The Pardoner's Tale

In Canterbury Tales, Chaucer reveals hypocritical qualities in the Pardoner through vivid characterization, tone, and morality. The Pardoner's total lack of respect for the Church's expectations and the congregation allows Chaucer to display flaws in society. Chaucer is able to demonstrate scams and illustrate hypocrisy in the Church, and society in general through the techniques he uses in Canterbury Tales.

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

In the Pardoner’s Tale the pardoner condemns people who drink and says, “Witness the Bible, which is most express/That lust is bred of wine and drunkenness”

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 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.

The consumption of alcohol is a key component in medieval literature. Due to drinking water being scarce. It was often preferred to drink beer, “Beer often had a low alcohol content” (Unger 3). The lack of germ theory made it very simple for individuals to drink alcohol instead of water for fear of sickness. It was when an individual drank abhorrent amounts of this beer that their decision making abilities were compromised. Within the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, it is quite important to notice all the situations in which alcohol encouraged foolishness, but it also encouraged its own consumption. The Pardoner’s Tale has sparked my interest from the beginning. The sermon that the pardoner tells focuses on the sins of the tavern, those being gambling, drinking, and swearing. These three indulgences are what led them to their downfall later in the tale. This tale is one that utilizes alcohol consumption as a catalyst. The Pardoner’s Tale is a tale that utilizes alcohol consumption as a driving factor for the tale and the pardoner’s intentions are then revealed to be that they are not so different.

The Pardoner was a preacher who would travel from place to place and speak faith and hope into people. While the preacher would preach he would condemn people along with judge them. The Pardoner is a very wealthy man but he still makes the group of young Flemish people lather him food and fancy wines. The pardoner would rather take widows last dollar to put in his endless pockets rather than to give it to her to feed her starving children. The pardoner is told to find death

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.

The pardoner’s tale depicts that the seven deadly sins inflict human with harsh punishment. The three drunken men who are looking for the death are punished by it through seven deadly sins that once committed; the possibility to go to the heaven abates. Their each sin brings another sin so they later will be end up in extensive sin which is abolished from salvation. Three guys were guilty of gluttony, indulging in wine and lost their ability to think. When they find gold, they become very envious of each other and greedy for wealth. Gluttony unconsciously leads human to murder. When it meets with envy and avarice it is the worst sins. The sins of gluttony, envy, and avarice lead them to the death that they desire to face to.

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

During the medieval times corruption in the Catholic Church was prevalent. As corruption was prevalent during Chaucer’s time so was a Pardoner’s practice of selling indulgences, becoming one of deception and greed. Similar to the upper class focusing their time on becoming the richest and most powerful. In many of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer would use satire to criticize different social classes. For example, the middle class, those people who worked for their possessions. He satirizes religious hypocrisy in such tales as the Pardoner, in which a middle class man, showing the corruption of the Pardoner’s job. Through his description of the Pardoner as being a man who is disitful, greedy, and hypocritical, Chaucer uses

is suggested, by Chaucer, that he might have an ongoing affair with the Summoner. The

“The Pardoner’s Tale” suggests a profile of the Pardoner as a moral man, a man of God. The narrator is viewed as a wise, gentle, and truthful man who wants to share his story in a respectful tone. His story reveals his message, which is that greed leads to destruction and the corruption of all things good. The Pardoner

The Pardoner is another church class member that is described by Chaucer. Except, Chaucer has some strong feelings about this particular man. The pardoner sells pardons for sins, and also travels with the summoner while simultaneously singing a duet with him. This man seemed to be normal, until Chaucer describes this man as