The Canterbury Tales In The Pardoner's Tale

When they found him, they all died because the role of the coins was to be the antagonist that led the three to betray each other for their greed. One evidence was when the youngest of them sought to kill them through poison: “To men in such a state the Devil sends/ Thoughts of this kind, and has full permission/ To lure them on to sorrow and perdition” (Chaucer 130). Another evidence is when Death disguised himself as the coins: “No longer was it Death those fellows sought,/ For they were all so thrilled to see the sight, The florins were so beautiful and bright” (Chaucer 128). At the end of the story, the gold coins send them to death. In conclusion, the role of the gold coins was being the three’s adversary who led them to betrayal as the story progressed.

While undeniably a person in the modern age would find it easier to relate to a story of rape, all people deal with greed, and all people must face the consequences of their actions. What sort of justice is it when the rapist is pleasured to live “ever after to the end / In perfect bliss” (196)? In a true assault, no victim would be satisfied knowing their attacker paid no price. The men in “The Pardoner’s Tale” deal with murder, this is true, but the core of the conflict in the story is greed, a universally understood concept, and the story clearly demonstrates them getting precisely what they deserved for indulging in it so

The Host offers the Pardoner to tell his story, because, before him, the Physician told a sad tale. He wanted to primarily lighten the mood. The story begins with three men drinking at a tavern. They find out it was a friend who was killed by someone called Death. So, the three friends set out to find this man named “Death” and kill him.

Another prominent broad subject of mockery throughout the play is women. Specifically, Wilde jokes on the supposed “morals” that women claim to have and their tendency to be easily deceived and manipulated. For example, women’s principles during this time states that they were supposed to have religious motivation for their courtships. However, both Gwendolyn and Cecily only wanted to marry their man if his name was Ernest. This comical situation demolishes the morals that women claimed to have in their relationships and expressed that as shallow, clueless, and untrue to their word.

That summons thee to heaven, or to hell” as these reference the unmoral parts of her life suggesting her disturbed nature could be because of her lack of sanity as she hallucinates the blood on her hands. Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as disturbed because she subverts the ideas of religion and the supernatural which were contradictory during the Jacobean era. Rather than fulfilling the audience’s expectations that religion and the supernatural are contradictory, she conjures the idea that they are similar as she says, “look like th’innocent flower but be the serpent under’t.” The auxiliary verb “be” is quite disturbing because she is demanding Macbeth to be a certain way showing her rebellion against stereotypes as women had to obey their husbands. Shakespeare could have been doing this to present her as an outcast, disturbing the audience. Also, the personification of “flower” shows her manipulating him to have a facade of morality but deep down know he is the serpent, presenting her as disturbed because she is seduced by power and uses the worst of people to her advantage.

One of the first events that are seen in the tale, which seems to coincide with the Wife of Bath’s opinions, is the Knight raping the maiden. The Wife of Bath could have used this event to support her belief that even the noblest man can be corrupted, and there are no truly good men in the world. “This knight now ponders and sighs sorely, too, But finally, he said in this way here: “My lady and my love and wife so dear, I put myself in your wise governing; Choose yourself which one may be most pleasing And most honor to both you and me too. I do not care now which one of the two; What pleases you suffices now for me.”” (1234-1241). This quote near the end of the tale is used by the Wife of Bath to show how the Knight makes the correct move by giving his wife the power of choice; and because of this the hag becomes beautiful and faithful.

Shakespeare 's Lady Macbeth is thought of as a murderous character who is lured by the temptation of power into committing violent acts. However, it isn 't her fault she was put into situation where the quiet coaxing of power was too strong for her merely human psyche to resist. The witches are the one who provoked her desire for power with their prophecy telling “All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!”. Lady Macbeth chooses to overthrow the current leader and uses her manipulative ways to convince her husband to join her killing spree of anyone who stands in the way of the throne. She is a woman well versed in the art of manipulation, “Hie thee hither, That I may pour my spirits in thine ear, And chastise thee with the valour of my tongue” she says urging her husband to come home so she can

Or revenge on someone who tried to kill you multiple times. There is many parts in the book that is just plain revengeful thinking but if you look in the rest of the book you can see that each character in the book wants what others have. You have to think through all this it started because someone was greedy and wanted what other people had. The book Hamlet is focused around greed and wanting what others

Greed in this play is able to take an upright man and drag him to the lowest point and destroy everything that he has dedicated all his time to achieving. It shows that the most destructive force to a person’s goals can be themselves and not knowing when enough is enough. Unknown to this, the tragic hero Macbeth, like many people today, becomes enticed by the trap of wealth, power, and selfish ambition. His first problem is that he craves to have something that is not rightfully his from the person who actually deserves it. Greed first may cause someone to commit one sin, but it soon creates a snowball effect of many changes to a person's actions and character.

In Shakespeare 's Othello, Iago’s sinister acts of lying and killing deceive the people around him. Iago motives are maintaining good reputation and ruining othello. How Iago deceives others shows the theme that people’s words have an effect on others thoughts and actions Iago will do anything in his power to keep a spotless reputation and to ruin Othello entirely. He wants to keep his good reputation so he can get money and power out of it. Iago thinks to himself, “Now whether he kills cassio or cassio him or each do kill the other / every way makes me gain” ( Shakespeare 5.1.12-15).

Satire is unforgiving; realism is all-forgiving; and David Williamson has always attempted to merge the two, portraying people as wicked but pardonable. The more you get to know the baseness of the motives of each character, the more empathy you are intended to feel for them, as you come to realise that all people, even ourselves, despite all actions, generally mean well. As far as it goes, the good guys aren’t very good and the bad guys always fall short of the true evilness which they, in theory, are capable of. Many of Williamson’s plays start out as toughly satirical but end up merging into roughly sentimental, with even his basest, most deviant characters always having a comfortable, revealing scene; Even his nicest characters will admit to unworthy thoughts and ignoble desires. This play is a classic comedy of manners, with an almost humanist reference point.

John Steinbeck, the author, used all of these devices to show that greed was able to take over people 's souls and change their state of minds because of the pearl’s ability to change people. Foreshadowing was used by Steinbeck to lead into situations throughout the story. He used certain quotes to show how the Kino was going to use the pearl and how the pearl was changing Kino. “She knew there was murder in him, and it was all right; she had accepted it, and she would not resist or even protest” (Steinbeck 58). This quote showed how Kino was so attached to the pearl and was full of greed that he eventually murdered people just to protect his precious pearl.