Irony In Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales

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. Also, he clarifies that his relics are fake, “Relics they are, at least for such are known” (Chaucer 241). He explains how people think his relics are real, but they are simply fake and he gives

Here, he explains that he preaches at churches: “My lords, he said, in churches where I preach / I cultivate a haughty kind of speech / And ring it as loudly as a bell” (Chaucer 241). This means that he preaches at a church to people, but he is using the church to his advantage. He uses the church because he speaks loudly of things that will only persuade people to buy his relics so he could get money. This is an example of situational irony, because people expect good, holy people to preach at churches. So, because he preaches at a church, people will see him as more believable because they expect only good to come out of a chruch. This makes him very greedy, and also makes him very evil becuase he is in God’s house spreading lies. This validates the lesson he preaches because he is evil because of how greedy he is. “I’ve got it all by heart, the tale I tell” (Chaucer 241). This means that he does the same thing to people in every church he goes to. He lies, he is greedy, and he uses the church to persuade and get people to believe in his