Pardoner's Tale Symbolism

At the end of the story, the three rioters were directed to a tree where “Death lie in wait.” Under said tree, the rioters found gold, and forgot

The Pardoner’s Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer tells of how three men set out on a journey to kill Death, giving it human-like characteristics. On their journey, they arrive at an oak tree where an older man had left several gold coins, which they decide to try to take and keep for themselves. In fact, on page 128-129, the wickedest of the three said, “Brothers, you listen to what I say. I’m pretty sharp although I joke away. It’s clear that Fortune has bestowed this treasure to let us live in jollity and pleasure.” The rioters, as Chaucer describes them, are all out to seek nothing but fortune because they of the greed they are filled with. A trail of unfortunate events then followed their poor choice to try to steal the gold, resulting in them turning on each other and discovering what they set out to find in the first place. With all of this in mind, the gold coins symbolize some important things throughout this tale.

In the story, “The Pardoner’s Tales”, Geoffrey Chaucer wrote the character the Pardoner in descriptive way. He describe the Pardoner’s corruption teaching and the way the Pardoner act in the tale. The religious that the Pardoner teaching is corrupted and very selfish, greediness, and gluttony. This thing are all opposite to what the real church religious is teaching. In the story, he tricks the people to buy his fake relics and other things by using the church’s believe. The Pardoner act and his teaching are all corrupted because of the church. It shows the side of greediness, gluttony and selfishness which highly reflect into himself and his believe.

He often embellishes on how life waits for nobody. Also, he even gives the three rioters the path to death. The Old Man explains, “if it be your design To find out Death, turn up this crooked way Towards that grove” (Chaucer line 159-160). This foreshadows that something bad is going to happen to these rioters. The three rioters go down the path and finds a pile of gold florins.

Greed greed is in the air, greed greed is everywhere. Geoffrey Chaucer’s story The Canterbury Tales begins with a prologue explaining the main points of the stories that follow the prologue. The two Stories “The Pardoner’s Tale” and “The Wife of bath’s Tale” are two of the stories in The Canterbury Tales. The two stories have a main focus of explaining morals in a hiddin way. Both stories express more than one moral and it gives the reader a sense of what chaucer is trying to express. “The Pardoners’s Tale” Is a better story because of its relatible moral that focuses on greed, and its multiple uses of figurative language and irony.

The world is full of hypocrites and in the story “The Pardoner’s Tale”, Chaucer writes about a man who is living a life of sin. The Pardoner’s tale is an epologia of a pardoner who has the power from the church to forgive others for their sins but makes a living out of lying and tricking his audience. Throughout the Pardoner’s Tale he preaches about greed, drinking, blasphemy, and gambling but in the Pardoner’s Prologue he admits to committing these sins himself. The pardoner is really just a 14th century con artist who makes a living by his own hypocrisy.

The irony of the Pardoner is based on his hypocritical actions. The fact that he does not care about the souls of those he has tricked, says a lot about his character. Near the end of his tale, the friends begin to reveal their true personality. All three of them turn on each other trying to steal the treasure for themselves. All of the trust, which they had promised, was a lie and no loyalty remained. The supposed faithful “friends” display their true cruelty and expose their hypocrisy in relation to the Pardoner's character.

In the Pardoner's prologue, Chaucer describes what a swindler and model of deceit the Pardoner actually is with vivid characterization. The Pardoner is so convincing in his acts that "[i]n one short day, in money down he dr[aws]/ More than a parson in a month or two./and by his

The three men found Death and did not even know it. Death is portrayed in the gold and greed. If the men were not greedy then they would not have killed one another to obtain all of the gold. Greed is a deadly thing, it is the reason that men have killed each other for thousands of years. The Pardoner is using this tale to inform the other pilgrims that greed is death.

Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Pardoner's Tale," a relatively straightforward satirical and anti-capitalist view of the church, contrasts motifs of sin with the salvational properties of religion to draw out the complex self-loathing of the emasculated Pardoner. In particular, Chaucer concentrates on the Pardoner's references to the evils of alcohol, gambling, blasphemy, and money, which aim not only to condemn his listeners and unbuckle their purses, but to elicit their wrath and expose his eunuchism.

During the Middle Ages, The Canterbury Tales was the first major English literary work of Geoffrey Chaucer. One of Chaucer’s classic tales, “The Pardoner’s Tale,” establishes a concrete image of the Pardoner’s greed. Chaucer uses “The Pardoner’s Tale” to expose that “greed is the root of all evil” through verbal, situational and dramatic irony.

When the three friends set out to avenge their friend they find gold, and it blinds them. It makes them forget about their friend and the avenging they only care for the wealth and power this gold can give them. Not only does the gold set them off track, it causes their death, in fact, greed is what causes their death. Although the gold was a lot and it was plenty enough for each when they divide it, their greed forced them to want more. Their desire for wealth forced to want to kill each other. In the end they all end up dead, victims of their greed. Chaucer shows the reader that mans greed and desire for power and wealth will have disastrous consequences, in this case death. The irony in the pardoners tale is that the men set out to find Death and they indeed find it, but have they found Death, the person. Although he is of unclear identity, the old man can be interpreted as Death, or his form on earth. A lot of mystery and unanswered questions concern the old man, however, from the text the reader can hint that he is some form of Death. The old man is the one who directed the men right to the gold and most likely knew what the men’s fait was. In general, the message Chaucer is trying to convey through his story is that greed is a sin, and it causes horrible

Throughout history greed has corrupted and destroyed many people plunging them farther into the need for more; in contemporary times this has only strengthened. In 1387, Geoffrey Chaucer wrote “The Canterbury Tales” within this consist of “The Pardoners Tale”. This tale consists of a greedy pardoner preaching sermons only to benefit himself. An English poet, William Blake believes that “The characters of Chaucer’s Pilgrims are the characters which compose all ages and nations…” As Blake states Chaucer’s pilgrims, can be considered a universal theme throughout all ages. The Pardoners greed is universal because of his sermons, his use of relics, and can be related to modern day Ponzi schemes.

In the story there are many circumstances under which the people in the middle class have been manipulated, by those with evil intent, effortlessly. Chaucer acknowledges the devious deeds of the Pardoner, “On one short day, in money down, he drew more than the parson in a month or two, and by his flatteries and prevarication made monkeys of the priest and congregation.” (Chaucer 115). The Pardoner took advantage of people and robbed them for their last dime with no remorse. Though the Pardoner was wrong for what he did there should never be a scenario when somebody is robbed of their last dime by intellectual manipulation, there should always be a point of return. Next Chaucer displays, “There was no Pardoner of equal grace for in his trunk he had a pillowcase.” (Chaucer 115). Here Chaucer is implying that this is not the

During the medieval times corruption in the Catholic Church was prevalent. As corruption was prevalent during Chaucer’s time so was a Pardoner’s practice of selling indulgences, becoming one of deception and greed. Similar to the upper class focusing their time on becoming the richest and most powerful. In many of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer would use satire to criticize different social classes. For example, the middle class, those people who worked for their possessions. He satirizes religious hypocrisy in such tales as the Pardoner, in which a middle class man, showing the corruption of the Pardoner’s job. Through his description of the Pardoner as being a man who is disitful, greedy, and hypocritical, Chaucer uses