Pardoners Tale, Chaucer, Canterbury Essays

The Canterbury Tales were written and pieced together in the late 1380's, early 1390's.  The author of the book is Geoffrey Chaucer.  When considering the structure of the tales, one can deduce that they were put together using Framework Narrative, a very unique style of writing.  The opening prologue speaks of 29 pilgrims, including Chaucer, who are all on a pilgrimage to Canterbury. All of them are seeking a certain shrine for spiritual cleansing, and relief.  The journey was to be long, but in the end it would all be worth it.  Chaucer's social views and prejudices are revealed through his description of the pilgrims in The Canterbury Tales.

In “The Pardoner’s Prologue”, especially in the end of the prologue, it clearly show that his teaching and church believe are all corrupted. It really show they are selfish and greediness and also in “The Pardoner’s Tales”, we can see that there are a lot of repeat word that represent the Pardoner itself and the church believe. The Pardoner say the word gluttony and greed many times, he tells that they are bad but the way he act and speech are all ironic. Here are some quote from the tale, “O gluttony, so full of cursedness! O first cause of our trial and tribulation, Origin of all our souls’ damnation till we were purchased back by blood of Christ!”(Chaucer 498 - 501). This quote, the Pardoner all blabbing about the gluttony are very bad and the cause of all bad things. It is very ironic to what he does in the story, the pardoner get drunk and eat while he teaching.The Pardoner said, “A lecherous thing is wine, and drunknness is full of striving and of wretchedness. O drunken man, disfigured is your face, sour your breath, you’re foul to the embrace! And through you drunken nose it seems the sound is “Samson, Samson” that you would expound, Though, God knows, Samson never drank of wine”(Chaucer 549 - 555). This quote really explain what the Pardoner did and how he looks like. All of his teaching are all directly reflect into the Pardoner’s inner self.

A dishonest clergyman could easily prey on the insecurities of the population in order to profit from the sale of false relics. The Pardoner, similarly, is only “fixed on what [he stands] to win” (PP 75). Perhaps this suggests that the corrupted character has little else on his mind, wishing only to cheat the devout and turn a greedy profit; he thinks of nothing but of his personal gain. He “won’t do any labor with [his] hands,” but his greedy heart intends to live the life of the most well-to-do (PP 114). The Pardoner’s sermons, preaching the ills of avarice, condemn the sin of which he is guiltiest.

In the Prologue of The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer gave the readers different characterizations of the many pilgrims that joined him as they went from London to Canterbury in honor of St. Thomas á Becket. As he went on about each of the pilgrims, one in particular was more evil compared to them all. The Pardoner came across as the most intriguing one who went on the pilgrimage. He was a man of great greed and the readers wanted to know why he was at the hindmost order of the pilgrimage. If he was supposed to be of great nature and a man people could come to when they needed to seek out Christ, then he should not have been at the end of the pilgrimage order. A Pardoner is someone who goes about the township or countryside to sell pardons.

into his trap, but what is ironic is the downfall of the fox.  When the fox

He mentions how he mentions how he makes a “haughty speech” (line 330) and then continues by making rounds through the church, collecting money and ringing a bell making the illusion that this money will be a donation to the church rather than the Pardoner. He even shows his relics in church as well, pulling out glasses with “rags and bones” (line 348) and telling them he will let them see these relics if they pay. His intelligence and dedication can be in a way admirable, but not under these circumstances. “And then I show to them like precious stones / My long glass cases crammed with rags and bones, / For these are relics (so they think). And set / In metal I’ve a shoulderbone I let /Them see, from the sheep of a holy Jew (lines 347-351). The steps he is willing to take in order to get money not only makes him extremely vile but it also contradicts what he is supposed to do in church. One of the seven deadly sins is greed and he is displaying this greed for money multiple times throughout the

A Pardoner is someone who travels about the countryside selling official church pardons. These were probably actual pieces of paper with a bishop's signature on them, entitling the bearer to forgiveness for their sins. It seems that this Pardoner also does a secondary trade in relics, or pieces of clothing, bones, & other objects one time belonging to long-departed saints. The Pardoner claims to have Mary's veil & a piece of St. Peter's sail. After his story, the Pardoner tries to sell these relics to the other pilgrims, angering the Host, who questions their authenticity.

Chaucer described “Pardoner had hair as yellow as wax, …… Thinly they fell, like rat-tails, one by one”(L694-L697 The Canterbury Tales). As the reader keeps going down the line, Pardoner’s personality shows vividly that he is a untrustworthy, selfish man. In the Prologue, Pardoner is riding in the back and selling people fake pardons that pardons people from their sins.

311), which he was familiar with telling , he had also confessed to the other pilgrims his devious scheme of peddling insignificant pardons and relics. Yet, towards the end of his story, he still tries to persuade the pilgrims to buy his insignificant goods using the same scheme. Also, during this, there is a disagreement between the Host and the Pardoner, in which, the Pardoner singles the Host out and begins trying to persuade him to buy his pardons. However, this makes the Host mad, he declines and attacks the Pardoner verbally.

The Canterbury Tales is a series of stories that are told by a group of pilgrims who are headed to the Canterbury Cathedral. Within these series of stories, there is the pardoner and the reeve, both who shows contradictory characters. The Reeve is a very deliberate and virtuous, business guy. However, the pardoner’s appearance is recognized as a blonde haired man who is loved by everyone he encounters. Nonetheless, he is so depraved and intelligent, but he sells spurious religious things to the community. Furthermore, the pardoner tells a story that includes a great precedent of the seven deadly sins and within that story there is one sin that may affect the community in time back then and also at the present time. Greed, one out of the seven

“(Ackroyd 157). Chaucer never made direct statements about politics, the controversy in the church, wars or basically any events that were happening in his life. He used subtlety, satire and sometimes made light of the events in his life in writing the stories of the Canterbury Tales. . Chaucer wrote the Canterbury Tales to tell the story of the classes of the people, heath concerns, and the abuse in the Catholic Church. Chaucer uses the class of the people in the Nuns’ Priest Tale.

Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales is a structured novel which starts with the narrator obtaining twenty traveling companions at an inn. They are all traveling to Canterbury to pay homage to a saint. On their way, these colorful individuals decide to make the trip more bearable by having a story telling contest. Each will tell one story on the way to Canterbury, and one story on the way back. The winner will be decided by the inn's host, who is accompanying them. Unfortunately, it seems Chaucer never got to finish the novel so there is only one story from each character. However, he does a wonderful job at depicting a lively picture with each description of the characters

As time progresses people advance and the language follows. During the Anglo-Saxon period, heroism was the primary theme of the story, however, the shift to the Medieval era introduced a new theme. Morality, defining the right and wrong for the new Christ followers, played a key role in the tales. Beowulf, an Anglo Saxon piece, focused on the arrogant yet bold Beowulf. His daring adventures lured the audience in to enjoy to the poem. Unlike Anglo-Saxons, the Medieval era utilized religion in everyday stories, meaning being cocky was hypocritical to their Christian views. The pardoner from Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales Prologue, was described as arrogant for bragging of his righteousness to other church members. Chaucer utilizes the Pardoner

The Root of Evil Exposed in The Pardoner's Tale   "The root of all evil is money."   Because this phrase has been repeated so many times throughout history, one can fail to realize the truth in this timeless statement.   Whether applied to the corrupt clergy of Geoffrey Chaucer's time, selling indulgences, or the corrupt televangelists of today, auctioning off salvation to those who can afford it, this truth never seems to lose its validity.   In Chaucer's famous work The Canterbury Tales, he points out many inherent flaws of human nature, all of which still apply today.

In the late 1300s Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales, a story which follows the religious journey of twenty-nine people, who represent many aspects of Medieval society, to the Canterbury Cathedral in southeast England. While on the pilgrimage the host of the tavern, where all the pilgrims meet, suggests that the pilgrims each tell a story for the group’s entertainment. Chaucer intended for all the voyagers to tell two stories, but he unfortunately died before he could finish the book and only got to write one story apiece. However, the goal of the storytelling contest is to tell the most moral story possible, and the one who wins receives a free meal, which the rest of the pilgrims will pay for. Although some of the other stories have good moral messages, “The Pardoner’s Tale” and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” are on different ends of the moral spectrum. “The Pardoner’s Tale” focuses on a pardoner who preaches against greed. While “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” exemplifies what all women want in their relationships: power. Although both “The Pardoner’s Tale” and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” demonstrate the value of the opinion of elders, the stories differ in their moral values and their storyteller’s values.