Theme Of Irony In The Pardoner's Tale

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Essay on Irony In the story “The Pardoner’s Tale” Geoffrey Chaucer, uses irony a lot. Irony is when things don’t go the way you wanted or expected. There are three types of irony situational, verbal, and dramatic irony. Situational irony is when the expectation does not meet the outcome. Like in lines 124-125, the rioters thought it was their lucky day. They found gold, in the end they all die. There is also more situational irony in lines 102-109. An old man tells them death is under a tree. Death actually finds them, under the tree. The second type of irony Chaucer uses is verbal irony. Verbal ironies are when you say something, but actually mean something else. One example of verbal irony is lines 137-139. The rioters decide to draw straws to see who has the longest straw. The winner gets to go and get some supplies, but he’s actually going to die. This is ironic because the rioter who came up with this…show more content…
It’s my favorite because you can make your own up, it’s easy. Dramatic irony is when you know what is going to happen. It’s like foreshadowing for the reader or audience. One example Chaucer did was in line 195. The rioter that left to get the supplies also goes and buys poison to kill some rats. He actually means his friends by rats. This is ironic because to get the poison he had to lie to the person selling the poison. I think Chaucer used a lot of irony in this story, because he wanted to make the story more interesting. Using a lot of irony makes it easier for the reader to under stand the story, irony also makes you think of the things that the characters’ are saying. It’s like if the irony makes you part of the story. Chaucer used irony in the story perfectly, he didn’t use it every where. Chaucer used all three types of irony, dramatic, verbal, and situational. I really like the one were the rioter was buying bread, wine, and other supplies. He also buys some poison to kill his

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