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The Pardoner In The Canterbury Tales

580 Words3 Pages

The Pardoner in the Canterbury Tales is not a “noble ecclesiast” because of visual suggestions that are given by Chaucer. Chaucer describes the Pardoner as being an odd fellow, having an unnaturally feminine composition. The Pardoner has long golden hair, a high voice, and bulging eyeballs (which suggest a hormonal imbalance, associating him more with a feminine character). The fact that he was feminine also shed light that he might be homosexual, which was contradictory to the Church’s beliefs that he worked for. The Pardoner is described wearing expensive clothing, and many extravagant accessories. The accessories worn by the Pardoner are ironic because most of his accessories are crosses, and he is anything but a holy man. The idea of the irony of the Pardoner is best portrayed in line 705, “He’d sewed a holy …show more content…

Working for the church, the Pardoner’s spiritual condition should have been fantastic, but in reality, he was one of the most distant pilgrims from God. The weakness of the Pardoner’s spiritual condition is rooted in his love for money, which obviously overpowers his obedience to God. Line 706 describes the Pardoner’s love for money in a subtle way, “His wallet lay before him on his lap,”. By using soft words here, Chaucer showed that money was always on the Pardoner’s mind, as the word “lay” portrays a subtle manner of the wallet, but it still shows that it is there. Not only is the Pardoner crooked in his job, but the job he has is crooked itself. By selling indulgences, the Pardoner again puts his love for money in between himself and God. The Pardoner is not spiritually strong lastly because of his sexual condition. Being gay in the church was frowned upon greatly, and was actually a sin. In the way the that the Pardoner was portrayed, it is almost obvious that he is a sexual pervert, and a homosexual partner with the

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498 Words | 2 Pages

“Radix malorum est cupiditas.” A quote that sets the tone for the entire story greed is the root of all evil. Geoffrey Chaucer so perfectly illustrates verbal irony in the prologue making it easy for you to place yourself in his mind. As the Pardoner being a priest for him to stand in the pulpit and look down upon the congregation referring to them as yokels and turn around and lie to the people whose souls you are there to save is irony as clear as it gets. The prologue gives us insight on who the Pardoner is as he blatantly states that he preaches for nothing but for the greed of gain he shows how corrupt he is.

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1053 Words | 5 Pages

A pardoner is a man who sells religious relics of forgiveness to sinners. However, Chaucer’s Pardoner is an untrustworthy character who sells fake tokens for a profit. He boasts of his great ability to preach, and ironically, his favorite topic is greed. “

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685 Words | 3 Pages

No,no, that’s never been my policy”(p,152, lines 100-114)! The Pardoner looks down upon peasants and gluttony. To which he is being hypocritical because he is greedy with gaining money. The misuse of trust is greatly displayed on how the Pardoner practically takes the earnings of people who are being tricked into believing they are

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880 Words | 4 Pages

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)

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857 Words | 4 Pages

In order to define the Pardoner's position in gay history and grasp Chaucer's intentions with this character, Kruger aims to understand medieval homophobia and homosexuality. Through his study of homophobic trends and the Pardoner's character and tale, Kruger does not aim to prove the Pardoner's homosexuality or necessarily "claim" him, but nonetheless views the possibility of a gay Pardoner to be

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761 Words | 4 Pages

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

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599 Words | 3 Pages

“All they needed was a series of impressive looking letters and a confident manner in making the appeal” (Chaucer role of pardoner).The pardoner would go on to using the same tricks on everyone they saw near them. All they did was pull out the papers with the bishop's signature and use a confident manner to impress them. When the people of the villages found out about the scamming they would just ignore the pardoner's when they saw them. The pardoner’s were looked down upon the people all over the villages and all across the land. They would just simply ignore them or just keep on walking if they happened to come across a pardoner.

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608 Words | 3 Pages

“Radix malorum est cupiditas” translated from Latin into “Greed is the root of all evil.” (Chaucer 125) Throughout the Pardoner’s Tale, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, this is the story of three men that treat people lower than them and they end up finding a whole pile of gold, but they end up killing each other to get the gold to themselves. The entirety of the three men end up dead and not even one gets the gold. There are many topics involving greed, this essay will involve what it is about, the dangers, and the benefits of controlling the desire to gain.

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72 Words | 1 Pages

Representation Over Education It is in human nature to make assumptions on a topic without understanding the full meaning. Not all of us are experts in Native American culture, but we have all been brainwashed to believe the same things: That they are uneducated savages who have no purpose. This is just one of many examples that which popular culture shapes the way that we view others. We all want to belong

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871 Words | 4 Pages

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).

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765 Words | 4 Pages

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/

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721 Words | 3 Pages

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

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383 Words | 2 Pages

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.

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503 Words | 3 Pages

“Then I show forth my long glass cases, crammed full of clothes and bones: all the people believe that they are holly relics” (The Pardoner’s Tale, 1). The Pardoner’s avarice and ability to deliver

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1147 Words | 5 Pages

In the story, both the characters on the pilgrimage and the characters within the stories themselves display elements of church corruption. Out of all the characters on the journey, the Pardoner is the most obvious case of a corrupt member of the church. The prologue of the Pardoner illustrates his obsession with material wealth and the hypocrisy of his job. During this drunken state, he rants to the company that “Covetousness is both the root and stuff of all I preach” (p. 243) this oxymoronic phrase illustrates his corruption. Covetousness refers to one of the ten commandments; You shall not covet your neighbors

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