The Pardoner's Tale contains an old man said to be working with Death according to one of the rioters. Although the reader doesn’t know if that is the case. As the story progresses the reader gathers a lot of information about the old man that leads to several different theories about his role in the story. He is a mysterious character and is put in the story solely for the point of telling the rioters where to go to find Death. One could say he is portrayed as a bridge connecting the rioters starting and end points together. It is up to the reader to forge their own opinion, with the evidence they are given about the old man, on the matter. The old man in The Pardoner's Tale can be regarded as Death himself, Death’s ally, or as a sort of anti-pardoner.
The old man could represent Death himself. The old man is confronted by the three rioters and he tells them where he last saw Death. The three rioters die at the tree later, which could mean the old man knew they would be consumed by greed and die up there, hinting at the old man being Death. “Thus these two murderers received their due, so did the treacherous young poisoner too.”
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The old man is completely up for debate in the sense of his role throughout the story. As the story went on the reader got more and more information alluding to who he is and his actual role. But nothing is set in stone because the story never reveals anything more than what is said about the old man. The old man could be Death, working for Death, or a anti-pardoner put into the story to make the reader or listener consider if the old man stands for something completely different than what the reader is thought to conclude from the story. The reader can only assume, for all anyone knows the old man could just be there for the sake of telling the rioters to go towards the tree, nothing is for certain about the old