The Pardoner's Tale

However, the Pardoner later states, "I will have money, wool, and cheese, and wheat, though it be given by the poorest page, or by the poorest widow in the village, and though her children perish of famine. " This statement expresses how the Pardoner is revealing his own hypocrisy. He preaches that all evil comes from greed, but then he goes right out and talks about how he will have money for things he wants such as wool and cheese even if it requires him to take money from the very poor. The Pardoner's Tale itself also talks about how greed can lead to evil, since the three men all plotted to kill others just for the sole purpose of wealth. This makes it unusual that the Pardoner would tell this tale since he didn't demonstrate not being greedy for money himself.

When the Pardoner begins his tale the first thing that the pardoner condemns is vengeance and drunkenness. At the beginning of the story in a tavern three drunk friends learn that one of their closes friends has died; when they learn that “Death” was the responsible for his dismissal, the three fiends swear that they will avenge their late friend by

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

Throughout history greed has corrupted and destroyed many people plunging them farther into the need for more; in contemporary times this has only strengthened. In 1387, Geoffrey Chaucer wrote “The Canterbury Tales” within this consist of “The Pardoners Tale”. This tale consists of a greedy pardoner preaching sermons only to benefit himself. An English poet, William Blake believes that “The characters of Chaucer’s Pilgrims are the characters which compose all ages and nations…” As Blake states Chaucer’s pilgrims, can be considered a universal theme throughout all ages. The Pardoners greed is universal because of his sermons, his use of relics, and can be related to modern day Ponzi schemes.

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 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 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

In the Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s tale has different themes to his story. Chaucer puts all his imagination to the book for everyone to read and analyze how The Pardoner’s theme relates to the nonfiction texts of “The Dynamic Culture of The Middle Ages” and “From A Distant Mirror”

The pardoner starts to then begin his tale of three Flemish boys. The boys found out that one of their mere friends has passed away by a person named Death. The boys were

The most valid moral found in “The Pardoner’s Tale” is the idea that greed causes a person to act maliciously. This moral is still observable in today’s society when someone really wants something and they take crazy measures to receive it. For example, a person really wanting more money is sometimes willing to rob a bank because the idea of being wealthy sounds pleasant. In “The Pardoner’s Tale”, greed is easily observable when the youngest brother is sent off to get bread and wine and the other two brothers plot to murder him so they can split the money two ways rather than three. The eldest brother states “Let me tell you where your profit lies; you now our friend has gone to get supplies and here’s a lot of gold that is to be divided equally

The irony of the Pardoner is based on his hypocritical actions. The fact that he does not care about the souls of those he has tricked, says a lot about his character. Near the end of his tale, the friends begin to reveal their true personality. All three of them turn on each other trying to steal the treasure for themselves. All of the trust, which they had promised, was a lie and no loyalty remained. The supposed faithful “friends” display their true cruelty and expose their hypocrisy in relation to the Pardoner's character.

The Bubonic plague disseminated around Europe during times of social class comparisons which impacted many author’s writing styles. Geoffrey Chaucer in “The Pardoner’s Tale” makes greed a catalyst for Death while Giovanni Boccaccio in “Federigo’s Falcon” makes sacrifice a catalyst for love. Chaucer personifies Death implying that greed will kill everyone in the end as Boccaccio’s setting of Federigo’s farm represents poverty, and the sacrifice it took of him to display his devotion to Monna. The Pardoner is neglectful of the fact that “there is a privy thief, they call him death..who kills them all” (Chaucer 95).

The Pardoner consistently brings up the redemption of Christ and God throughout his tale. He polarizes original sin and Christ: "O glotonye, ful of cursednesse!/ O cause first of oure confusion!/ O original of oure dampnacioun,/ Til Christ hadde brought us with his blood again!" (210-3) He moves on to gluttony, and his nuanced technique of delivering subconscious critique becomes more apparent: "'They been enemies of Cristes crois,/ Of which the ende is deeth‹wombe is hir god!/ O wombe, O bely, O stinking cod,/ Fulfilled of dong and of corrupcioun!'" (244-7) His tale takes place while the Pilgrims (and the Pardoner) are drinking at an inn, and his further attacks on alcohol reveal his blatant hypocritical values: "A lecherous thing is win, and dronkenesse/ Is ful of striving and of wrecchednesse./ O dronke man, disfigured is thy face!/ Sour is thy breeth, foul artou to embrace!" (261-3) The Pardoner's moralistic statement condemns himself more than his audience, as he is the "dronke man" of the group; he is the lecherous drunk who "wil drinke licour of the vine/ And have a joly wenche in every town"

“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

By extolling his ability to profit from deception and fear, the Pardoner offers himself as a clear example of the phrase he himself was fond of quoting, Radix malorum est cupiditas, or "The root of evil is money".   He then proceeds to prove his point with his tale of three rioters and their search for Death.         "The Pardoner's Tale" is an exemplum, or a story that teaches a lesson.   In telling his story, the Pardoner sets out to prove the truthfulness of his statement of money being the root of evil.