Theme Of Greed In The Pardoner's Tale

Throughout the journey two tales were told. They held very few similarities, and quite a few differences. These two tales were told by men from two completely different walks of life. One was a noble knight who won battles, put others before himself, and took great pride in his two most impressive horses. The other was a pardoner, who did not believe most of what he taught, conned people for their money, and knew how to put on a show to make the all the poor peasants believe every word he said. Both of their tales were quite interesting, but the knight did in fact tell a better story. The knights story captivated its readers by attaching them to its characters, making every failure, emotion, and success affect the reader personally, and by the end of the tale the reader was able to take away a lesson they would never forget.

As a French Proverb states, “greedy eaters dig their graves with their teeth”. People are consumed with wanting more and more rather than knowing what they need in life. The human race constantly carries on this pattern of greed. A theme of greed is shown in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible.

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. “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

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

“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.

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.

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

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. He begs God to take him and blames his ugliness and paleness as to why God wont take him. The three men hear him talk about Death, and begin to ask where they could find him. The old man then gives the three men advice on how to find Death. The old mans advice was that they will find Death under the oak tree. “If you're so anxious to find Death, turn up this crooked path; for in that grove I left him, by my faith, under a tree and there he’ll stay.” (Chaucer 283). The advice is not very practical, yet the three men still listen to him. The author lets the audience know that the three men who are on this journey are not very bright, as seen with their

Almost everybody that reads William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Macbeth will agree on one thing: guilt is the main force that drove Macbeth and his Lady to insanity, and later, death. If the text is analyzed to a further extent and the theme is reconsidered, however, greed can be seen as what leads to Macbeth’s downfall, not guilt.

The “Miller’s Tale” is inappropriate and crude. This story may offend people because of the content. This tale is about lying, cheating, and more similar vulgar actions. Nicholas, “he caught hold of her genitalia” (Chaucer “The Miller’s Tale” line 3276-3277). This sentence alone is enough for a woman to feel uncomfortable. It is an aggressive action that sounds almost like rape. There is another example of when Alison tricks Absolom into kissing her bottom. Then there is “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”, which also is inappropriate. The knight came upon a young lady, “and of that maiden, spite all she said, by very force took her maidenhead” (Chaucer “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” line 64). This also shows the theme of aggressive actions that exemplify rape. The knight even gets away with his crime despite how horrific his action are. The knight ends up receiving a consequence by having to marry an old hag. These two stories are inappropriate and obscene especially towards women.

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

While one rioter goes to town for food and drink, the other two stay behind. Of the remaining two, one tells the other that the gold should “be parted by only us two” (486). This sin is used in order to solidify the theme of pride and greed leading to demise in this tale. Not only were the two men plotting against the rioter who went to town, but the lone rioter was planning the same. During this time period, greed was common; anything was done in order to better one’s own self. By utilizing greed, Chaucer illustrates the development of the rioters from brothers to the two men turning on the other and vise

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 Pardoner’s Tale” by Geoffrey Chaucer, the three rioters originally planned to travel to kill Death. After traveling less than half a mile, The three rioters met a poor, old man; the old man told them where they could find Death. The three rioters followed his directions and found not Death but a pot of gold coins under a tree. After, discovering the gold coins, they secretly plotted to kill each other, hoping to keep the treasure to only himself. Because of this, the role of the gold coins acted as the source and main cause of their death.

In “The Canterbury Tales” Chaucer illustrates the corruption of the church through the religious characters in both the tales and the prologue and their obsession with money. Illustrating the fact that medieval England, the church had a big impact on the lives of people due to them being able to “read” the bible. In many cases, this was uses to manipulate people into giving their money to church. Throughout the tales, people are shown to stand up to the church and beat them at their own game and this provides the ideal response to church corruption.