The Pardoner in the Canterbury Tales is not a “noble ecclesiast” because of visual suggestions that are given by Chaucer. Chaucer describes the Pardoner as being an odd fellow, having an unnaturally feminine composition. The Pardoner has long golden hair, a high voice, and bulging eyeballs (which suggest a hormonal imbalance, associating him more with a feminine character). The fact that he was feminine also shed light that he might be homosexual, which was contradictory to the Church’s beliefs that he worked for. The Pardoner is described wearing expensive clothing, and many extravagant accessories. The accessories worn by the Pardoner are ironic because most of his accessories are crosses, and he is anything but a holy man. The idea of the irony of the Pardoner is best portrayed in line 705, “He’d sewed a holy …show more content…
Working for the church, the Pardoner’s spiritual condition should have been fantastic, but in reality, he was one of the most distant pilgrims from God. The weakness of the Pardoner’s spiritual condition is rooted in his love for money, which obviously overpowers his obedience to God. Line 706 describes the Pardoner’s love for money in a subtle way, “His wallet lay before him on his lap,”. By using soft words here, Chaucer showed that money was always on the Pardoner’s mind, as the word “lay” portrays a subtle manner of the wallet, but it still shows that it is there. Not only is the Pardoner crooked in his job, but the job he has is crooked itself. By selling indulgences, the Pardoner again puts his love for money in between himself and God. The Pardoner is not spiritually strong lastly because of his sexual condition. Being gay in the church was frowned upon greatly, and was actually a sin. In the way the that the Pardoner was portrayed, it is almost obvious that he is a sexual pervert, and a homosexual partner with the
No,no, that’s never been my policy”(p,152, lines 100-114)! The Pardoner looks down upon peasants and gluttony. To which he is being hypocritical because he is greedy with gaining money. The misuse of trust is greatly displayed on how the Pardoner practically takes the earnings of people who are being tricked into believing they are
“Radix malorum est cupiditas.” A quote that sets the tone for the entire story greed is the root of all evil. Geoffrey Chaucer so perfectly illustrates verbal irony in the prologue making it easy for you to place yourself in his mind. As the Pardoner being a priest for him to stand in the pulpit and look down upon the congregation referring to them as yokels and turn around and lie to the people whose souls you are there to save is irony as clear as it gets. The prologue gives us insight on who the Pardoner is as he blatantly states that he preaches for nothing but for the greed of gain he shows how corrupt he is.
/ They tore our blessed Lord's body to pieces - / They thought the Jews had not torn him enough -” (Chaucer 72.186-189). By using the Lord to persuade the Christian customer, the pardoner can convince his customers to buy these fake relics. He makes them seem as if they are terrible people who sin if they don’t buy from him which forcefully causes them to buy from the greedy pardoner. The pardoner further lies about how he had relics that belonged to saints and even swears that they are real. The pardoner says, “And swear it is a saint's relic, / Even though it was stained by your own fundament. /
“Then I show forth my long glass cases, crammed full of clothes and bones: all the people believe that they are holly relics” (The Pardoner’s Tale, 1). The Pardoner’s avarice and ability to deliver
“Radix malorum est cupiditas” translated from Latin into “Greed is the root of all evil.” (Chaucer 125) Throughout the Pardoner’s Tale, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, this is the story of three men that treat people lower than them and they end up finding a whole pile of gold, but they end up killing each other to get the gold to themselves. The entirety of the three men end up dead and not even one gets the gold. There are many topics involving greed, this essay will involve what it is about, the dangers, and the benefits of controlling the desire to gain.
Pardoner admit over as much story that he knows the correct strategy of extorting cash starting with individuals by preaching against the avarice from claiming cash. His skill lies in singing at the offertory to extract greatest cash starting with the individuals. Greed is those root from claiming shrewdness. “I preach nothing except for gain”(Line 105, Pardoner). Through the whole Pardoner’s tale he displays his love towards money and his greediness.
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.
The temptation of greed ended up killing the three men at the end of the tale. ”The Pardoner's Tale” provides a clear understanding that greed is a sin we all have to battle with in our lives, whereas the moral of the wife of bath's tale applies to people doing bad things. This tale teaches the reader a lesson about greed and how it can overcome people, making them do bad
A pardoner is a man who sells religious relics of forgiveness to sinners. However, Chaucer’s Pardoner is an untrustworthy character who sells fake tokens for a profit. He boasts of his great ability to preach, and ironically, his favorite topic is greed. “
“All they needed was a series of impressive looking letters and a confident manner in making the appeal” (Chaucer role of pardoner).The pardoner would go on to using the same tricks on everyone they saw near them. All they did was pull out the papers with the bishop's signature and use a confident manner to impress them. When the people of the villages found out about the scamming they would just ignore the pardoner's when they saw them. The pardoner’s were looked down upon the people all over the villages and all across the land. They would just simply ignore them or just keep on walking if they happened to come across a pardoner.
Albert Baugh, an online critic, stated that “The Pardoner’s Tale is a reminder that death is inevitable. Death is personified as a thief who pierces the heart of his victims.” This quote portrays how death is impossible to escape and how everything is set to be in life. Anyhow, the old man travels around the city waiting for Death to take him. The man is not very patient and will do anything to be taken by God.
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.
This is ironic as the pardoner tries to get the group to give him money after telling them how it was all a scam, “My holy pardon saves you from all this:/ If you will offer nobles, sterlings, rings,/ Soome brooches, spoons or other silver things,”(906-908). While he knows that they know his faulsities he deliberately ignores this in order to try and proceed with his con. Another layer of irony in this is that he promises pureness while he himself is not pure, “If you will give. You’ll be as clean and pure/
He says, "I mean to have money, wool, and cheese and wheat" revealing that he actually has no intention of educating or pardoning the masses. His sole concern is swindling people out of money. This is ironic because he admits this fact about himself, but the moral of his story is that greed can lead to death. The Pardoner is an example of a man who does not practice what he preaches.
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