The Pardoner In The Canterbury Tales

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer consists of frame narratives were a group of pilgrims that are traveling from Southwark to the shire of St. Becker in the Canterbury Cathedral, tell each other to pass time until they arrive at their destination. During The Canterbury Tales the reader is exposed to many characters that represent all of the social classes of medieval England and the reader gets to know them from the general prologue to each individual tale. One of these characters is the Pardoner, when the Pardoners is introduced he is described as the stereotypical pardoner of the Fourteen Century. The pardoner is describe as a crafty and a corrupt individual that will do anything to sell his pardons and relics. Nevertheless one of the most important characteristics that the Pardoner exhibits is his frankness about his own hypocrisy and sins. The pardoner accuses himself of fraud, avarice, and gluttony (the very things that he preaches against). During the Pardoners prologue, but most noticeable during his tale, the pardoners preach about how “Greed is the root of all evil”, and how our sins can lead cause our dismay.

This is how the pardoner is able to make money; he uses his sermons to convict people and convince them to buy forgiveness for their sins. The pardoner preaches his sermons around the phrase, “Radix malorum est cupiditas.” The Latin meaning of what the pardoner preaches is “The love of money is the root of all evil” this is based out of 1 Timothy 6:10 stated in The Holy Bible. He develops his sermons using this to convict people of their greed so they do not mind buying their indulgences from him. In “The Pardoners Prologue”, the pardoner states, “What! Do you think, as long as I can preach / And get silver for the things I teach / That I will live in poverty, from choice?” Rather than be poor and respectable and have moral values, the pardoner would rather be greedy and preach fallacy to become wealthy. His sermons are a main factor that enable him to accomplish this. In Richard Firth Green’s analysis of, “Jean Gobi’s Pardoners Tales” Green states an account of a pardoner caught preaching false sermons, “A corrupt pardoner is hauled up before his bishop because he has been reported to have been sowing errors… specifically to have been preaching heresies.” This can also be used to show how a pardoner is a universal character in those times. The pardoner in “The Canterbury Tales” is not the only one who uses his sermons to benefit himself. Although his sermons are a main part of feeding his greed, his relics are also a major

In Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales he reveals an underlying flaw in society. Chaucer portrays the Pardoner as hypocritical in order to get his message across to readers. The Pardoner is shown to be the exact definition of a hypocrite by preaching to others to lead a spiritual life, while not living by those preaching's himself. In Canterbury Tales, Chaucer reveals hypocritical qualities in the Pardoner through vivid characterization, tone, and morality.

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

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.

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 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.

In Canterbury Tales, the pardoner vouches for the pardoning of those who come to the church to confess their sins. Specifically in the Pardoner’s Tale, we see how he preaches to the church to repent for their greedy sin. This

The definition of trust interprets to reliability, assurance, and faith. Individuals build relationships based on trust, as they find conviction and reliance in others and their words. However, this deep rooted trust can lead to betrayal, which can cause great impact and hurt. Similarly, characters from The Pardoner’s Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer, The Old Chief Mshlanga by Doris Lessing, and Disgrace by J.M Coetzee experience betrayal in light of the truth. Characters from The Pardoner’s Tale in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer experience betrayal, which ultimately end to their demise.

Chaucer’s views on society are expressed through his characters in “the Canterbury Tales.” The views of medieval society, based on Chaucer, are expressed through his opinions on certain people. Throughout the tales, Chaucer praises or criticizes certain types of people over others. Chaucer usually condemns people from the Ecclesiastical class. As an example, the Pardoner is highly criticized by Chaucer because he is a fraud as stated in line 702.

Chaucer used writing stories as a tool into helping express how he felt about the society problems. In these stories they show multiple examples about the society problems that were occurring. These are reoccurring problem throughout generations that I think may never end.

During the Middle Ages, England was a nation in social chaos. Deception of every kind was rampart throughout the lands. Many people felt that there was a great need for moral improvement in society. In Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales he clearly brings to light his thoughts and concerns of “ethical cleansing.” No tale more fully expresses this idea than that of “The Pardoner’s Tale” and “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale.”

To begin, back in the days on Geoffrey Chaucer, religion was ruled by one and only one church, the Roman Catholic Church. He never really agreed with the ways of the church so he wrote a series of tales making fun of the people of England and the ways of the church. Even though he was purposely making fun of the church, he had to be careful of the way he said some things. With some of the characters he creates, Chaucer finds himself apologizing in advance for what he is about to say; or what the characters were about to say. By doing this Chaucer is using satire. Satire is when you say something but mean another or the opposite of the thing you say. Most of Chaucer’s tales are not appropriate for high schools, but of

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 Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales “General Prologue”, 29 pilgrims plan to journey from London to Canterbury and back to worship at the shrine of St. Thomas a Beckett, Maryland. Each pilgrim agreeing to tell two stories on the way there and two stories on the way back. Amongst these character’s in the “General Prologue” we have three estates that separate them called the; Aristocrats, Clergy, and the Workers, each responsible for their own duties. In the following paragraphs we will be focusing more on the estate of the Aristocrats than that of the other estates. The estate of the Aristocrats who are uniquely made up of the Sergeant at Law, the Franklin, the Doctor of Medicine, his Pharmacists, and the honorable Knight. Taking a look at and evaluating how the majorities’ actions, dress, and behavior within the prologue reflect how they are hypocritical to the value of their estate. While only one character truly adheres to those values of their estate and is thus worthy of respect.