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
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.
He does not have the proper catholic clothing, but only sewed relics on his raggy clothing. He has fake relics and charges naive people to touch them. He is an exceedingly greedy man. Even though “The Pardoner’s Tale” exemplified a superior story for moral education, his character defeats his story. The Pardoner told a story about three scoundrels who come across gold coins.
Chaucer wrote The Pardoner's Tale with the ideas of hypocrisy in mind. He attacks this subject with a thorough use of personification and irony in his story telling. Chaucer captivates these rhetorical techniques multiple times throughout the piece. He brilliantly personifies the ideas of greed and death, as a walking man. He also displays irony throughout the story with also the ideas of greed and death.
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.
“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.
The Pardoner also says that he also he preaches solely to get money, not to Correct sin, His one and only interest is to fill his ever-deepening pockets. The irony the Chaucer uses is that there is a price to pay when it comes to greed, Also how the conflict of both tales are similar when the three rioters from a The Pardoner tale found money in the forest and when they skimmed against one Another for the money so they can be the richest man in there town, and how Anyone who has the money in a Distant mirror they can make the enforcers turn a
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.
His sins had to originally be repaid by death but, the queen at the time granted him some mercy. Finally, The Pardoner tells tales about sins of greed. The Pardoner’s job is to forgive people of their sins in exchange of charity. This charity was money and it is stated, “Radix malorum est cupiditas” (Chaucer 142) which means “The love of money is the root of all evil” in Latin.
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/
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.
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.
“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.
The Pardoner’s trait of being fraudulent is reflected upon ironically in the tale he tells,