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The pardoner's tale literary analysis
The pardoner's tale literary analysis
The pardoner's tale literary analysis
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The Canterbury Tales all have the same common factor of depicting a common social issue or truth. However, the Pardoner’s Tale depicts an important, universal and timeless message of greed. Greed is the intense and selfish desire for something, especially wealth, power, or food. It is a common factor in the chaotic history of humanity because, as the Pardoner’s Tale describes it, greed is the root of all evil. This tale is timeless and universal because of no matter when or where greed will always be the source of chaos and depravity.
In The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, one of the many characters, the Pardoner, takes advantage of people’s vices and ignorance, preaching against avarice, a sin which he does not feel guilty of committing. The Pardoner in The Canterbury Tales speaks of greed as “the root of all sin” and of himself as doing “Christ’s holy work”; although, he “practices” avarice himself he has no guilt of his thievery. The Pardoner deceives the towns people by falsifying professionalism by “speak[ing] a few works in Latin” and displaying his “bishop’s seal” on his “license” disguising himself as a trustworthy person.
There are seven deadly sins which consist of pride, envy, gluttony, lust, anger, greed, and sloth or laziness. To make the moral of a tale tempting for the reader to keep reading Chaucer includes one of the seven deadly sins in his tales to portray excitement throughout the entire tale making the theme to be surprising or unanticipated. Therefore, in the Pardoner’s Tale, the author uses greed which shows a variety of different literary elements being used to impact the theme of the tale. In the Pardoner's Tale, one of the seven deadly sins expressed in the writing is greed.
The pardoner's tale, featured in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, was focused on the moral sways of men from the influences of greed. This tale was played out to reflect what Chaucer believed to be the foolish attempt to cheat death through the buying of indulgences, which had become wide spread at this time. The tale began with three drunk men playing dice. One of them got the idea that he would go out and kill death. The others agree and the three drunkards swear an oath to never forsake each other and thus they depart to find death.
I feel that “The Pardoner’s Tale” is appropriate for the Pardoner to tell because the story reflects a lot of himself. The Pardoner was one of the people who sold “tickets to heaven” as they called it, and also sold pardons to people for their sins. This he even admit did not work and he was solely doing this for the gain of money. The Pardoner even said he would do it to a poor widow. Therefore this is all a trick and it deceives people to think they are actually getting rid of their sins when they aren’t.
The tone of the Pardoner throughout the course of the story presents an image of a man dealing with questions about his faith. In the prologue, the pardoner preaches against sins such as pride, laziness, hypocrisy and dishonesty. A great many people do wrong; taking the easier way out, the Pardoner strives to show them the error of their ways. The pardoner has an attitude of concern; he wants them to be a better people.
In The Pardoner’s Prologue he says that he will do whatever he needs to do to get what he wants. In The Pardoner’s Tale it says “ For this young man was utterly content to kill them both and never to repent” (Chaucer 130). This quote is from when the third rioter is on his way to get poison, and it shows that he did not mind killing the two other rioters, to get all the Gold for himself. The other two rioters are at the tree when one of them says “ ‘Well,’ said his friend, ‘you see that we are two, and two are twice as powerful as one.
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/
This irony is found not only in the Pardoner’s Character, but in the tale that the Pardoner tells. It is ironic that the pardoner is telling a story of greed, when he himself is very greedy. Even after he is done telling his story in his drunken stupor he says on page 134, lines 328 through 334; “Dearly beloved, God forgive your sin and keep you from the vice of avarice! My holy pardon frees you all of this, provided that you make the right approaches, that is with the sterling rings, or silver broaches. Bow down your heads under this holy bull!
The Pardoner preaches to the “yokels” (L. 66 Pardoner's Prologue) that “Avarice is the root of all evil”. Synonymous with greed, avarice is the very thing that the Pardoner preaches against while he himself is using modern psychology and gulit tactics to profit at the expense of others. He admits that what he does is simply a game to him and that he knows he is a fraud. It truly shows a lack of morality in that he is so willing to continue his business when he is aware that he is a con artist. The Wife of Bath is another character within “The Canterbury Tales” that has major character flaws.
Greed or Wrath? Greed, greed is in the air, greed greed is everywhere. Geoffrey Chaucer’s story The Canterbury Tales begins with a prologue explaining the main points of the stories that follow the prologue. The two Stories “The Pardoner’s Tale” and “The Wife of bath’s Tale” are two of the stories in The Canterbury Tales.
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.
The pardoner’s integrity does affect the validity of the lesson he preaches, because of how evil and wrong his morals are. His lesson is greed is the root of all evil, and he proves this lesson well by being evil because how greedy and deceiving he is. He shows how greedy he is by selling people fake relics for money. Here, he explains how he tricks people in devious ways: “And always has been, since I learnt the game, / Old as the hills and fresher than the grass” (Chaucer 241). The word “game” means how he plays people into buying into his trickey and fake relics by persuading innocent people.
In The Pardoner’s Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer, there is a very poor old man who says “To find out death, turn up this crooked way / Towards that grove, I left him there today / Under a tree, and there you’ll find him waiting.” (Line 155-157). This is significant to the story because death is a main theme throughout the tale. When the three characters reach the tree they only find gold. However this is still considered as death.
Maternal Love in different characters of “A Mercy” “A Mercy” is a novel written by Toni Morrison. The connection between mother and child is clear throughout the story. From different women characters, including Floren’s mother, Floren, Sorrow, and Lina, readers can see and relate how each character expresses and interacts in the sense of motherhood. In the story, Florens is a young slave who is exchanged for money to Jacob. Since her mother offers her to Jacob, she seems to live her entire life thinking that her mother does not love her unlike her brother.
