“The Pardoner’s Tale” from The Canterbury

Talesby Geoffrey Chaucer

What is a Pardoner?

A pardoner was a person who had a license to sell pardons for sins committed. Basically, if you wanted your sins to be forgiven, you would give the pardoner a certain amount of money, and he would “take away” your sins.

Theme, Tone, and Moral

• Theme-Avoiding sin and the consequences of sinning

• Tone- Hypocritical• Moral-When you commit a sin, like greed, it

will usually be the death of you. Also, if you go looking for Death, you will find him.

• Chaucer’s Attitude-The Pardoner will eventually reveal his sinful side. There are a few hints in the prologue about how the Pardoner isn’t as pure as he seems to be. (i.e. at the end of the prologue, it says that the Pardoner will get the money and food that he wants whether he has to take it from a poor widow or a poor page)

Genre- category a story or script falls into (i.e. thriller,

horror)• The genre of “The Pardoner’s Tale” is

Sermon.

• Sermons are exhortations (encouragements) to abandon vice (moral weakness) and turn to being virtuous (morally excellent)

“The Pardoner’s Tale”…a Sermon?

There are a few reasons why this tale is classified as a Sermon

1.) The story begins with the Pardoner preaching about sins like gluttony (eating excessive amount of food) and avarice. (an intense need for wealth)

2.) The actual tale itself is about what happens when you commit sins like avarice.

What kind of guy is this Pardoner?

• The Pardoner isn’t exactly noble, but he is well respected. A lot of people believe that he never does anything wrong.

• The Pardoner tells the tale to make up for all the bad things he does.

• He wants to teach people not to be sinful and do things like gamble, be greedy or drink and eat in gross amounts.

Summary of “The Prologue”

Chaucer said that the Pardoner is always preaching about staying away from avarice, which is a overwhelming desire for wealth. But towards the end of the prologue, Chaucer reveals that the Pardoner said that no matter what, he will get “money, wool, cheese, and wheat” whether he has to take money from a poor widow or page, or a person who has no kids because of famine. Every town he visits, he says that he will have a “wench”, which is a young woman. And by “have” he means…well you know what he means. And no matter what, the pardoner will not get a job, because he doesn’t want to work his poor, fragile hands. He will preach and beg in sundry (different) lands until he gets the money and goods he needs. At the end of the prologue, the Pardoner says that even though he is a “vicious man” (someone who will inflict pain or suffering), he can still tell a “moral tale.”

Summary of “The Pardoner’s Tale”

The first part of the tale consists of the Pardoner giving a sermon about how bad avarice (intense need for wealth) is and how everyone should repent for their sins. Then the Pardoner goes on to tell a story about three men. The three men were drinking at a tavern, and they saw one of their friends being carried away. They discovered that he had died. They then decided to try to find Death and kill him. On the way to find Death, they came across an old man that tells them where to find death, which was by a tree. Once they arrive at the tree, they find bags of gold.

Summary of “The Pardoner’s Tale”

The three men agree to share it and they send one man to the town for bread and wine. Once he left for town, the other two men plot to kill him with a dagger. The man who went to town plots to kill the other two with rat poison he bought and poured into wine bottles. Once the one man got back from the town, he was killed by the other two with a dagger. Afterwards, they decided to drink and be merry. They ended up drinking the poisoned wine. Needless to say, all three men died and no one received the gold.

Theme

At the end of the tale, the Pardoner talks about how he sells fake relics in order to make a lot of money. He also makes people pay him gold and silver before he would pardon their sins.

A Deeper Meaning?-The tale points out that

1.) even the most unlikely person (a pardoner) sins

2.) sins (like greed) can lead to death and

3.) if you look for Death, you will find him

Actions, Plot, Time Period and Lifestyles

How do the actions and the plot of the story reveal the character’s lifestyle?

The way the pardoner views his actions shows his hyprocracy. He believes, since he pardons people’s sins and preaches the word of God that he can do whatever he wants without paying the consequences. He doesn’t feel any guilt about stealing people’s money, food, and committing the same sin he preaches against every day, avarice. He leads a sinful life without any cares.

Actions, Plot, Time Period and Lifestyles

Clues given about the time period?

Church was a big influence and people were firm believers in being forgiven for their sins. The church had a lot of power and controlled quite a bit of people’s everyday lives. Usually if you were a church member, you were respected and people rarely doubted your actions. So when the Pardoner would ask people for money or food they would never think that he was going to use it for his own pleasure.

Modern-Day Pardoner Billy Graham Billy Graham is a TV Evangelist. He

traveled around the country, preaching God’s word. He said that everyone is a sinner, and will burn in hell if they do not repent. Sometime during the year of 1977, a bank account was found with a sum of $23 million dollars in it. To cover up this bank account, Graham created the Samaritan’s Purse which provides aid to victims of natural disaster, disease, war and poverty.

Billy Graham

Later in the year of 1992, he was being investigated for his use of the company plane, and how much money he paid himself from the Samaritan’s Purse. Obviously Billy boy is going to keep on taking money and whatever else he wants from the Samaritan’s Purse and other organizations.