The three characters from the Canterbury tales: the Pardoner, the Wife of Bath, and Walter from the clerk’s tale, all have aspects that are represented in today’s society. The Pardoner’s religious views are still present today. The Wife of Bath’s ethics and the morals of Walter from the Clerk’s Tale are also present.
In the Canterbury tales the Pardoner is portrayed as somewhat of a detestable character who has some very unconventional views on sin and religion. He uses his title to trick people into purchasing his pardons and relics which are essentially worthless. He entices people into buying from him by offering them a warning: “good men and women, here’s a word of warning; if there is anyone in church this morning guilty of sin so far beyond expression… shall have no power or grace to offer to my relics in this place” (Chaucer 260). He makes people feel obligated to buy his relics because if they do not, everyone else will believe he or she is a sinner. The Pardoner also believes that people who sin and are unaware are worse off than those who sin while being aware of it. Likewise, the people that purchase his pardons are those who are unaware that they are sinning and, thus, are worse off than the pardoner who admits that
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A gold digger is a woman who marries for money which is exactly what the Wife of Bath did. An example of a modern gold digger is a woman named Elin Nordegren, former wife of Tiger Woods, a famous golfer. She divorced Tiger Woods and received One hundred million dollars. At age thirty-three she began to date the son of a billionaire and eventually married a man, 55 years of age, who had earned billions in the coal industry. She married solely for money and evidently shares similar ethics as the Wife of Bath. She had multiple marriages (like the Wife of Bath) and her husbands were both wealthy, older men. So it is clear that some women today share the same ethics as the Wife of