Satire And Corruption In Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales

The moral is, “Radix malorum est cupiditas” (Chaucer “The Pardoner’s Tale” line 8). Which translates to, greed is the root of evil. This lesson is relatable to all ages. The Pardoner says, “Covetousness is both the root and stuff of all I preach” (Chaucer “The Pardoner’s Tale” line 29-30). Most people greedy at least once in their life, which is the reason the Pardoner always preaches on it. It does not matter what one craves it is the action of wanting more than one needs. The tale is amusing because of the dramatic irony in it. While reading, the reader discovers that the men are planning to kill each other, but the men do not know about it. The men let their greed get control of them, and it turns for the worse. The “two murderers received their due, so did the treacherous young poisoner too” (Chaucer “The Pardoner’s Tale” line 294-295). This keeps the reader enticed because the reader knows something that the characters do not. “The Pardoner’s Tale” will win because it meets the criteria of having a moral and being

In this essay, I am giving three reasons as to why The Canterbury Tales' stories are so engaging. I will be talking about the vitality and humanity of the characters in three parts: how realistic the characters are, the emotion they show and the flaws in all of the characters. This will be in three separate paragraphs.

In Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, there are many entertaining values and moral lessons. In Geoffrey Chaucer's, The Canterbury tales, a group of pilgrims are journeying to the holy site of Canterbury. Due to the long journey, the host plans to start a contest between the pilgrims. Each pilgrim has to tell an entertaining story and the pilgrim with the most entertaining story wins a free dinner. After reviewing the two tales “ The Pardoner's Tale” and “ The Wife of Bath's Tale” told by Chaucer, one tale effects me the most. Out of the two tales, I believe “The Pardoner's Tale” has better moral values and is more entertaining than, “The Wife of Bath”.

Chaucer wrote the book: The Canterbury Tales, in which a group of men going on a journey all tell a tale. Within each tale is a moral lesson as well as each tale consists of a corrupt action committed within the church and is conveyed by those kind of characters within the story. One of the tales that Chaucer tells in his book is called: The pardoner 's tale. Within this tale the pardoner (who is telling the tale) is a preacher who often gives sermons but admits that he does is solely for money and not to condemn people of their sins. (Greed) He tells a tale of men sitting around drinking when they hear a death by a servant who says this person was killed by a mysterious death. So the men, being drunk, decide to avenge this man, and so they go to seek him out. Meeting an old man he directs them to an old oak tree in a grove where he says he just left death. On they go, and when they come to the grove they see eight thousand bushels of coins in which greed overtakes and they decide to take the money. The younger one goes into town from bread and wine, but while doing so gets poison for the two others so he can own their share or the money. While the other two men by the money plot to kill the younger when to get his share, he the younger one returns. The two men

To begin with, the pardoner admits to them “I preach no sermon, save for covetousness.” (Pardoner 105) meaning he only cares about money. In the tale, three friends begin their journey to murder death and during their journey an old man lead them to a great

The reader should now know Geoffrey Chaucer disapproves of the Church and deems it to almost only be full of hypocrites because of people such as the Friar and the Pardoner being a part of it and doing what sinful deeds they do against God and the followers who they are supposed to be protecting and taking care of. If it was not for the Parson existing, or even clergy members, then the generalization of him believing the entire Catholic Church was a hypocrisy would be entirely true, but that is not the case. Still, maybe Chaucer made such an implication because he had a bad past with the Church, but then again in the story he was traveling to a religious shrine, so he must not have such a bad past when it comes to Catholicism. There must have been a root to his disdain towards the Church as in, he was conned by a pardoner or a friar or even grew up seeing only hypocrisy from the Catholic Church, which could have molded his opinion of it. Instead of making, The Canterbury Tales, a full on attack against the Church, he decided to make it a comical, satirical piece, which was a very intelligent move by him. Satire was used to talk about controversial things, but to be approached indirectly through humor, which made people more comfortable while discussing it because it was not extremely serious. Chaucer knew that and exploited it throughout his story, which made it such a marvel. He truly was able to get his position of most Catholic Church 's clergy members to be deceitful in their deeds and in their vows across to a gigantic network of people, which was

Geoffrey Chaucer was an author, known as the father of English poetry for his recognition in all his literary works. He wrote the Canterbury Tales, which are multiple stories composed into one to create a form of poetry. "The Pardoners Tale" is the most recognized work of art he put together out of these multiple stories. The story is told in first person, which makes use of the story to lecture against the individuals who are ignorant, and profane. In this short tale about eagerness, but also death, Chaucer uses three forms of figurative language such as irony, personification, and symbolism to tell a story of three rioters.

In the essay Swift portrays himself as a statistician who provides analytical data to back up his hypothesis that the selling of Irish infants as food would solve the problem of poverty and starvation in Irish communities in England. Swift uses different forms of satire including overstatement, understatement, and irony to provide the residents of England a form of comic relief during a time of extreme abuse. Swift himself was in a peculiar situation being both a Protestant and a native of Ireland, but he believes both the Irish and the Protestant can benefit from selling and consuming Irish infants. Swift’s use of understatement is apparent when he describes his proposal as “fair, cheap, and easy.” When he states that his proposal would end abortion, Swift uses overstatement because abortion would no longer be necessary since an infant would cost little to feed and would bring maximum profit to the rich English landowners looking to sell the children as an decadent dish. Swift’s use of satire throughout the essay created a precedent for many authors to find inspiration into writing a work that perfectly balances the use of satire to create an unforgettable piece of

At the very beginning of the Pardoner’s tale, through one of his sermons, we are told his, “theme is alwey oon, and ever was—/“Radix malorum est Cupiditas” (“Pardoner’s” Tale 5-6). This statement provides an aura of satire, as the Pardoner solely speaks against the practice of greed, as on the side he ironically practices exactly what he preaches against. Continuing on, the Pardoner, himself, clearly states the greedy motives his drive depends upon as he informs us that for his, “intent is only pence to win,/ And not at all for punishment of sin” (“Pardoner’s Prologue” 117-118). The Pardoner states his “only” intent is to win “pence” or profit. He does not take the measure to simply admit to additionally wanting money, rather, exploits his sole desire for wealth and fortune. This creates a situation of verbal irony, as his job consists of his preaching against greed driven by his own greed. Finally, Chaucer exemplifies the true greedy persona the Church withholds through the voice of the Pardoner stating he, “will preach and beg in sundry lands;/ I will not work and labour with my hands” (“Pardoner’s Prologue” 157-158). In case the audience was not already in light of the mask the church hides behind, the pardoner proves once his true greediness. He states that he will not “work and labour” with his hands as the apostles did, who wove baskets

[attention getter]. Geoffrey Chaucer, in his novel The Canterbury Tales, deals with many tales of medieval life and morals. The writing follows a large group of pilgrims who have all been challenged to tell their best tale, one that teaches a valuable lesson, on the journey to Canterbury. Two of the stories told, “The Pardoner’s Tale” and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”, make their points in very notable ways. The Pardoner tells a story of three men who come to pay for indulging in the sin of greed, while the Wife of Bath recounts a story of questionable morality involving a knight struggling for redemption after breaking his code of honor. Though The Canterbury Tales presents two sound stories, “The Pardoner’s Tale” is clearly better story based on its adherence to the central plot, its use of personification, and its moral.

In the story, both the characters on the pilgrimage and the characters within the stories themselves display elements of church corruption. Out of all the characters on the journey, the Pardoner is the most obvious case of a corrupt member of the church. The prologue of the Pardoner illustrates his obsession with material wealth and the hypocrisy of his job. During this drunken state, he rants to the company that “Covetousness is both the root and stuff of all I preach” (p. 243) this oxymoronic phrase illustrates his corruption. Covetousness refers to one of the ten commandments; You shall not covet your neighbors

a.) An allegory is a story which characters, settings, and events stand for moral concepts. Allegories contain meanings that are symbolic and literal. “The Pardoner’s Tale” is an allegory because the 3 rioters believe in death actually behind the tree. Instead, they find coins there which symbolize their greediness. Greed is not a moral decision by any means. The rioters thought that they were going to find what they wanted behind the tree, but their greed ultimately ended all of their selfish lives.

The presence of greed utilized by Chaucer in the Pardoner’s tale presents satire as his character is meant to be honorable, yet, behind the scenes is actually the most unethical one. The first example the audience is shown of this fraud is as the pardoner explains his motives, when he states, “Of avarice and of swich cursednesse/ Is al my prechyng, for to make hem free/ To yeven hir pens; and namely, unto me!/ For myn entente is nat but for to wynne,/ And no thyng for correccioun of synne” (114 – 118). The Pardoner is extremely upfront regarding his greedy motives as seen in the quote “For myn entente is nat but for to wynne,” (117). The sole reason he is in this game is no other reason than to make money. The revelation of this goal results in an ironic situation as his job consists of preaching against greed, while the only reason of his employment is driven by his own greed. “To yeven hir pens; and namely, unto me” is also written as “With offered pence, the which pence come to me” (116). Through this line, the audience can see that the character of the Pardoner, himself, does not see his situation as particularly ironic, instead, to him, is what he has to do in order to support his lifestyle. As one moves through the prologue, one is continuously shown abundant examples of this mistruth, for example as the Pardoner says, “For I wol preche and begge in sondry landes,/ I wol nat do no labour with myne handes,/ Ne make baskettes, and lyve therby,/ By cause I wol nat beggen

Geoffrey Chaucer uses satire in the Pardoner 's Tale to explain his issue with the churches hypocrisy. "The Pardoner 's Tale" works on a similar comic device, of bad people unwittingly participating in their own downfall. The story itself has a surprise, ironic ending, as the man who prepared poisonous drinks is stabbed and the men who did the stabbing

The Pardoner is corrupt and he takes advantage of people and he on not shy about admitting that. “For my exclusive purpose is to win/And not at all to castigate their sin”(Chaucer 142). The Pardoner does not care that he is corrupt. He recognizes that he has an opportunity to make some money using his church influence. The reputation of church officials in Medieval times was suspect, “The Pardoner is known for selling false relics of saints”(Thompson). The Pardoner confirms the common stereotype or corrupt church officials. In order to steal from the peasants, the Pardoner must come across as a legitimate church salesman. The Pardoner has an elaborate scheme in order to get what he wants, “First he announces that he has come from Rome, via Rouncivale. Then he displays his Papal Bull to sell pardons, with the seal of local lord in the document”(Lambdin 317). He has a very good cover story in order to steal the peasants