Though told by a self-confessed liar and hypocrite, the tale has a powerful moral and imaginative effect. How far do you agree with this view of the text?
Chaucer’s pardoner is an enigmatic, paradoxical figure, both intriguing yet repulsive. From the very beginning of his Prologue the
Pardoner makes no attempts to hide his “ypocrise,” instead taking a perverse pleasure in the extent of his corruption. As seen in the portrait of the Monk in The General Prologue, Chaucer allows the
Pardoner to condemn himself. He purposely reveals his methods of extracting money from” the povereste widwe in a village” his contempt for his usual audience of “lewed peple” and complete disregard for the doctrines of the Church. The Pardoner’s
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Of course, we have to bear in mind that while the pilgrims hear the
Pardoner’s rhetorical skills we hear Chaucer’s skill as a poet. In his digression the Pardoner melodramatically denounces a number of sins, making extensive use of rhetorical devices such as hyperbole, anaphora and apostrophe:
“ O glotonye, ful of cursednesse!
O cause first of oure confusioun!
O original of oure dampnacioun.”
He seems to use these to involve and unnerve his audience and effectively keep all eyes on him. He alludes to both the Bible and classical mythology, citing Biblical prophets, historical figures and philosophers. In contrast the tale itself is relatively plainly told and we can safely assume that the Pardoner is well practiced in the art of telling this specific tale and even inserts some of his sermon into it. His sermon is based on several medieval conventions, such as that of the mysterious old man, whom Dr. McIntyre identifies as a
“representation of the immanence and inescapability of death,” something which would have struck a chord with a medieval audience suffering from the onslaught of the Black Death.
The tale is an example of a very well defined genre with its own conventions and devices; nevertheless the pardoner makes it his own through his own use of rhetorical flourishes and poetic detail. He
In short, the Pardoner’s tale was a lesson. Chaucer uses The Pardoner's Tale to reveal the hypocrisy of the Pardoner himself in multiple cases. Mostly in all of these cases, the Pardoner does not practice the same things that he preaches against. He also has an unusual pride, rather than remorse, in his corrupt behavior. For example, we know from “The General Prologue” to “The Pardoner's Tale” that the Pardoner strongly believes that all evil comes from greed or the desire for wealth.
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.
Through the use of the Pardoners confession Chaucer is highlighting how corrupt, greedy and self obsessed the Pardoner is, this is portrayed through his overconfident nature as Toba Beta the Indonesian author said “Overconfidence precedes carelessness” this suggests that the Pardoner is not aware of what people actually think of him. This contributes to the pardoner’s prologue and tale as it shows the irony that Chaucer is putting implying through the tale.
In the Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s tale has different themes to his story. Chaucer puts all his imagination to the book for everyone to read and analyze how The Pardoner’s theme relates to the nonfiction texts of “The Dynamic Culture of The Middle Ages” and “From A Distant Mirror”
In medieval times, almost all things were under the influence of the church. The church was considered to be the most important aspect of the society at the time and had always told people right from wrong. This is where The Pardoner’s Tale becomes interesting. In Chaucer’s medieval poem, it is clear that the Pardoner is out to make money to fulfil his own greed rather than actually being concerned about the other people’s concerns about life and death. In the poem, the Pardoner is representing to church, it is believed that it was Chaucer’s intent to create this
Throughout the Canterbury Tales the pardoner shows that he is the vilest character through his tale and his interactions with others while they make their journey to Canterbury. Not only is it ironic that the Pardoner seems to be carefree of his sins and absolve himself of every crime without hesitation, but the lengths he goes to back up his lies are by far extremely questionable.
Hypocrisy is a common attribute attributed to many of Chaucer’s religious characters in The Canterbury Tales. They are greedy, drunks, and people without a moral code. In The Pardoner’s Tale this theme is exemplified. The Pardoner is greedy and drunk. Matthew 19:24 (ESV) says, “Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” Despite this, the Pardoner’s only goal is to scam as many people as he can with his “pardoning” of sins. The Pardoner would pretend to have objects blessed by the Vatican and sell them to people as an indulgence for future sins. It is doubtful that any of his objects had even been to Rome. Therefore, when the Pardoner starts his tale, it is one full of hypocrisy and deceit. Arguably, Chaucer’s grievance was not specific to the Pardoner. Rather, Chaucer used this character to make a wider point about the corruption of religion during the fourteenth century.
Chaucer continually shows the corruption of the Pardoner, and ultimately the church itself. He tries to discredit the church in its standing in society by showing the evil that inside of it. The pardoner, among many others, is just a small example of how the church steals from the people, takes advantage of them, and just drags itself through life without any real work. The Canterbury Tales is a masterful composition of love, corruption, and chivalry, and Chaucer truly does a wonderful job relishing all of
Each character that Chaucer presents comes with a story and a background. Throughout the tale, the host allows the reader to look deeper into some of their thoughts; however, while this can help determine their true feelings and show whom they are inside, it does not necessarily mean they are more important to the story. Through satire and irony, Chaucer explains the types of habits that these characters possess, habits that most would never expect such iconic “professions” of that time to have. For example, one of the most memorable characters, the Pardoner. This character is supposed to be loyal to the church, the people, and generally do no wrong; despite this, he is greedy and uses his position for money and power. The pardoner preaches
Likewise, the way that the pardoner recounts this pitch with such eagerness, demonstrates that this control was something he was exceptionally experienced in, and rather appreciated doing. At the point when the Host declined to purchase the relics and afterward went before to affront the Pardoner due to his lip service, the Pardoner understood that he had gone directly into his business pitch without actually considering. Dissimilar to the greater part of The Canterbury Tales, this entry requests understanding even at the surface level. Nonetheless, the one undeniable point Chaucer tried to make in this section, was the manner by which imperative the explorers' learning of the Pardoner's pietism was. In view of their insight into his false reverence, the pioneers had the capacity abstain from getting tied up with the Pardoner's con which would clearly have presented to them "Christ's condemnation" (Chaucer 1685). This significance of learning, and particularly the attention to the defilement of certain congregation practices, was what he wanted to ingrain in the majority of his
Where does a person who is different, whose gender performance fails to match cultural expectations, find a place for themselves in a Western heterosexist society? For centuries, such people have found sanctuary in the Church. This may be an acceptable solution for those who possess a true calling to religious life. All too often, however, people join the Church in an effort to hide their true natures from a society that would otherwise reject them. The mantle of religion has long been used to conceal objectionable proclivities. Geoffrey Chaucer’s Pardoner is such an individual. On the surface, he appears to be a man utterly without conscience, and yet he is in the employ of the Church. He lacks morals, but has been commissioned to absolve
The Pardoner is a man who goes to common people and offers promises of pardon, of healing, and forgiveness, all for a price that is. He openly boasts of all of his deceitful way to all around sharing in the pilgrimage to Canterbury. He then proceeds to tell the entire party of sinful things such as greed, drunkenness, swearing, gambling, lechery, purjory, and gluttony, all of which he is a partaker. The Pardoner’s tale and the Pardoner himself are reflections of today’s culture. The Pardoner tells the company of people he is with of his vices and he speaks them with pride as if they are not really vices but virtues. He then proceeds to pronounce them as vices in his story of the three men who band together to find death and kill him. They come
To add on to the corruption, earlier in the “General Prologue” the narrator mentioned how the Pardoner was adding to his irrelevent preaching of having relics. Such as the gobbet of Saint Peter, he goes as far as even saying he has a pillow case made of Our Lady’s veil. Indeed there were people who believed in such spiritual journeys who can be examples of the Pardoner cons, selling them holy relics and or promises of salvation which are frauds. This is more to add to the Pardoner’s deceptions, since his job was to get money from charitable enterprises to give back to those in need. “For in his trunk he had a pillowcase/ Which he asserted was Our Lady’s veil./ He said he had a gobbet of the sail/ Saint Peter had the time when he made bold/ To walk the waves…”(Chaucer 696-700). As shown the Pardoner was a skilled liar, not that the narrator believed him or many people did for that matter, but he was a compulsive liar running on greedy. One quality his tale talks about not having. After bringing attention to the inadequacies of the church workers, it is seemed that Chaucer continues to throw judgement to the Catholic Church through the tales of the characters.
Geoffrey Chaucer probably wrote The Canterbury Tales in the later part of the fourteenth century. Influenced by Boccaccio’s Decameron, a collection of tales told by Italian nobility, Chaucer introduces thirty unique characters in the book, writing himself as one of the thirty and the ultimate narrator. These thirty men and women from middle-class families convene in Southwark before embarking on a journey to Canterbury, where they will pay respect to St. Thomas Beckett. Traveling on a pilgrimage in the fourteenth century England parallels a retirement cruise in the twenty-first century United States; half of the amusing drunkenness occurs before the colorful travelers arrive at their destination. The Canterbury Tales remains popular because
The author of The Canterbury Tales had much to say when it came to religion and the religious people of his society. Chaucer gave descriptions on a number of characters from different backgrounds. He had a certain bias towards people who are truly “good” while the truly “bad” people were made fun of by him He paid special attention to a character when the topic of religion was involved. With the Pardoner’s Tale, the Pardoner acted like a hypocrite and the author made sure to point out his hypocrisy, be it implied or expressed in the story. Chaucer was one of the very few who had the courage to criticize church officials in his lifetime, and it shows that he had a swell time doing it as well. That is why Chaucer, the author of The Canterbury Tales, viewed religion and church officials as a joke because he made fun of most of the religious characters in his prologue, was more meticulous towards religious characters on the topic of religion, and pointed out the hypocrisy of the Pardoner’s morals in his character description and in the Pardoner’s Tale.