The Pardoner’s Tale: Radix Malorum est Cupiditas The Canterbury Tales, a collection of various stories, is among the best literary works written in Middle English. The central story of this composition is the journey of 29 pilgrims to Canterbury, England. In the story, each pilgrim was intended to tell a total of four stories as a form of entertainment for such long travel. The author, Geoffrey Chaucer, was an observer during the pilgrimage and the recorder of the tales. His writings exposed, in a very discrete manner, the severe corruption of the people during that period of time, especially within the Catholic Church; the institution promulgated humbleness and abstinence, yet it was characterized by its wealth. In this manner, Chaucer emphasized …show more content…
The Pardoner not only violated his vow of poverty, but also completely abandoned his humanity by placing himself above everyone else as shown in the following lines: “I'll have my money, wool, and food, though it/Be from some page whose poverty is dire/Or from the poorest widow in the shire;/Although her kids be starving, I'll be fine,/For I will drink the liquor of the vine/And have a jolly wench in every tow” ("The Pardoner's Tale” 448-453). This excerpt is critical in understanding how Chaucer intended to report the corruption of the church. Even though, it was very common to see many of the clergy “[exploit] their positions” to live in luxury and leisure, nobody dared to expose this truth (Walker). Correspondingly, this corruption has remained as time progressed and is very common today. As an example, taken form public record documents, many current events represent the same level of greed and immorality. Simply illustrated in common crimes like the following: the sentencing of a former Texas judge for using his office “as a criminal enterprise to enrich himself and others through extortion”, and also the sentencing of religious officials such as Laura Whittley, who was sentenced for bank fraud and money laundering ("Examples of Public
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
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.
His eyes are bulging like a hare an his voice is as small as a goat. Pardoner has a wallet that holds his cap but doesn’t wears a hood for fun. Overall he is one that you can look at know he has money but only through greediness. In the story “The Canterbury Tales” Pardoner shows greed which reflects to the story “The Dynamic Culture of the Middle Ages” explaining how it was in the middle ages.
The indirect characterization of the Pardoner, in consideration of his objective stance towards his own wrongdoings, reveals him to be a man with conscious partial to his intents and basic motivation. The Pardoner explicitly states his reason for sermonizing as his “exclusive purpose is to win and not at all to castigate their sin” (p. 243). With brutal honesty and in meticulous fashion, the Pardoner embraces his love for profit and monetary gains in spite of his pious occupation. Though the actions and impressions of the Pardoner are both distasteful and lacking in morals, it is the same hypocritical disposition that highlights the depth and good of the character. While not righteous or honorable in any traditional sense, the Pardoner argues that he is appropriate to preach against his personal vice of greed due to his understanding of the sin and that in the process he is able to truly assist others in the relinquishment of their faults.
“Put it in his mind to buy poison With which he might kill his two companions”(Lines 383-384, Chaucer). The greed within pardoner’s
Geoffrey Chaucer’s, The Canterbury Tales, is a popular story about a pilgrimage taken by 30 people, including himself, to Canterbury, England. It starts with a general prologue that helps break down each of the characters. The reader gets an understanding of who the people are that are travelling on this pilgrimage. Certain characters are part of each of the three estates that Chaucer describes, which are the people who pray, the people who fight, and the people who work. The specific characters he uses for the clergy members are the monk, friar, and prioress, the knight, the squire, and the yeoman are all part of the nobility class, and the workers are the miller, the reeve, and the pardoner.
During the 14th century, the Catholic Church ruled over almost all of Europe and was extremely wealthy. While people were suffering from poverty, disease, and famine, lavish cathedrals were being built in the bigger cities, only proving that the contrast between the misery of the people and the wealth of the Church was mind-boggling. Consequently, the characters Chaucer uses in the Canterbury Tales as a representation of the Church, or clergy, project character traits of greed, deceit, and corruption.
After reviewing the two tales “ The Pardoner's Tale” and “ The Wife of Bath's Tale” told by Chaucer, one tale effects me the most. Out of the two tales, I believe “The Pardoner's Tale” has better moral values and is more entertaining than, “The Wife of Bath”. The first reason that makes”The Pardoner's Tale” effective is the
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.
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.
Although greed controls the world and the actions of the political power houses, it all started with the greed of the church, cheating people out of their hard earned money for their own profits. The Pardoner addresses his greed, ”‘But let me briefly make my purpose plain;/ I preach for nothing but for greed of gain’” (lines 41-42). The Pardoner boldly says this, coming off almost whimsically amused at his ability to get away with such treachery. He knows his wrongs and courageously accepts the fact that he will take anybody’s hard earned money, no matter what false hope he needs to give. The Pardoner tells a tale of three men who come across money and then end up plotting against each
If Chaucer wrote the Pardoner’s Tale the same way but did not include that the Pardoner knew he was corrupt then the argument could be made that Chaucer believed the Christian religion had truly strayed away from the original doctrines as Luther describes in his 95 Thesis and work On Christian Liberty. Chaucer’s view on the corruptness of the Church differs from Luther’s view in that Chaucer believes a corrupt Christian figure is only corrupt because of the inner motive of greed not because his congregation entitles him to be
Chaucer’s wrote the Canterbury Tales in the 14th Century. At the time the church status was very high and powerful. People went on long journeys to visit holy places. The Canterbury tales is about a group of pilgrims who each told stories on their pilgrimage to Canterbury. Many of the pilgrims were part of the church.
Alexis Talbot (4-20) C. Ramsay English IV DE 8 September 2016 Chaucer and the Medieval Pilgrimages Chaucer is considered to be the father of English poetry. Chaucer himself appears to be one of the pilgrims in The Canterbury Tales. The pilgrims have different theories about what makes a good story. Almost all of the pilgrims introduce themselves and their tales in the prologue. In the prologue they explain who they are and why they are going to tell their tale.
The Canterbury Tales seemed to have been written in the late 1300’s, its interpretation is very confusing. Chaucer’s plan for the Canterbury tales was fictional purposes projected by about one hundred twenty stories only two per pilgrim on the way there and back to Canterbury. There were only twenty two stories actually completed with the exception of two beginnings to two more stories. It was also thought that he used fictitious pilgrimage as framing devices for a number of stories. Chaucer’s artistic exploitation of the device is, in any case altogether his own.