evil. The three men where greedy by trying to kill each other more money. This shows how ironic it is that they where all best friends then turned on each other because of the greediness they had for money.

         Chaucer shows us how irony is much like sarcasm it can be funny, sad, infuriating, and painful. Irony was shown in the Chaucer's story through death, dishonesty and greed. The irony is said to be what makes Chaucer's stories so enjoyable. Chaucer's sarcasm or irony is much like what          Leopold Stokowsi once said "A painter paints his pictures on canvas, A poet writes his words on paper, But musicians paint their pictures and words on silence. we provide the music, and you provide the silence."