The Pardoner's Tale Comparative Essay

Sherika Jiang Dr. S-R Foundations of Literature 23 January 2023 Pardoner’s Greed In “The Pardoner’s Tale” from Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales (1387-1400), the pardoner’s greedy methods of money-making by manipulating people's emotions often leads to the customer falling for his scam revealing the social problem of people's greed for money can cause society to not function correctly when everyone is only looking out for themselves. As a salesman, the pardoner uses fake relics to sell to his Christian customers.

The character of the Pardoner in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales is a complex one, full of contradictions and ambiguity. On one hand, he is described as a "noble ecclesiast" (Chaucer 691) and a skilled preacher, capable of moving his listeners to tears with his sermons. On the other hand, he is also a con artist, selling indulgences to people who believe that they can buy their way out of sin. This duality is central to the Pardoner's character, and it is the source of both his power and his corruption.

“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.

“There are three gates to self-destructive hell: lust, anger, and greed” was a quote of an Indian text called the Bhagavad Gita. Chaucer’s stories “the wife of bath” and “pardoner 's tale” in Canterbury Tales are good examples of the Indian text written in two different stories. In both of the tales Chaucer describes greed into very distinct ways, one involves a greed for lust the other involves a greed for money. In Chaucer 's the pardoner 's tale you can easily tell the type of greed that is in the story ,which is the greed for money. This is also one of the most ironic tale since the pardoner is the most greediest person amongst the group.

To fully appreciate the layers of irony in “The Pardoner’s Tale,” you must consider all types of irony. There are three types of irony: verbal irony is when something is said that contradicts the truth, or is the opposite of how the person speaking truly feels, situational irony is when events have an affect on a situation to make the outcome the opposite of what was expected, and dramatic irony is when the significance of actions and doings of the characters in a story are obvious but the characters within the story remain oblivious. Within “The Pardoner's Tale” in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, all types of irony are used throughout the story in order to show society uses deliberate ignorance to justify its wrong doings. Particularly,

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 Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer, reveals that religion does not make moral individuals. Chaucer goes on about telling how several of the characters on the pilgrimage had questionable lifestyles yet the characters were taking part in a religious journey. Religion can only influence a moral character but does not make its followers untouchable to the imperfections found on earth. In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer’s character, The Pardoner, is a church official who altered the peoples mind by cheating the people into believing any nonsense.

The two stories have a main focus of explaining morals in a hidden 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 medieval period was mostly about staying true to god and making sure you didn’t commit any of the seven deadly sins.

In the Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer utilizes the immoral character of the Pardoner to tell the utmost moral tale through satirical devices, presenting the true greed and hypocrisy that runs throughout the Church, regardless of it attempt to cover it. Chaucer introduces the hypocrisy within the Church through the characterization of the Pardoner, as he is explained to be a man with, “flattery and equal japes./He made the parson and the rest his apes” (“General Prologue” 607-608). “Japes” are tricks, alluding to the Pardoner’s relics, as they are fake; yet, the Pardoner still sells these relics to the Church members as genuine treasures. This creates dramatic irony, because the character of the Church body is unaware of the situation bestowed

Greed is one of the worst things a person can have in his or her characteristics during the Middle Ages. The representation of being greedy made you get looked upon by the people in many bad ways. A good example of this is “The Pardoner's Tale” by Geoffrey Chaucer. “The Pardoner's Tale” shows that the idea of not being greedy in order to enhance the characterization of the Pardoner, as he used the church to his advantage to earn money.

Throughout the Pardoner's tale, the Pardoner tells a story about the love of money and its consequences. However, instead of applying these lessons to his life, he completely neglects the morals of the story and continues down a path of

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.

Of all intelligence and intuition attributed to man, it is not enough to overcome the characteristics that will lead to the downfall of our own kind. Such characteristics take root in man and protrude out of him no matter how hard he tries to deny their presence. Man himself is aware of these characteristics and they play a part on all forms of entertainment, and fuel almost all actions made by man. In “The Pardoner’s Tale” written by Chaucer, the theme of pride and greed leading to demise is prominent.

Historically, the church in the medieval ages was corrupt and money hungry. Geoffrey Chaucer depicts this corruption through The Pardoner’s Tale. Specifically, the Pardoner was a prime example of abusing the power of the church, “I preach, as you have heard me say before/And tell a hundred lyin mockeries more”(Chaucer 142). The Pardoner admits that he follows the narrative of corruption in the

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)