The Pardoner's Tale Essay

483 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: The general prologue to the Canterbury tales analysis

The Canterbury Tales are fictional short stories written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century after 1381 in England. The Tales’ purpose was to portray a harsh critique of certain church officials and their practices of the church in England. He was able to do this and defend himself by blaming the ideas on the characters in the Tales. The story telling started as a competition between twenty-nine pilgrims requested by the Host at the Tabard Inn. The winner will win a meal. The Host will be the judge. The pilgrims are traveling to the shrine of the martyr Saint Thomas Becket in Canterbury. It is the pilgrimage that ties all the stories together. It is important that we know what title the pilgrims had, as it will help to appreciate the satire and ironic critique of the church. Included was a Knight, Squire, Yeoman, Prioress, Monk, Friar, Merchant, Clerk, Man of Law, Franklin, Haberdasher, Carpenter, Weaver, Dyer, Tapestry-Weaver, Cook, Shipman, Physician, Wife, Parson, Plowman, Miller, Manciple, Reeve, Summoner, Pardoner, Second Nun, Nun’s Priest and Host. …show more content…

A “Pardoner” is a man of the church that people would pay money for their sins to be forgiven; however a Pardoner was guilty often of accepting money for his own greed; in other words he was a scammer. A “Summoner” was a man of the church that makes sinners come to the church court for penalties. Some corrupt Summoners would make up false citations and fear those people in bribing the Summoner to forgive their penalty. These corrupt people were working for the devil and definitely not God. Other members of the pilgrims cannot be taken as typical of their professions and definitely not spiritually

Show More
Related

  • Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick

    922 Words  | 2 Pages

    Nathaniel Philbrick tells the story of the Pilgrims, beginning with them breaking away from the Church of England, emigrating to Holland, and eventually to America on the Mayflower. He talks about the relationship they had with the "Strangers" or nonbelievers that accompanied them on their adventure. He tells stories about disease, death, deception, and depression. I had never thought about it, but you know some of those people had to be suffering from depression. He tells of joys but mostly of hardships and as he describes some of the first meetings with the Native Americans. His description of the first Thanksgiving is not the same as the pictures I have seen all of my life.

    Read More

  • The Deerfield Raid Analysis

    1461 Words  | 3 Pages

    Reverend John Williams’ narrative on the Deerfield raid (1704) is an informative account on what this experience entailed for him; although, while one may think that his narrative would be mostly focused on the actual raid and what occurred to him as a captive, the primary focus of Williams’ narrative was largely based on his views on Catholicism and his extreme hatred for this religion (pg. 91). In essence, most of his narrative was an anti-Catholicism rant describing how blasphemous the religion is and how though there was numerous opportunities to change his faith through forced measures while being a captive, he never faltered, choosing death over all else (pg. 91).

    Read More

  • Similarities Between The Knight's Tale And The Pardoners Tale

    1382 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, is an older book containing a entertaining storytelling contest between a group of pilgrims on a pilgrimage. The pilgrims, on their pilgrimage, venture from London to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas á Becket. During their pilgrimage, the Host introduces the idea of a storytelling contest. He claims the trip to the shrine of Saint Thomas á Becket will be boring to travel in silence. The Host lays out the plan of each pilgrim telling two tales on the way to Canterbury and two tales on the way back from their adventure. Upon their return, the winner, decided by the Host for the most entertaining and meaningful tale, will receive a meal paid by the rest of the pilgrims. At his own cost, the Host guides the group of pilgrims, while the pilgrims pay for their adventure. To decide who starts the contest off, the members draw straws. The admired Knight is up first.

    Read More

  • Honesty In The Pardoner

    706 Words  | 2 Pages

    Honesty, it is a word that many use to describe someone who is truthful and someone you can trust. Money is also a very strong word and a very powerful one, it causes wars, lies, and can make a lot of people happy. Honesty and money are two words to describe the Pardoner honesty is the opposite of the Pardoner’s character and money is an important word to the Pardoner. Honesty has attributes such as integrity, truthfulness, straight forwardness, along with the absence of lying, cheating, theft (Dictionary). Honesty also involves being trustworthy, loyal, fair, and sincere. The characteristics of honesty are the complete opposite of the Pardoner. The Pardoner is not honest at all, he is the complete opposite of honest. The Pardoner is a man

    Read More

  • The Vows In Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales

    932 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Canterbury Tales is a story written by Geoffrey Chaucer. During the “Middle Ages” some of the members of the Catholic religion were very corrupt. In the story seven of the main Catholic members and some more people go on a missionary trip to Canterbury. Geoffrey Chaucer listens to each person’s story, and notices some inconsistencies. The stories they tell are very discrepant with what they are supposed to believe. There are four vows that each character breaks respectively. In Geoffrey Chaucer’s, The Canterbury Tales, the religious people that were supposed to be very righteous, were in actuality some of the most greedy and materialistic people of those times.

    Read More

  • Chaucer's Caterbury Tales

    573 Words  | 2 Pages

    Chaucer is a medieval author best known for his witty Canterbury Tales. He “was born between 1340 and 1345, probably in London. His father was a “prosperous wine merchant” (BBC). Drawing inspiration from what he had experienced in his lifetime, Chaucer wrote about his problems with a series of short stories, named the Canterbury Tales. These tales are abnormal, due to being written in English, instead of Latin, like most stories of that period.

    Read More

  • An Analysis Of Pardoner's Prologue And Tale

    1340 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Power and Corruption in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

    1558 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Signification Through Structural Irony in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales

    2175 Words  | 5 Pages

    Chaucer gives us a description of the structure of The Canterbury Tales within the text. In The Merchant’s Tale, the narrator states,

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast The Black Cat And The Cask Of Amontillado

    1229 Words  | 3 Pages

    Edgar Allan Poe has a style that is dark and morbid. His tone is very gloomy and obscure. The tone of “The Cask of Amontillado” is almost tame compared to the tone of “The Black Cat”, his other work we covered. The tone of that work is almost maddening. “The Cask of Amontillado” tone is very sinister and methodic. Whereas “The Black Cat”, has a pulse to a cadence and rhythm though no clear pattern is established. Poe’s style of writing seems so personal, as a reader I had to remind myself this was fiction. His first-person style of writing is so detailed and intricate it is very easy to become invested in the world he creates. “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Black Cat” both have themes of revenge where the supposed victim is untimely

    Read More

  • Parody in The Canterbury Tales

    741 Words  | 2 Pages

    “The Canterbury Tales” was written in the 14th century by Geoffrey Chaucer. These tales constitutes a frame story which each pilgrim has to tell their own story to the Chaucer, the pilgrim; not the poet. As we know, the tale itself is a satire, but the stylistic structure in the tales creates a sense that can be a parody as well. To support this idea of parody, it is need to know the definition of parody and how Chaucer use this style to make his own ideas clear through the general prologue and the tales such as “The Miller’s Tale” and “The Knight’s Tale”.

    Read More

  • The Nun In The Canterbury Tales

    1200 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, is a collection of short stories told amongst pilgrims on their way to Canterbury. The pilgrims are competing against one another to see who can tell the best story on their trip. Along the way Chaucer makes quick comments and critics about the travelers. Some pilgrims he likes, for example the Parson. Others like the Pardoner, are disliked strongly by Chaucer. He also finds some pilgrims entertaining, like the Nun. She is described as a women who, instead of centering her life round Christ, tries to impress everyone. Although in his prologue Chaucer pokes fun at the Nun’s appearance and behavior, ultimately the readers can see that Chaucer

    Read More

  • Insight into Human Nature in Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

    1394 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, (written c. 1387), is a richly varied compilation of fictional stories as told by a group of twenty-nine persons involved in a religious pilgrimage to Canterbury, England during the fourteenth century. This journey is to take those travelers who desire religious catharsis to the shrine of the holy martyr St. Thomas a Becket of Canterbury. The device of a springtime pilgrimage provided Chaucer with a diverse range of characters and experiences, with him being both a narrator and an observer. Written in Middle English, each tale depicts parables from each traveler.

    Read More

  • Chaucer's Society in Canterbury Tales

    824 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • English Society in the 14th Century

    816 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, is recognized as the first book of poetry written in the English language. This is because poetry was often written in Italian or Latin not English, even writers from England wrote in the other languages because English was considered low class and vulgar, but after Chaucer's writings were published they became a recognized and legitimate work. The Canterbury Tales gives modern readers a good judgment of language in the 14th century as it also gives a rich, elaborated tapestry of medieval social life, combining elements of all classes, from nobles to workers, from priests and nuns to drunkards and thieves. The view of the Canterbury Tales being held up as a precise reflection of English society in the 14th century is significantly correct, because they were very attached to the church and beliefs and the way they all act in the Tales shows how they really were a society of the Church.

    Read More

More about The Pardoner's Tale Essay

Open Document