Greed In The Pardoner's Tale

In “ The Pardoner's Tale” and “ The Wife of Bath” by Geoffrey Chaucer, the people who do not learn from the mistakes they make suffer repercussions.

In “The Pardoner's Tale” a major theme of greed surfaces, and it plays a role in the decisions of the three rioters. The men decide it is necessary to take revenge on death for the killing of their friend, where avengement is a very noble deed. After the men rally themselves as a brotherhood, they find an old man who points them in the direction he last saw death, “[They] began to run, and reached the tree,and there they found a pile of golden florins on the ground” (lines 167-169). The three rioters are rewarded with gold for their selfless action, proving that good deeds lead to gratifying outcomes.

During the time the youngest of the group is sent out to fetch food and supplies; he plots a deceitful plan to ensure the gold for himself. He thinks that “ There was always poison to be bought, that with poison he could kill his friends” (Line 245-246) but, as a repercussion to his evil deed “ they fell on him and slew him, two to one” ( Line 282). The action attempted by the youngest to betray his friends results in his own death as a consequence. The youngest’s behavior, which was purely based on greed, blinded him from making virtuous choices. Likewise, the other two rioters are punished as they too were blinded by their own selfish desires. After the youngest rioter left for town, the older two rioters decided to kill the youngest in order to make their own share of gold larger: “When he comes back… I'll up and put my dagger through his back… then all this money will be ours to spend”( Lines 225-230). After the deed was done they celebrated and “took a bottle full of poison up and drank… so they perished both” (Lines 287-289). In