Allegory In The Pardoner's Tale

1.) 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. b.) Like stated above, greed is not a virtue by any means. Virtues are good qualities to strive for and try to model our daily lives after. The men in “The Pardoner” realized that greed is the root of all evil. The prologue told us “Radix Malorum Cupiditas” which means “greed is the root of all evil.” The 3 became greedy for what they believed was behind the tree, and this ended up turning

This is because the Pardoner himself is a very greedy person. He chooses to steal from the church, make money off of things that are not worth anything, and chooses to cheat society. He was supposed to be the one who was pardoning people from their sins that they committed, but instead he was worried about himself and what he had. b.) In making this tale, Chaucer had a point that he wanted to make overall. He wanted to show that people can be truly greedy at times and can even go to desperate measures to achieve what they ultimately want. He might be trying to tell us that the characters in his tales think they are doing the right thing, but in the end they are doing what is morally opposed and rejected.

4.) a.) In the story, the old man states that he saw death behind the tree. He is the key figure for the 3 main characters to see the character of “Death”. Without the man, the 3 wouldn’t have been led to the tree to not even find what they were seeking, but something completely