The Pardoner Tale

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.

Both tales exhibit this idea from different perspectives to relfect the values of their context. The Pardoners Tale reflects a religious society where sin is punished

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 the Pardoner's prologue, Chaucer describes what a swindler and model of deceit the Pardoner actually is with vivid characterization. The Pardoner is so convincing in his acts that "[i]n one short day, in money down he dr[aws]/ More than a parson in a month or two./and by his

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 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.

Ironically, the Pardoner emphasizes his own sin through the telling of his tale: greed. He always has his wallet ready "on his lap" (General Prologue 692) because "Brimful of pardons come from Rome" (Prologue 693). Chaucer indicates that the Pardoner takes bribes to pardon people thus living a hypocritical life. In The Pardoner's Tale, the Pardoner not only highlights

The Canterbury Tales written by Jeffery Chaucer characterizes The Pardoner as corrupt and greedy to exemplify corruption and greed within the Catholic Church. In “The Pardoner’s prologue”, The Pardoner says, “But [I will] briefly make my purpose make plain; / I preach for nothing but for greed of gain” (1-2). The Pardoner displays no shame or guilt for his greedy ways. In fact, he wants other to know that his motives are rooted with greed. The pardoner is bluntly greedy and disrespecting those who follow the church.

Thus, their hypocrisy persuaded individuals to pay for repentance of their sins, while this money provided for the Church’s immoral benefit. The Pardoner is asked to share a moral, significant tale, so he tells a tale depicting the holy unlawfulness of greed. In “The Pardoner’s Tale”, the central characters discover a pile of gold coins, yet their avarice drives them to betrayal and eventual death. The Pardoner furthers his sermon, claiming their deaths to be much deserved, as he remarks “Thus these two murderers received their due, so did the treacherous young poisoner too” (Chaucer 256). Distinctly, the Pardoner ventures to send the message to his audience that the immorality of greed leads to deadly consequences, unless those sinners take the liberty of repentance. The tale is practically a cryptic promotion to compensate the Pardoner for absolution. Moreover, the Pardoner’s intentions are to instill fear in the minds of his listeners, that without absolution, culprits will “receive their due” from God. Yet, Chaucer’s intentions, unlike those of the Pardoner, is to instill the truth in the minds of his readers, that the Church seeks to promote repentance by means of compensation for their own immoral corruption. Further, Tuchman adds “What they [The Church] were peddling as salvation, taking advantage of people’s need and credulity to sell

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

Pardoner had a dubious profession. He was paid by the Church to offer and sell

Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Pardoner's Tale," a relatively straightforward satirical and anti-capitalist view of the church, contrasts motifs of sin with the salvational properties of religion to draw out the complex self-loathing of the emasculated Pardoner. In particular, Chaucer concentrates on the Pardoner's references to the evils of alcohol, gambling, blasphemy, and money, which aim not only to condemn his listeners and unbuckle their purses, but to elicit their wrath and expose his eunuchism.

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