During the Middle Ages, England was a nation in social chaos. Deception of every kind was rampart throughout the lands. Many people felt that there was a great need for moral improvement in society. In Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales he clearly brings to light his thoughts and concerns of “ethical cleansing.” No tale more fully expresses this idea than that of “The Pardoner’s Tale” and “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale.” “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 appears to have beliefs that are consistent with the moral of the story. As he describes the journey of the three riders, he recognizes the evils of being greedy. “For it was utterly the man’s intent/ To kill them both and never to repent”(255). He is perceived as a holy man who values truth and honesty. His tale describes the downfall in man’s pride and arrogance. This is demonstrated through the irony of the three riders as they seek Death, whom they find when they plot against each other for selfish reasons and kill one another. “They fell on him and slew him, two to one…He took a bottle full of poison up/ And drank and his companion drank from it also and they both perished” (256). The Pardoner’s prologue, however, reveals a man dedicated...
The man claims he is waiting for Death to take him for some time, and the angered men are enraged by the name Death. The rioters ask where to find Death, and the old man says they can find death under a certain oak tree. The rioters rush to the tree and find gold coins. The men do not want to be taken as thieves, as discover a plan to transport the gold at night. The men direct the youngest to retreat back to town and grab wine. While the youngest is away, the two remaining men design a plan to kill the third to increase their profits. The man in town is also consumed by greed, and he decides to poison the wine. Retreating with the poison wine, the youngest man is killed by the other two rioters. To celebrate, the two men drink the wine. Within minutes, all three of the greedy rioters are dead. After his tale, the Pardoner asked the group for
Through the Prologue to the Pardoner's tale, the character of the Pardoner is revealed. Although the Pardoner displays many important traits, the most prevalent is his greed. Throughout the prologue, the Pardoner displays his greed and even admits that the only thing he cares about is money: "I preach nothing except for gain" ("Pardoner's Tale", Line 105). This avarice is seen strongly in the Pardoner's tale as well. In the Pardoner's tale, three friends begin a journey in order to murder Death. On their journey, though, an old man leads them to a great deal of treasure. At this point, all three of the friends in the tale display a greed similar to the Pardoner's. The three friends decide that someone should bring bread and wine for a celebration. As the youngest of the friends leaves to go buy wine, the other two greedily plot to kill him so they can split the treasure only two ways. Even the youngest decides to "put it in his mind to buy poison / With which he might kill his two companions" (383, 384). The greed, which is evident in the character of the Pardoner, is also clearly seen in the tale.
In “The Pardoner’s Tale,” Geoffrey Chaucer masterfully frames an informal homily. Through the use of verbal and situational irony, Chaucer is able to accentuate the moral characteristics of the Pardoner. The essence of the story is exemplified by the blatant discrepancy between the character of the storyteller and the message of his story. By analyzing this contrast, the reader can place himself in the mind of the Pardoner in order to account for his psychology.
This first quote that is featured from the pardoner's tales ending is, “He took a bottle full of poison up And drank; and his companion, nothing loth, Drank from it also, and they perished both.” (Chaucer 179). Another quote that features and displays this tales amazing ending, “They fell on him and slew him, two to one. The said the first of them when this was done. ”(Chaucer 179).
In the beginning of The Pardoners Tale he talks about his qualifications and what he does, talking to several people. The pardoner tries to use his story to get the audience to give him money for their greedy sins. Then he tells a story about three young men who find an old man and they talk about age, the younger kids say the don’t want to grow old like the old man. The old guy tells the kids that they can find death by a tree. Excited to see death, the kids go to the tree and discover a pile of gold coins instead. Excited they decide to draw lots to decide which one would go down to the store, and who gets to stay with the money. The one who lost would have to go down to a store and buy some bread and wine that is later poisoned. Meanwhile, back at the gold, the other two conspire to kill the guy that is walking to the store by stabbing him to death, so instead of splitting the money three ways there would be more money apiece by splitting it two ways between them. So when they guy who walked to the sore gets back they stab him (he dies). Then the two drink the poisoned wine afterwards and they died from the poisoned wine.
In his Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer assembles a band of pilgrims who, at the behest of their host, engage in a story-telling contest along their route. The stories told along the way serve a number of purposes, among them to entertain, to instruct, and to enlighten. In addition to the intrinsic value of the tales taken individually, the tales in their telling reveal much about the tellers. The pitting of tales one against another provides a third level of complexity, revealing the interpersonal dynamics of the societal microcosm comprising the diverse group of pilgrims.
In Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the Pardoners Prologue, we see the theme of hypocrisy throughout the play. The pardoner knows he is a con artist and liar and freely admits it in both word and action in his tales prologue. The pardoner begins with the tale itself. In his sermon he describes gluttony in detail, and defines it as not only overeating, but the intense pleasure of doing it. He also denounces wine with examples of drunkenness. He also discusses swearing and cursing and concludes with condemning gambling.However, we can see hypocrisy be4 the tale even begin.The pardoner before telling his tale stops off at an inn for food &bear .He also partakes in a bet , whoever tells the best story wins. The pardoner also insults the host, who just before asking the pardoner to speak has been cursing and using bear to mend his broken heart. Furthermore, he is also the owner of the tavern which encourages eating &drinking. We can also assume that the pardoner and the host r drunk.In addition, the pardoner offers his lisnters a chance to redeem themselves, not through relics by acknowledging what they did wrong.However,at the end of his tale is saying his relics are needed for redemption eventhough he knows they are fake. In conclusion we see how through the pardoner the theme of hypocrisy.
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.
After some time, the Pardoner is ready to present his tale, including both moral interjection and a merrier tone. The Pardoner begins by describing a group of young Flemish people who spend their time drinking and indulging themselves in all forms of excess. He continues to tell the tale, in which the people eventually end up drinking positioned wine and all die. As is, there are more details in the tale that we did not go over, there are some key elements that help us to better understand the Pardoner upon hearing his tale. First of all, we know from The General Prologue that the Pardoner is just as bad or corrupt as others in his “profession”.
We have all heard the common adage “Practice what you preach.” Another version of this sentiment can be found in the saying “You cannot just talk the talk; you must walk the walk.” In other words, it is commonly considered useless for one to talk about doing something or living a certain way if he does not actually live out those words. It is overall a sentiment that denounces hypocrisy. This idea is explored by Geoffrey Chaucer in his “Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale,” as well as the Introduction to the tale. Chaucer identifies a pardoner as his main character for the story and utilizes the situational and verbal irony found in the pardoner’s interactions and deplorable personality to demonstrate his belief in the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church during this time.
The pardoner tells the readers that money and greed is root of all evil throughout this tale. In his tale, there are three drunken men, one day, decide to find Death and annihilate it. They ask one old man where the death is and he points at the tree where a lot of gold are. When they find gold they only think of getting gold as many as possible and end up planning to kill each other. Three men are unaware of their own evil and as a result, three all die. By story-telling this tale which comprehends no interaction with his behavior, the pardoner negate his own moral and advises other people how should they live their life in order to avoid sins.
(2) Geoffrey Chaucer. The Canterbury Tales edited by M.H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2001). All future references will come from this text.
I mean to have money, wool and cheese and wheat though it were given me by the poorest lad or poorest village widow, though she has a string starving children…” ( Line 44-47, Page 168) . The pardone here tell the reader how greedy he and how he does not care where his money or food come from all he care about is that he has money and food. Yet after what the pardoner say that he teacher his audience and the reader not to greedy. “ Why make a sermon of it? why waste breath? exactly in the way they’d planned his death they fell on him and slew him, two to one… He took a bottle full of poison up and drank; and his companion, nothing loth, drank from it also, and they perished both.” (Line 280-289, Page 175). The Pardoner’s tale is teaching the readers about not being greedy by telling a story about what money and greediness can do when it comes between people, they can kill each other for it. Like the three men who were planning on kill the youngest of them so they can have the money divided on the both of the only, while the youngest man was getting poison to kill the two of them so he can have all they money for
“The Miller’s Tale” perfectly incorporates all of the necessary components that make up a winning tale. In Chaucer’s, The Canterbury Tales, “The Miller’s Tale” fully satisfies every rule required by the Host, in a humorous and intriguing way. He uses the misfortune of the characters to grasp the reader’s attention, and keep him or her interested throughout the story. In the tale, Chaucer includes the idea of religious corruption happening in England during the fourteenth-century. He takes this negative idea and manipulates it into comedic relief by making both Nicholas and Absalom clerks. The actions of those characters, who were supposed to be revered due to their religious position, proves Chaucer’s negative view of the Catholic Church in England at that time. Through Chaucer’s incorporation of fourteenth-century religious corruption,
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.