The Pardoner's Tale

Both tales exhibit this idea from different perspectives to relfect the values of their context. The Pardoners Tale reflects a religious society where sin is punished

The consumption of alcohol is a key component in medieval literature. Due to drinking water being scarce. It was often preferred to drink beer, “Beer often had a low alcohol content” (Unger 3). The lack of germ theory made it very simple for individuals to drink alcohol instead of water for fear of sickness. It was when an individual drank abhorrent amounts of this beer that their decision making abilities were compromised. Within the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, it is quite important to notice all the situations in which alcohol encouraged foolishness, but it also encouraged its own consumption. The Pardoner’s Tale has sparked my interest from the beginning. The sermon that the pardoner tells focuses on the sins of the tavern, those being gambling, drinking, and swearing. These three indulgences are what led them to their downfall later in the tale. This tale is one that utilizes alcohol consumption as a catalyst. The Pardoner’s Tale is a tale that utilizes alcohol consumption as a driving factor for the tale and the pardoner’s intentions are then revealed to be that they are not so different.

The author uses this situation to bring to the readers' attention how hypocritical the Pardoner is. Just after preaching about being honest and the danger of greed, he lies to the people to try and make a few shillings. “The Pardoner said nothing, not a word; he was so angry that he could not speak. ”(320). The Pardoner is set only for the gain of money.

The Canterbury Tales written by Jeffery Chaucer characterizes The Pardoner as corrupt and greedy to exemplify corruption and greed within the Catholic Church. In “The Pardoner’s prologue”, The Pardoner says, “But [I will] briefly make my purpose make plain; / I preach for nothing but for greed of gain” (1-2). The Pardoner displays no shame or guilt for his greedy ways. In fact, he wants other to know that his motives are rooted with greed. The pardoner is bluntly greedy and disrespecting those who follow the church.

In “The Pardoner’s Prologue”, especially in the end of the prologue, it clearly show that his teaching and church believe are all corrupted. It really show they are selfish and greediness and also in “The Pardoner’s Tales”, we can see that there are a lot of repeat word that represent the Pardoner itself and the church believe. The Pardoner say the word gluttony and greed many times, he tells that they are bad but the way he act and speech are all ironic. Here are some quote from the tale, “O gluttony, so full of cursedness! O first cause of our trial and tribulation, Origin of all our souls’ damnation till we were purchased back by blood of Christ!”(Chaucer 498 - 501). This quote, the Pardoner all blabbing about the gluttony are very bad and the cause of all bad things. It is very ironic to what he does in the story, the pardoner get drunk and eat while he teaching.The Pardoner said, “A lecherous thing is wine, and drunknness is full of striving and of wretchedness. O drunken man, disfigured is your face, sour your breath, you’re foul to the embrace! And through you drunken nose it seems the sound is “Samson, Samson” that you would expound, Though, God knows, Samson never drank of wine”(Chaucer 549 - 555). This quote really explain what the Pardoner did and how he looks like. All of his teaching are all directly reflect into the Pardoner’s inner self.

Does the way the story describes the Pardoner makes it seem as if he is a “wholly vicious” man? I believe it does, from the start you can easily notice he is a very selfish person, yet he is supposed to be a pastor and someone who tries to benefit the people of the church. Instead of fulfilling the role God has put him in he would rather preach for his own benefits and bring sin upon the church. In “The Pardoner’s Prologue,” the story begins by explaining that the Pardoner is a man who preaches and tries to sell his community salvation.

Through travels on the countryside, the hills are filled with the Pardoner’s sweet “honey tongue” (Chaucer 141, line 732) as he rides to sell church pardons for forgiveness, or so it seems. A man of the church should have a holy mission to serve his lord and spread the prosperity of the church. The Pardoner, on the other hand, uses his title and ability to achieve devious deeds. No matter how many times he claims to have acted morally just, this man always has an ulterior motive to quench his greed. A man such as the Pardoner has drifted so far away from the path of being noble.

The Pardoner’s Tale is a story very relatable to many Americans in this day and age. This story tells of greed, pride, and malice. A theme as old as time, “money is the root of all evil” speaks volumes in this poem. The Pardoner’s Tale highlights an old saying that many use in everyday conversation.

The pardoner does whatever it takes to get money from is listeners, which includes lying, and tricking them into buying “relics” in bottles. He sells these bottles claiming them to be some kind of miracle cure, “Where there is a pox or scab or other sore/all animals that water at that well/are cured at once…And it’s a cure for jealousy as well…” (260). He is never going to see these people again so he says whatever it takes to get their money. “That tricks been worth a hundred marks a year/since I became a pardoner, never fear” (260), he tells the people whatever they want to hear in order for them to buy into his scheme, he has no real care for the people or his job. He refers to his life as a game, because he travels to

Throughout “The Pardoner’s Tale”, the main character teaches about greed, gambling, desecration, and drinking, but in the beginning he admits to committing these sins himself. One of the portrayals of hypocrisy, in the

The Pardoner use deceit and lies to pray on the poor and innocent, his characterization represents the churches misuse of its vast power. Chaucer fortifies this idea when he describes the Pardoner as “And thus I preach against the very vice/I make my

“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

The Pardoner consistently brings up the redemption of Christ and God throughout his tale. He polarizes original sin and Christ: "O glotonye, ful of cursednesse!/ O cause first of oure confusion!/ O original of oure dampnacioun,/ Til Christ hadde brought us with his blood again!" (210-3) He moves on to gluttony, and his nuanced technique of delivering subconscious critique becomes more apparent: "'They been enemies of Cristes crois,/ Of which the ende is deeth‹wombe is hir god!/ O wombe, O bely, O stinking cod,/ Fulfilled of dong and of corrupcioun!'" (244-7) His tale takes place while the Pilgrims (and the Pardoner) are drinking at an inn, and his further attacks on alcohol reveal his blatant hypocritical values: "A lecherous thing is win, and dronkenesse/ Is ful of striving and of wrecchednesse./ O dronke man, disfigured is thy face!/ Sour is thy breeth, foul artou to embrace!" (261-3) The Pardoner's moralistic statement condemns himself more than his audience, as he is the "dronke man" of the group; he is the lecherous drunk who "wil drinke licour of the vine/ And have a joly wenche in every town"

The Pardoner’s Tale started off with three friends who were together when a funeral knell rang. They found out that it was rung because one of their friends was killed by a man named “Death.” He was a mysterious man, and little about him was known. The men became mad and set out to find death to get revenge on him. Shortly after, they came across an elderly man sitting alone. He claimed that “death wouldn’t come to him,” and that he was waiting for death. He had traveled all over the world while waiting for it to arrive. When the men asked if he knew how to find death, the elderly man told them they could find it behind an oak tree a little ways down the road. The men eagerly scurried to the tree, but instead of death, they found numerous bags

To start off, the Pardoner was a character who made fun of the church. He carried around fake relics. The citizens of the towns that he went to believed in his stories and what he spoke of. The Pardoner imitated the church by posing as something that he is not. The church is a sacred and holy place, but the Pardoner sold pardons to get rid of sins.