Pardoners Tale, Chaucer, Canterbury

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The Pardoner's Subconscious Character

"The Pardoner's Tale," by Geoffrey Chaucer, makes evident the parallel between the internal emotions of people and the subconscious exposure of those emotions. This particular story, from The Canterbury Tales, is a revealing tale being told by a medieval pardoner to his companions on a journey to Canterbury. Though the Pardoner's profession is to pardon and absolve the sins of people, he actually lives in constant violation of sins such as gluttony, gambling, and, most importantly, avarice. The Pardoner does feel guilt and advocates not to commit avarice; he exclaims, "'Radix malorum est Cupiditas,'" (line 426) as his theme more than once. Because he drinks so heavily before the poem, he is not aware that he is personifying himself in his tale. Furthermore, he inadvertently places a character in the story that is parallel to himself and who reveals his own personal desire: the old man.

The Pardoner's sinful lifestyle and drinking habits are the cause for the old man to be placed in the story. His whole life, even his profession, is filled with terrible sin every day. The Pardoner knows himself that he is just in it for the money: "'Thus kan I preche agayn that same vice / Which that I use, and that is avarice.'" (Lines 427-28). Even though he is such a hypocrite, his daily greed and lifestyle does make him feel guilty. He continues on about how good of a preacher he is and how he can get money from even the poorest of people. As time passes and he continues on, the effect of the drink can be seen to take place with the subject of his speech. "…his tongue loosened by drink, the Pardoner is conceivable as sufficiently carried away to boast incautiously as well as impudently." (Whittock, 187). When his tale starts to unfold, the parallel begins to take place.

At the point where the old man encounters the three men, the Pardoner is personified. The first reaction to the old man is of his physical appearance. The old man is extremely old looking and decrepit. "Why lyvestow so longe in so greet age?" (Line 719). This may have been a reaction the Pardoner himself has encountered in reality. Because he cannot grow facial hair and become a man, others have poked fun at him (as the host a...

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...oner in turn destroys fiction in order to complete the process of rendering everything subjective and meaningless." (Williams, 73). His grim hopelessness towards life is not present because with life comes age, which he does not possess. He can never share in pleasures everyone else around him may feel, so he has to have different pleasures in life such as gluttony, avarice, deception, and jealousy. Therefore, all he is left with is a life that will be forever still and lonely. On the other hand, his drinking is what lets us see into what he actually wants. His parallel with the old man is his only way of letting the reader know of his true feelings.

Works Cited

Williams, David. "Language Redeemed." The Canterbury Tales: A Literary Pilgrimage.

New York: Twayne, 1987, 73-88.

Gerould, G. H. "The Vicious Pardoner." Critics on Chaucer. Edited by Sheila Sullivan.

Gables: Miami UP, 1970, 129-32.

Hussey, S. S. "Chaucer: An Introduction." New York: Methuen & Co., 1981, 177-83.

Whittock, Tevor. "The Pardoner's Prologue and Tale."

A Reading of the Canterbury Tales. London: Cambridge UP, 1968, 185-94.

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