"The Canterbury Tales" was a novel written by Geoffery Chaucer in 1386. In the prologue to Chaucer's work, he describes certain characters using the literary device known as satire. His descriptions of the characters do a few different things. First, they give the reader an accurate vision of the time period that the novel takes place, fourteenth-century England, through the context of the character descriptions such as their dress. Second, his characterizations reflect Chaucer's own personality, …showed first 75 words of 731 total…

…showed last 75 words of 731 total…advantage of. Through the understanding of the satirical characterization that Chaucer uses in the prologue of "The Canterbury Tales," it is obvious that he has a comical wit about himself, and is a skilled in using the literary device of satire. By using satire, Chaucer depicts certain characters in a much more interesting manner than that of other writers, and this is an asset that has probably attributed to the wide success of his works.