The Pardoner's Tale of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales is a structured novel which starts with the narrator obtaining twenty traveling companions at an inn. They are all traveling to Canterbury to pay homage to a saint. On their way, these colorful individuals decide to make the trip more bearable by having a story telling contest. Each will tell one story on the way to Canterbury, and one story on the way back. The winner will be decided by the inn's host, who is accompanying them. Unfortunately, it seems Chaucer never got to finish the novel so there is only one story from each character. However, he does a wonderful job at depicting a lively picture with each description of the characters and their tales. Even though most of them are well portrayed, the one character that is best developed is the pardoner. He sells the Church's pardons to people who have sinned and seek absolution. He also preaches against sins, mostly avarice. Ironically, in the prologue to his tale, he admits being guilty of that sin and is quite proud of it. His tale is also about greed; in it, Death takes three greedy men to their early graves. Observing Chaucer's description of the pardoner, the pardoner's own confessions about himself, and his tale, one can observe how they are all appropriate characterizations of the pardoner. The general prologue sets up the structure under which the novel will develop. The narrator meets his new companions and describes each one, some in more detail than the rest. When he begins to write about the pardoner, he tells of his physical appearance. 'In driblets fell his locks behind his head Down to his shoulders which... ... middle of paper ... ...ide, but on the inside, too. He sells pardons to cleanse people's souls of sins and carries around 'sacred relics' in his bag to show to people who will pay to see them. In the prologue to the pardoner's tale, he admits to being a hypocrite; preaching against sin yet being a sinner himself. He also confesses his detachment from his congregation; he cares not for how such a big contribution of money will leave them in financial ruin, as long as he has the money. In contrast, his tale is the complete opposite of his personality. It is about three men who are punished by God for being avaricious, gluttonous and overall sinners. Yet, it still fits the pardoner's character because of how it is used: to make people feel guilty and give money to the pardoner. Overall, even though the pardoner is one of the worst human beings in the novel, he is indeed the most fascinating.
Chaucer was "not a reformer" or "satirist" whose goal is to reform the church. He merely wished to use different characters to tell his stories. Kittredge also mentions how the pardoner is not drunk when telling his tale, as only one draught of ale was consumed, not nearly enough to intoxicate a seasoned drinker like the pardoner. Through his reasoning, Kittredge concludes that the pardoner's foolish confession, in fact, has a purpose for the story. While the pardoner may seem foolish to reveal his sins and hypocrisies, there is reasoning behind this madness.
In the Canterbury Tales the narrator goes on a pilgrimage and for entertainment he has the people he went on the pilgrimage with tell him tales. And he would reward whoever told him the best tale. The pardoner's tale is about three friends who let greed and money get to their heads which end up killing their friendships and themselves. The wife of bath's tale is about a knight who let's lust get to his head instead of loving someone for who they are. Although both tales are great tales and give a great moral lesson, The pardoner's tale is the better tale of the two because of its ability to teach a lesson while still creating a great story.
He must be a sailor As critical as he was of ecclesiastical abuse, Chaucer was, nevertheless, Christian. I am a Christian. As impressive and complex as it is, even the Pardoner's. self-awareness has its limits. If the relationship between the teller and his tale is consistent with the other tellers and their tales, we can assume that Chaucer is suggesting that the Pardoner quite.
The Pardoner is the best representation of an allegorical character in “The Prologue” of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. The Pardoner is the perfect personification of fraudulence. He shows this in three basic ways: his appearance, speech, and actions. If one just glances through the reading of the Pardoner than one will think that he is a good religious man, but if one look further into it than he will find the small double meanings that he is the exact opposite. Chaucer likes to use an allegorical style to add some comedy and sophistication to his writings.
When we are taken on the pilgrimage to Canterbury by Chaucer in the story “The Canterbury Tales” we are introduced to all classes of characters from every corner of life. The use of satire is used throughout the story and I believe it helps, it shows the stereotypical difference in class at his time of day. While keeping nothing from harm in “The Canterbury Tales” Chaucer takes a huge chance by mocking even the church. But did all the use of raunchy humor and everyday language really help him or did it make the story too much to read?
Ireland’s purpose is to show how Chaucer had a good example to show his final order to his audience. He establishes a reflecting tone for explaining the Wife of Bath’s sovereignty. This work is significant because of the comparison between The Wife of Bath’s Tale and Prologue. (Ireland 10)
Chaucer, Geoffrey. "The Pardoner's Tale." Chaucer's Works. Ed. Walter W. Skeat. Vol. 4. London: U of Oxford, 2007. N. pag. Web. 24 Apr. 2014
Critics interpreting Chaucerian depictions of drunkenness have traditionally focused on the state as an unalloyed vice, citing variously as justification the poet’s Christian conservatism, his intimate association with the disreputable London vintner community, and even possible firsthand familiarity with alcoholism. While we must always remain vigilant to the evils of excessive inebriation, to portray Chaucer’s images of drink and revelry in The Canterbury Tales as an unqualified denunciation is to oversimplify the poet’s work and to profane his art. By fusing his portrayals of drunkenness with the revelation of truth and philosophical insight, Chaucer demonstrates the capacity of wine and ale to evoke the funky earthiness of humanity that we so desperately seek to avoid and that is so fundamental to our corporeal experience.
There are seven deadly sins that, once committed, diminish the prospect of eternal life and happiness in heaven. They are referred to as deadly because each sin is closely linked to another, leading to other greater sins. The seven deadly sins are pride, envy, anger, sloth, gluttony, avarice, and lechery. Geoffrey Chaucer's masterpiece, The Canterbury Tales, provided an excellent story about the deadly sins. Focusing mainly on the sins of pride, gluttony and greed, the characters found in The Canterbury Tales, particularly The Pardoner's Tale, were so overwhelmed by their earthly desires and ambitions that they failed to see the effects of their sinful actions, therefore depriving themselves of salvation.
The Canterbury Tales is a literary masterpiece in which the brilliant author Geoffrey Chaucer sought out to accomplish various goals. Chaucer wrote his tales during the late 1300’s. This puts him right at the beginning of the decline of the Middle Ages. Historically, we know that a middle class was just starting to take shape at this time, due to the emerging commerce industry. Chaucer was able to see the importance and future success of the middle class, and wrote his work with them in mind. Knowing that the middle class was not interested in lofty philosophical literature, Chaucer wrote his work as an extremely comical and entertaining piece that would be more interesting to his audience. Also, Chaucer tried to reach the middle class by writing The Canterbury Tales in English, the language of the middle class rather than French, the language of the educated upper class. The most impressive aspect of Chaucer’s writing is how he incorporated into his piece some of his own controversial views of society, but yet kept it very entertaining and light on the surface level. One of the most prevalent of these ideas was his view that certain aspects of the church had become corrupt. This idea sharply contrasted previous Middle Age thought, which excepted the church’s absolute power and goodness unquestionably. He used corrupt church officials in his tales to illustrate to his audience that certain aspects of the church needed to be reformed. The most intriguing of these characters was the Pardoner. Chaucer’s satirical account of the Pardoner is written in a very matter-of-fact manner that made it even more unsettling with his audience. Chaucer uses his straightforwardness regarding the hypocrisy of the Pardoner, suggestive physiognomy of the character, and an interesting scene at the conclusion of the Pardoner’s Tale to inculcate his views of the church to his audience. The way that Chaucer used these literary devices to subtly make his views known to an audience while hooking them with entertainment, shows that Chaucer was truly a literary genius.
The Canterbury Tales is more than an amusing assortment of stories; it is an illustration of the society in which Geoffrey Chaucer lived. It portrays the culture and class system of the medieval ages in microcosm. Every strata of human life at the time were represented by the many characters whose tales are told. Each character’s basic human nature also plays a role in their stories, and each one has within them the strengths and weaknesses that make up all of humanity. Each character exemplifies their life and reputation through the stories they tell. The Pardoner uses his tale as a ploy to garner money. His tale embodies each deadly sin, and every reader can relate to his story and feel the guilt of his characters. The Wife of Bath’s tale expresses her own ideals in the way her character is given a second chance after committing a crime. The Franklin’s tale, because of its straightforwardness and honesty is a direct representation of the Franklin’s simple and joyful life. Each character tells a tale that is a suitable match to their personality. These characters’ tales represent prevalent themes of the middle ages, including greed, corruption of religious clergymen, violence, revenge, and social status. In Chaucer’s society, the traditional feudal system was losing its importance and the middle class began to emerge. The middle class characters within the Canterbury Tales, with their personal lives and interactions with members of differing social classes, gave an understanding of the growth of society, especially the rising middle class, during medieval times.
One of the people’s traits affected by human nature in many stories is greed. As shown throughout, greed is an evil sin. This is especially obvious in the Pardoner’s Tale, where the Pardoner, a church-appointed official who collects gold for absolving people their sins, tells about the evils of money. In the story, three friends, who wanted to make the world better by killing death, find gold, and unwilling to share, start planning to kill each other. Two friends sent the third to bring them food and wanted to kill him after he came back. The victim, however, also wanted the money, and poisoned their drinks. As a result, all three friends die. “Thus were these two homicides finished,/ and the false poisoner too.” (Chaucer 365). Even though Chaucer’s conclusions are not expressed and actually are very different from what the Pardoner says, Chaucer manages to convey h...
The Canterbury Tales is a very popular and well known set of stories, written by Geoffrey Chaucer. This collection of stories is great entertainment and some even provide very good moral lessons; most of these stories show the contempt Chaucer had for the Church of England which had control at the time over most of England. Chaucer’s bias towards the corruption of the Church is best demonstrated in the Pardoner’s Prologue, in contradiction with the Parson’s Tale, and the level of power within the Church structure. These are two of the stories of the many that are in The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer uses the Pardoner as a high level leader who is corrupt and yet enables him to convert the sinners even if he does it for personal gain. While the Parson is of lower standing in the Church, he is not corrupt, and gives the message to the pilgrims so that they might be forgiven.
The Canterbury Tales is a great contemplation of stories, that display humorous and ironic examples of medieval life, which imitate moral and ethical problems in history and even those presented today. Chaucer owed a great deal to the authors who produced these works before his time. Chaucer tweaked their materials, gave them new meanings and revealed unscathed truths, thus providing fresh ideas to his readers. Chaucer's main goal for these tales was to create settings in which people can relate, to portray lessons and the irony of human existence.
The Church is the first institution that Chaucer attacks using satire in The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer wants to attack the church’s hypocrisy. Chaucer decides to create the character of the pardoner to prove his point. Cawthorne conveys, “His Canterbury Tales collects together 24 narratives with a General Prologue and an epilogue or Retraction.” Chaucer describes the character before telling their tale. The Pardoner is a man who steals from the poor. Chaucer says on page 127 line 77, “For though I am a wholly vicious man don’t think I can’t tell moral tales.” The pardoner knows what he does is wrong, but he continues to do it anyway.