Why Should The Pardoner Not Be Pardoned From Greed?

The author uses this situation to bring to the readers' attention how hypocritical the Pardoner is. Just after preaching about being honest and the danger of greed, he lies to the people to try and make a few shillings. “The Pardoner said nothing, not a word; he was so angry that he could not speak. ”(320). The Pardoner is set only for the gain of money.

A dishonest clergyman could easily prey on the insecurities of the population in order to profit from the sale of false relics. The Pardoner, similarly, is only “fixed on what [he stands] to win” (PP 75). Perhaps this suggests that the corrupted character has little else on his mind, wishing only to cheat the devout and turn a greedy profit; he thinks of nothing but of his personal gain. He “won’t do any labor with [his] hands,” but his greedy heart intends to live the life of the most well-to-do (PP 114). The Pardoner’s sermons, preaching the ills of avarice, condemn the sin of which he is guiltiest.

Greed influences how people treat certain scenarios which can lead to corruption. The youngest rioter in the “Pardoner’s Tale” states on lines 239-240, “Lord, to think I might have all that treasure to myself alone.” This quote from the “Pardoner’s Tale” shows that the avarice that was bestowed upon the young rioter corrupted him to poison his fellow rioters. Secondly, on lines 44-45 in the “Pardoner’s Prologue”, the Pardoner proclaims, “I mean to have money, wool and cheese and wheat though it were given me by the poorest lad.” The Pardoner is only caring for himself, and in corruption he will take from peasants.

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.

Paying indulgences to have your sins forgiven by someone certified to do so is one way to avoid punishment in the afterlife. The Pardoner uses these “facts” along with his tale to reinforce the idea of buying his service. With the only other option being damnation, he uses morals for his own twisted gain while cursing himself with his own preaching. Throughout the tale, there is a strong connection between righteousness and selfishness. In the beginning, the three rioters were righteous and bold.

The men face greed when gold presents itself to them, causing their death, adding that they all turned on each other. The importance of the pardoner’s tale is his explanation that greed is rooted in evil, even though money is what motivates him most. He is covered in dishonesty and takes that into account to get what he wants. This is told throughout his tale with his characters who took it out on each

The Pardoner’s tale has an important theme, “Radix malorum est cupiditas,” which translates to “Greed is the root of all evil.” However, the Pardoner does not practice what he preaches. His vocation, which involves selling false pardons and relics for a profit, is a contradiction to his theme. “And thus I preach against the very vice/ I make my living out of – avarice” (243). The Pardoner continues with his tale and condemns gluttony, drinking, gambling, and swearing, but then declares that he is guilty of each one. It is evident that the Pardoner is a hypocrite and that he has no intention of changing.

A Pardoner is not necessarily a bad person. That is true because not all people

The pardoner is a man who preaches and pardons of a person's sins “for greed of gain”, and he openly admits his “covetousness” in “The Pardoner's Tale”(Lines: 2 & 11). This man is a hypocrite and he just does not care. In the “Prologue Tale” the narrator says, “by his flatteries and prevarication” he is able to convince and con people for his own greed and satisfaction(Line:175). Also, in “The Pardoner’s Tale” he is only about one thing and that is to assemble money. He will go as low as to take money from “the poorest lad or the poorest village widow, though she had a string of starving children, all agape” just to fill his pockets (Line:27-29).

In the pardoner’s tale, the pardoner preaches that money is the root of all evil but instead he does not practice what preaches. In the pardoner’s tale, there were people turning on each other because of money. In the tale, it speaks of three Rioters and they seek gold that was hidden under the tree.” Line 190 once the three young rioters ran towards a tree what they found was golden florins on the ground”. The three young rioters were not expecting to find gold instead they were searching for a way on how to kill death.

However, in spite of his tale warning that greed kills people, the pardoner says he will, in practicality, never stop being greedy and will always bilk people out of money for a living: “And thus I preach about the very vice I make my living out of--avarice… And never do an honest job of work” (Chaucer, pardoner’s

The pardoner does whatever it takes to get money from is listeners, which includes lying, and tricking them into buying “relics” in bottles. He sells these bottles claiming them to be some kind of miracle cure, “Where there is a pox or scab or other sore/all animals that water at that well/are cured at once…And it’s a cure for jealousy as well…” (260). He is never going to see these people again so he says whatever it takes to get their money. “That tricks been worth a hundred marks a year/since I became a pardoner, never fear” (260), he tells the people whatever they want to hear in order for them to buy into his scheme, he has no real care for the people or his job. He refers to his life as a game, because he travels to

“That trick’s been worth a hundred marks a year/ Since I became a Pardoner, never fear…And tell a hundred lying mockeries more”(242). The epilogue of “The Pardoner’s Tale” provides a final view of the teller, who is not concerned with truth or morality. Is there any good at all in the Pardoner? Even though the Pardoner provides his services because of his greed, he knows intuitively that all those around him require spiritual and moral guidance. He is able to turn the villagers he dupes away from their greedy ways by telling them a story of death and destruction.

He is not able to sell indulgences or forgive any sin. The pardoner’s wallet is “brimful of pardons from this very seat” (line 669). When the host described the pardoner, he implied that all the money in his wallet was earned by selling pardons. The pardoner is also described as in lines 675 to 676, “no pardoner could beat him in a race/for in his wallet he had a pillow case”. This implies that he is the best at lying to people, because it goes on to say in later lines that he tells people that it was “our Lady’s veil” (line 677).

There is an issue of whether the tale being told by the Pardoner, can actually be the "moral" (325) tale he claims it to be. The tale shows demonstrate that money is the root of all evil however does the moral still count when he is preaching "agayn that same vice / Which that I use, and that is avarice" (against the very vice I commit: avarice"). This again connects back with the selling of indulgent and the idea that even though the people who were selling them were also people who sinned and scammed people yet they were able to ease the minds of those who believed and sought out redemption. The tale the Pardoner tells is about how three drunkards search for death and understanding the view point in Chaucer’s time period on death helps us as readers to gain a better understanding of how this tale could be seen as light or even funny to some of the pilgrims and could also be used as a tale to persuade people to buy redemption. Another problem is that the Pardoner is a successful preacher, and the profits he makes point to the fact that several people do learn from his speeches and repent. His Tale is an accurate demonstration of the way greed and avarice leads to