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Pardoners in the Middle Ages Essay

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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 …show more content…

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

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