Geoffrey Chaucer was an English poet during the Medieval Era. While he does not appear to have been a social reformer, he drew attention to the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church in his works, The Canterbury Tales. Scholars agree that little is known about Chaucer. We do not have much personal inform- mation, such as “the memorabilia, letters, diaries, personal reminiscences, that cluster thickly around such later figures as Byron, Shelley or Yeats” (Morrison 7). Most of what is known has been gathered from official or public documents. According to West, “we don’t even know if he was Anglo-Saxon or Norman French as Chaucer (from chaussier, a shoemaker) indicates” (42). While not …show more content…
Chaucer’s Pardoner is vain, loathed the lower class and hated manual labor. He was paid by the Church to offer and sell indulgences. The Catholic Church was conveying the message that forgiveness comes at a price. The Pardoner’s physical appearance also makes a statement. He is beardless and has long, greasy yellow hair. In Chaucer’s time these characteristics were associated with shiftiness and uncertainty of gender. The Pardoner “boasted that he had mastered the arts of chicanery and deceit. He shamelessly promoted his welfare at the expense of the gullible” (Shaffern 2). The Pardoner preaches that the love of money is the root of all evil. This is an evil that he himself was guilty of. In The Cantebury Tales the Pardoner states “Thus kan I preche again that same vice; Which that I use, and that is avarice” (Shaffern 2). Also according to Shaffern, “Finally, the rootless, shiftless, and lazy pardoner was guilty of not only avarice, but sloth and lust as well: For I wol preche and begge in sundry landes; I wol nat do no labour with myne handes, Ne make baskettes and lyve therby, By cause I wol nat beggen ydelly. I wol noon of the apostles countrefete; I who have moneie, wolle, chese, and whete… And have a joly wenche in every toun.” (3) It was ironic that the Host asked The Pardoner to tell
In the Pardoner's prologue, Chaucer describes what a swindler and model of deceit the Pardoner actually is with vivid characterization. The Pardoner is so convincing in his acts that "[i]n one short day, in money down he dr[aws]/ More than a parson in a month or two./and by his
During the Middle Ages, The Canterbury Tales was the first major English literary work of Geoffrey Chaucer. One of Chaucer’s classic tales, “The Pardoner’s Tale,” establishes a concrete image of the Pardoner’s greed. Chaucer uses “The Pardoner’s Tale” to expose that “greed is the root of all evil” through verbal, situational and dramatic irony.
The Pardoner use deceit and lies to pray on the poor and innocent, his characterization represents the churches misuse of its vast power. Chaucer fortifies this idea when he describes the Pardoner as “And thus I preach against the very vice/I make my
The world is full of hypocrites and in the story “The Pardoner’s Tale”, Chaucer writes about a man who is living a life of sin. The Pardoner’s tale is an epologia of a pardoner who has the power from the church to forgive others for their sins but makes a living out of lying and tricking his audience. Throughout the Pardoner’s Tale he preaches about greed, drinking, blasphemy, and gambling but in the Pardoner’s Prologue he admits to committing these sins himself. The pardoner is really just a 14th century con artist who makes a living by his own hypocrisy.
Both the Pardoner and the Friar are portrayed as quick-thinking charlatans. Chaucer does seem to admire the Pardoner’s skill, and skilled he is, but his actions do not befit a man of the cloth. The Pardoner is spoken of as using bogus relics to con “poor up-country parsons” out of their hard-earned cash. These small hustles netted him “more in a day than the parson in a month or two”. When choosing his occupation, I’m sure the Pardoner did not see the light of the lord but rather, dollar signs. Chaucer goes on to say that yes, the pardoner did preach rather well and his stories were quite splendid, however that might be on account that he could “win money from the crowd”.
In the story, “The Pardoner’s Tales”, Geoffrey Chaucer wrote the character the Pardoner in descriptive way. He describe the Pardoner’s corruption teaching and the way the Pardoner act in the tale. The religious that the Pardoner teaching is corrupted and very selfish, greediness, and gluttony. This thing are all opposite to what the real church religious is teaching. In the story, he tricks the people to buy his fake relics and other things by using the church’s believe. The Pardoner act and his teaching are all corrupted because of the church. It shows the side of greediness, gluttony and selfishness which highly reflect into himself and his believe.
One character Chaucer uses to ridicule hypocrisy is the Pardoner. Throughout the description of the pardoner, it is shown that he is corrupt. He uses lies and
In Canterbury Tales, the pardoner vouches for the pardoning of those who come to the church to confess their sins. Specifically in the Pardoner’s Tale, we see how he preaches to the church to repent for their greedy sin. This
The Pardoner and Summoner appear together in “The Prologue.” They further illustrate an example of Chaucer’s awareness of a defiled Church. Chaucer provides humor to his description of the Summoner in that “he’d allow – just for a quart of wine - /Any good lad to keep a concubine” (Chaucer 20.) This means that a person who disobeys the Church without seeking repentance can easily bribe the Summoner, in that he will overlook the situation. Chaucer writes about the Pardoner that “by his flatteries and prevarication/ Made monkey of the priest and congregation” (Chaucer 22.) This is another direct insult to the Church at the time.
Throughout “The Pardoner’s Tale”, the main character teaches about greed, gambling, desecration, and drinking, but in the beginning he admits to committing these sins himself. One of the portrayals of hypocrisy, in the
Chaucer conveys the theme that corruption is inevitable and sometimes not clearly visible within the “Pardoner’s Tale”. Corruption was not easily shown but took place with the interaction of the Pardoner. The Pardoner is driven by selling pardons to citizens in exchange for money. The citizens buy his pardons to relieve themselves of their sins, when the sins actually have no effect and are a scam. The theme was shown when the Pardoner said to the towns people “Dear People.
It goes on to say that the Pardoner’s tongue will be a dagger to the people who hear his message, he will speak to the congregation and they will feel pain. He will also spit venom towards the people whose lies are called holiness. This is why it is so easy to classify the Pardoner as a wholly vicious person, he is basically described as a snake and when people think of snakes it’s not a positive picture. A snake is something that is dangerous and scary, not happy and glorious. The Pardoner is viciously coming for the pockets of the congregation and if anyone interferes, there will be problems.
Pardoner is a vain man who has thin, scraggly hair, a high voice, and is beardless. He
Chaucer's depiction of the Pardoner in "The General Prologue" is unsparing in its effeteness; he has "heer as yelow as wax/ But smoothe it heeng as dooth a strike of flex/ By ounces heenge his lokkes that he hadde...But thinne it
Geoffrey Chaucer lived from thirteen-forty-three to fourteen-hundred. “Chaucer is one of the most interesting writers in English literature because he straddles two worlds: the Middle Ages and the Renaissance” (Collin 1). He wrote his poems in middle-English, which is called Vernacular. “Geoffrey Chaucer chose to write his poetry in the Vernacular – the everyday language – of his time and place” (Chaucer et al. 18). Perhaps one of Chaucer’s most important literary works, “The Canterbury Tales,” sets the stage for a more in depth understanding of the feudal systems and classes of the Middle Ages.