Satire In The Pardoner's Prologue And Tales

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.

Allegory can be defined as an extended metaphor, a story that seems ordinary but holds deeper meanings within. Allegory can be found in many pieces of literature, such as the Canterbury tales, in particularly two tales: the wife of bath and the pardoner’s tale. Both tales are written by Geoffrey Chaucer who uses allegory to convey a message. Chaucer indirectly discusses vices he apparently despises, sins committed by humans that he opposes. They can also be injustices, oppressions to certain groups of people at his time. Chaucer uses allegory in the wife of bath to mock women and to show greed’s consequences in the pardoners tale.

Satire can be found everywhere around us, not just in our English classes. For instance, satire can be found in many television shows, newspaper articles, comics and many other places. Satire is used to criticize people`s stupidity or foolishness among many different issues through the use of irony, humor, and other rhetorical strategies. In other words, its main purpose is to mock a certain subject or person to expose the main issue to the audience. For instance, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Twain demonstrates the use of various rhetorical strategies, such as ironic and humorous language to satirize southern society`s hypocrisy toward education, religion and racism.

It is said that all men are created equal, but this is not all correct. Thomas Jefferson said that “All men are created equally”, but this feeling has been betray if all humans were equal. Then people would all get equal privileges. This is a belief that everyone is equal. Moreover, that they all have the same chance to be successful in life. If humans are, create equally, then why did the government split up the levels of pay rate and social class, and why racism stops people from being what they want to be? In this discussion Gregory Mantsios, the writer of “Class in America”, describes how society has divided into upper class, middle class, and lower class, and that the government is trying to deal with both extremes, forgetting that middle class will face deeper tragedy if it is unnourished. Likewise, Diane Kendall, a sociologist from Baylor University shows how mass media and social class is being frame in her essay “Framing Class, Vicarious Living, and Conspicuous Consumption”. Kendall discusses how many people frame classes and everyday life. In addition, Mike Rose discusses how people just want to live there in life without people bully them. In his, article “I Just Want to Be Average”. He tells the story about some of his experiences throughout high school. When he was a freshman, he was place into a vocational program. Rose goes into detail describing specific events and different types of people that he

It is said that money is the root of all evil. Geoffrey Chaucer confirms this belief in his narrative The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer addresses a number of issues with human nature as his characters tell their stories on the way to Canterbury. As the host intends to judge the pilgrims’ stories that they write on the way to canterbury. Chaucer's “The Pardoner’s Tale” is a witty and satiric tale containing life, Death, and the influence of greed. It will be pitched against “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”, a story containing the experiences of one ‘highly experienced’ woman and her fable describing what women really want out of men. The stories will be evaluated and judged by their moral, entertainment, and effectiveness. While it is

In "The Pardoners Tale," the three rioters come together to kill Death, but in doing so they come upon some things that they can't go back and change. An analysis of "The Pardoners Tale," shows how personification and irony are not so funny when Death is involved. Death is personified throughout "The Pardoners Tale. " Personification occurs when an author gives living characteristics to something that isn't living. The first example occurs when the three rioters are drinking and they hear a funeral.

The Pardoner is a renaissance figure that wanders the lands in hopes of bringing forgiveness to those in need. This Pardoner is a bad pardoner among the other pardoners. The tale that he tells is a moral one that is suppose to bring about the desire from people to ask for forgiveness. Instead the Pardoner uses this tale as a way of contracting money from his fellow pilgrims. The Pardoner is a person that is suppose to practice what he preaches. What that person does affects those that look up to that person. The Pardoner must be able to tell of tales that bring about hope. The way in which that might happen is through example. If the pardoner is unable to produce a tale that convinces the audience of

The selling of indulgences and relics were an important factor for religious Catholic leaders. At first these indulgences were a form of salvation and pardon for one's sins. But after they noticed it could be made into a financial gain, greed took over them . Pardoners were not doing their job with a good motive, but out of greed. They knew how ignorant the commoners were and they took advantage of them. The commoners believed in the Pardoner's word because he was from the church. The Pardoner's would sell these indulgences in an intelligent manner. He first spoke a sermon, then pulled out relics telling the commoners how they had pardoning power and guaranteed salvation.(Chaucer 34)

"The Pardoner's Tale" is a tale from Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales which is a frame story about twenty-nine pilgrims traveling to Canterbury, while traveling to Canterbury each pilgrim must tell a story going and coming in order to win a feast. "The Pardoner's Tale" is about three men who go out looking to kill Death after he kills their friend, they do eventually find Death, but not in the way they thought. "He speared him through the heart, he never stirred. And then Death went his way without a word," as written in lines 69-70. Geoffrey Chaucer uses personification and irony throughout "The Pardoner's Tale" by giving life to Death and showing their lucky day is anything but.

The Prologue to the Canterbury Tale has quite a few examples of hypocrisy. In my opinion the one that stands out the most is the Pardoner. I think the Pardoner comes off as hypocritical because his actions contradict his position and responsibilities as a highly placed person with the church.

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.

The pardoner, in Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Pardoner’s Tale,” is a devious character. He is a man with a great knowledge of the Catholic Church and a great love of God. However, despite the fact that he is someone whom is looked at with respect at the time, the pardoner is nothing more than an imposter who makes his living by fooling people into thinking he forgives their sins, and in exchange for pardons, he takes their money. His sermon-like stories and false relics fool the people of the towns he visits and make him seem as a plausible man, which is exactly what the pardoner wants. In fact, the pardoner is an avaricious and deceitful character whose driving force in life is his

wants moneywill always get him money and riches.” (23-24) Unfortunately, the pardoner is a preacher, but he peaches about not being the characteristics that deception himself. He takes form everyone without concerning the circumstances of other people lives. The Pardoner rather let someone die from hungry than give up his riches, but this an example of Greed, ruthless and deceit. According to another source, it states “In his prologue he insists no less than four times upon his skill as a preacher, practically baits the pilgrims with his abilities as a storyteller, and then in the brilliant sermon- tale which follows, delivers the advertised and prepackaged goods.” (Cespedes, pg. 1). The pardoner use emotions to satisfy his greediness and

Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales, using his characters as the mouthpiece for his iconoclastic views. Chaucer had serious issues with the hypocrisy of the church as well as, many other sacred institutions. The only reason that Chaucer was not exiled or even imprisoned for his views is the way in which he exposed them. Through the allegorical meanings of this text and Chaucer’s claim that he is simply retelling the events of his pilgrimage to Canterbury as it occurred, Chaucer is saved from extreme persecution. From the beginning of time there has always been issues with challenging the higher order; allowing people to make their own decisions and separate themselves from the way of the church often lead to death. In 1350 the

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.