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Chaucer's depiction of greed in the pardoner's tale
Chaucer's depiction of greed in the pardoner's tale
Greed in the pardoner's tale by geoffrey chaucer
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The Pardoner’s Tale Chaucer wrote the Canterbury Tales which included The ‘Pardoner Tale’. This tale is about 3 people seeking death because this death had been killing people from the town. These literary terms used in this tale describe this whole tale. The Pardoner’s Tales which have a lot of literary terms like personification, allusion, and irony throughout the entire tale.
The Pardoner as viewed by most is a greedy man. He is considered by some the epitome of greedy and a mal-intent. When he is telling his story of the three men who vowed one day to kill Death, and ended up killing each other over money, the Pardoner is inadvertently giving the audience a description of himself. The Pardoner is telling the audience that he is a man driven by greed, but a pure greed he is fearful of turning malicious. The pardoner begins by saying “I preach nothing but for greed of gain and use the same old text, as bold as brass, Radix malorum est cupiditas and thus I preach every vice I make a living out of- avarice…
Each tale reveals moral lessons that attempt to prevent the reader from performing the same mistakes as the character. “The Pardoner’s Tale” and “The Reeve’s Tale” possess similar themes, distinct differences arise in the topics presented in each passage. “The Pardoner’s Tale” and “The Reeve’s Tale” illustrates how greed corrupts men, how sin leads to more sin, and how revenge drives men to undertake foolish feats. The differences between Chaucer’s tales allows for a humorous yet insightful
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)
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 delineated his Friar as a carefree playboy, which is an unexpected dissimilarity from the normal picture of ministers as devout and self-restrained. As opposed to carrying on with his life among poor people, just like his promise, the Friar "knew the tavernes wel in each toun," and delighted in singing and moving while at the same time taking liberal gifts of silver from blame ridden penitents. By delineating the Friar along these lines, Chaucer in all likelihood made his perusers snicker. People in general face of fourteenth century religious communities was of sheltered prudence and strict train. In truth, numerous religious requests of the day had become monstrously rich from blame offerings and tithes gathered from pioneers.
The presence of greed utilized by Chaucer in the Pardoner’s tale presents satire as his character is meant to be honorable, yet, behind the scenes is actually the most unethical one. The first example the audience is shown of this fraud is as the pardoner explains his motives, when he states, “Of avarice and of swich cursednesse/ Is al my prechyng, for to make hem free/ To yeven hir pens; and namely, unto me!/ For myn entente is nat but for to wynne,/ And no thyng for correccioun of synne” (114 – 118).
To fully appreciate the layers of irony in “The Pardoner’s Tale,” you must consider all types of irony. There are three types of irony: verbal irony is when something is said that contradicts the truth, or is the opposite of how the person speaking truly feels, situational irony is when events have an affect on a situation to make the outcome the opposite of what was expected, and dramatic irony is when the significance of actions and doings of the characters in a story are obvious but the characters within the story remain oblivious. Within “The Pardoner's Tale” in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, all types of irony are used throughout the story in order to show society uses deliberate ignorance to justify its wrong doings. Particularly,
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
He does not set a good example for humanity for he “Made monkeys of the priest of congregation”(726). Chaucer uses satire very much in the Pardoners character because he is not being the religious figure whom he was expected to portray in the poem. The Pardoner is a fraud and a liar, when he is suppose to be a honest person of God. In the Canterbury Tales, the Frair, Monk and Pardoner are all given satire to give strong messages and deep characteristics.
Two stories, regardless of being written in 14th Century Europe, they still have valuable lessons. “The Pardoner’s Tale”, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, is a short story from The Canterbury Tales which is a book of short stories of those who traveled to The Canterbury Cathedral with Chaucer. “The Pardoner’s Tale” holds similar qualities to Giovanni Boccaccio’s short story “Federigo’s Falcon” from The Decameron. For example, both of these stories share the same interwoven literary elements such as: irony and symbolism. Through these the authors skillfully portray a battle of overcoming fate.
There is enough in the world for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed”(Frank Buchman). This quote expresses the pardoner’s character as greed. Chaucer is the father of English poetry. Canterbury tales is where a social occasion of travelers who are prompting to tell four stories during their travel. One of the traveler is Pardoner.
Dramatic irony, in literature, is used to show the obliviousness of one or more characters to what is going on around them. It is for the reader, or audience, to gain more knowledge on the character that the character himself is unaware of. In Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, more specifically “The General Prologue,” the narrator uses this dramatic irony to introduce the pilgrims who embark on the journey to the Canterbury Cathedral. In particular, the monk and the friar are introduced by the narrator with great prestige. They are described with honor and holiness.
As a writer and a narrator of this tale, it also had represent and reflect Chaucer’s mainly attitude to his life. Chaucer is a person who is loyal to life,
Chaucer while describing the characters deliberately leaves the pardoner to last he places him at the very bottom of humanity because he uses the church and his so called holy relics to profit personally. The Pardoner's 'hair as yellow as wax, hanging down smoothly like a hank of flax,' (general prologue 693) implies his lack of man hood and impotence. This is further emphasized through the description of him having a high pitched goat like voice,
