Compare And Contrast The Pardoner And Chucer

The Pardoner, a greedy, corrupt religious official in The Canterbury Tales who swindles people out of their money, represents more than just a character; he represents an archetype that appears in several individuals, both in the past and the present. In the twelfth century, Geoffrey Chaucer, author of The Canterbury Tales, realized that the religious officials of his time were corrupt, wicked, and selfish, and hoped to satirize that with the Pardoner. In modern times, however, there is a more significant divide between church and state, and church officials do not hold the same amount of power today as they did in the past. Consequently, today’s career path that is most susceptible to corruption appears to be politics, not religion. No man

First and foremost, both are superior at public speaking; the Pardoner can tell a well-developed moral tale and Romney is a superior debater. Additionally, each tries to appeal to the people by telling their audience what it wants to hear rather than using rational arguments. The Pardoner tells the pilgrims a moral story in the hopes that they will buy pardons for their sins or pay to touch fake relics (Chaucer 196-216). Likewise, Romney appealed to those against the Affordable Care Act by claiming that he would remove “burdensome regulations,” but did not explain what they were or how they were linked to his political opponent, Obama (“Top Ten”). Romney only wanted to gain votes, and therefore did not use reason to appeal to his audience. The greatest of their similarities, however, is that the two claim to fight against the very vices upon which they base their lives. Before the Pardoner tells his story, he admits that he is preaching against greed, which is the sin that has the firmest grasp on his life: “‘And thus I preach against the very vice / I make my living out of- avarice’” (Chaucer 5-6). In the same manner, Romney claimed that he would close tax loopholes for the rich, but he himself had been taking advantage of those loopholes (Plumer). Mitt Romney and the Pardoner are very similar, as illustrated by their mastery of oratory, their attempts to appeal to the people, and the

In spite of these similarities, the two differ in their careers, their goals, and their honesty about their character. Thus, while the two are very similar in many aspects of their corruption, their corruption varies in its minor details and application. While the Pardoner may have been intended to illustrate the stereotypical corrupt religious official, his personality serves as an archetype that appears in several people today, such as Mitt