What Is The Moral Of The Pardoner's Tale

The Canterbury Tales was written in 1400, near the end of the Middle Ages. Chaucer lived in a time when the Feudalistic society that had been around for hundreds of years was slowly coming to an end. The mix of characters with new ways of thinking and characters with feudalistic ideals allows for Chaucer to show how his society is changing. Two characters that represent the old feudalistic society are the Knight and the Pardoner. Morally, the two are opposites, in lines 44-46 of The Canterbury Tales Chaucer describes the Knight as, “Who from the day on which he first began To ride abroad had followed chivalry, Truth, honor, generousness, and courtesy.” While the Pardoner is a character who profits off of tricking other Christians, while preaching

Chaucer’s disdain for the members of the Church is a reflection of the culture change that was occuring during his time, people of all classes were turning their backs from the Church and questioning the ethics of Church members. While the members of the Church represented the evils of feudalism in Chaucer’s eyes, the Knight represented the good values that feudalism brought. Chivalry, a code that knights and gentlewomen lived by, was one of the most valued ideals in the Middle Ages (Holt 100).The Knight is the perfect model for how a chivalrous person should act, he wholeheartedly lived by the code of chivalry and Chaucer’s admiration for the Knight is a reflection of how chivalrous knights were seen by people of the time. Although the role of the Knight was slowly diminishing at the time The Canterbury Tales was written, Chaucer shows how they were still admired by the people at the time for their honor and Chivalry. A character that represents the new way of thinking at the time is the Merchant. He was part of the new merchant class, that along with new cities, contributed to the fall of the feudal