Religion In The Pardoner's Tale Essay

Throughout America’s history there has been a clear struggle between the beliefs of the individual versus those of society. The literary works of Arthur Miller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and John Winthrop all explore the importance of conformity in America. The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, traces the consequences of hysteria invading a community in the form of witch accusations in the village of Salem. In The Minister’s Black Veil, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the reader sees how the minister’s black veil results in the society’s isolation of him. Finally, A Model of Christian Charity, a speech by John Winthrop, champions religion playing the central role in a community.

Marriages were not about love, but rather about political or monetary gain. According to Tuchman it was the wife’s job to “earn her husband’s love (215).” Women were plagued with the tasks of not only earning their husband’s love, but keeping it, and dealing with the stereotype that women were the “devil’s decoy” and “obstacle to holiness (211).” Women were expected to remain pure, and therefore, while the virginal state of life was what a woman was expected maintain, every unmarried woman, was now a temptress. Tuchman makes an interesting point when she says “nastiness of women as generally perceived at the close of life when a man began to worry about hell, and his sexual desire in any case was fading (212).”

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.

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

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)

She loses her place in the story momentarily, then resumes with her fourth husband’s funeral. She made a big show of crying, although, she admits, she actually cried very little since she already had a new husband lined up. By Chaucer 's time, it obvious how there were many anti feminist individuals and how it was a tradition to write texts about the dangers and annoyances of women and wives. The Wife of Bath refers to many of these texts in her Prologue. Her fifth husband, she tells us, owned a book that was an entire collection of such texts, from which he used to read to her every evening.

The Canterbury Tales depicts the differing levels of society of the Medieval period. The tales with the most notable differences are “The Pardoner’s Tale” and “The Reeve’s Tale.” The former story is about three men consumed by greed, which ultimately leads them to their h. The latter tale is about two clerks who seek revenge on a miller who steals grain from their school. “The Pardoner’s Tale” and “The Reeve’s Tale” drastically differ in their moral themes that depict revenge, sin, and greed. “The Pardoner’s Tale” illustrates the effects of revenge, sin, and greed.

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

After reading the Prologue and Tale for the Wife of Bath, the conclusion that has been drawn is that the chapter should be censored because of the graphic contents. The wife from Bath goes into detail about marriage and sex that relates to her life and the bible. Being as that, the wife from Bath is a religious woman who follows the contexts of the Bible with her daily and sexual life; as what she should do and what she should not do. She tells the people who she is traveling with about what it is like being married to five different men and how a woman should keep control over their husbands. By just listening to what the Wife from Bath has to say you can con to the understanding that she uses her husband to the best of her ability before

Diverse Society According to George Shaw “Power does not corrupt men; fools, however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power”, which is a good illustration of the Friar and an opposite view of the Parson. The Canterbury Tales is a collection of twenty-four complete stories written in the Middle Ages by Geoffrey Chaucer. In the story there are pilgrims traveling to the Tabard Inn to meet the Host. The pilgrims vary greatly from those who are or are not morally corrupt.

Throughout the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer introduces a variety of characters and gives information about them. This includes members of the pilgrimage that are directly related to the church. Chaucer makes note of how these people are generally considered “holy”, but in all reality have a number of flaws. Chaucer was essentially saying that there was great corruption in the church during his lifetime. The two characters in particular that stood out to me were the Monk and the Pardoner.

This tale would have helped the medieval audience understand the entire Canterbury Tales more clearly than today’s typical reader. It is one of only two tales composed in prose rather than verse, but the prose clearly and vigorously resolves the moral issues posed by the waywardness of the pilgrims and of the characters in their tales. It explains penitence, the process of contrition, confession, and satisfaction that each sinner must undergo. Also, it explains thoroughly the Seven Deadly Sins, which all good pilgrims must strive to avoid” (Ellis par 3). The author makes sure the reader understands why the Parson’s Tale is important because of where it is placed in the story.

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.

Writers in the Middle Ages could not directly critic society without incurring strong disapproval from powerful institutions, such as the church. In The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer, critics the pilgrims as individuals to show the overview of the church and society. Chaucer’s personal opinions are thinly veiled as he satirizes and praises certain characters as social criticism. Chaucer presents the Parson and the Friar as religious figures in terms of their morality, their vocation, and dedication to the church to criticize the corruption and virtue within the church.