The Canterbury Tales is a novel about pilgrims that contains a collection of short stories that include both moral and entertainment value. The Canterbury Tales includes a variety of stories to prick the interest of a bigger audience. The host within the novel decides to host and judge a storytelling contest, which is the reason for the collection of stories. The host decides a winner of the contest after all of the stories are told. The host includes specific details regarding the storytelling contest; the storytellers were to tell two stories on the way to where they were traveling, and two on the way back from their destination.“The Knight’s Tale” and “The Pardoner’s Tale” are two separate stories within The Canterbury Tales. The host …show more content…
“The Pardoner’s Tale” is a moral story right from the start. No description of the characters within this tale is given or much background knowledge of them. The only background knowledge given within the story is about Death and what has been going on within the town. “The Pardoner’s Tale” includes moral value when it goes further into what greed is and the effects of greed. The fact that the storyteller goes into such detail about how greed can turn a person wrong, shows major moral value. This tale includes what the storyteller considers sins; things such as drinking, gambling, and swearing, are all considered great sins. This tale focuses more on how to deal with greed and gambling and how those that are greedy are punished. “The Pardoner’s Tale” explains how three men were listening to a sermon and heard a funeral bell ring. They decided to speak with another man and asked who had passed. The man told the three men that it was a friend of theirs, who was brutally slain by Death. The three men decide to go on a hunt and kill Death to avenge their friend. The began to travel down the road and come across a very old, sad man. The older man tells the three men that he left Death under a large tree just nearby. The three men went to the tree and found a pile of gold. Being struck with awe from the large sum of money, they decide to keep it. The oldest of the three tells the other men that if they brought that much money around in the daytime they would be suspected of theft and that they should move it all at night. The youngest man went to town as a favor for the older man, while in town he bought strong poison and put it in two separate bottles of alcohol to poison the other two men. When he returned, he was killed by the two men so that they were able to split the money in half instead of with him as well. The last two men sat down to drink and each picked up a poisoned bottle, unknowingly
The man claims he is waiting for Death to take him for some time, and the angered men are enraged by the name Death. The rioters ask where to find Death, and the old man says they can find death under a certain oak tree. The rioters rush to the tree and find gold coins. The men do not want to be taken as thieves, as discover a plan to transport the gold at night. The men direct the youngest to retreat back to town and grab wine. While the youngest is away, the two remaining men design a plan to kill the third to increase their profits. The man in town is also consumed by greed, and he decides to poison the wine. Retreating with the poison wine, the youngest man is killed by the other two rioters. To celebrate, the two men drink the wine. Within minutes, all three of the greedy rioters are dead. After his tale, the Pardoner asked the group for
In the Fictions of Satire, Ronald Paulson talks about the four ways satire works. It implies corruption, the consequences of it, motivates the reader to make a moral decision, and operates as a corrective (Paulson). It also talks about the difference between Horatian and Juvenalian satire. These different types of satire are used to give different emotions in a story. An example of Horatian satire would be The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer and an example of Juvenalian would be “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift. No matter if a satire is Horatian or Juvenalian, the ultimate goal of a satire is to put humor in a story, while pointing out flaws in society and
The Knight shows bravery and loyalty, and the pardoner displays a great heap of honesty, about himself of course. The Knight was off battling in the crusades until one day he came back just in time to go on a religious journey to a shrine. His bravery was shown there because he fought in the war, let alone he was loyal enough to his religion to come back to the shrine. He had no time to even change his clothes to go onto the journey, but as always he was dressed to battle. Right when he returned he went straight into another journey. This shows his loyalty to his land and people. The other character, the pardoner, was a so called “holy” man who had pardons sins for money. He lied and snuck people into scams which led to more money for the pardoner. Although the pardoner belonged to the church, he is probably the most sinful men on the whole canterbury tales journey. He shows brutal honesty by telling everyone on the journey about his schemeful plans and his “holy relics” that he sells. These relics are all just the things that he found on the side of the road. As a result the pardoner and the knight has shown bravery, honesty, and loyalty to resemble the cultural values of this time
In the Canterbury Tales the narrator goes on a pilgrimage and for entertainment he has the people he went on the pilgrimage with tell him tales. And he would reward whoever told him the best tale. The pardoner's tale is about three friends who let greed and money get to their heads which end up killing their friendships and themselves. The wife of bath's tale is about a knight who let's lust get to his head instead of loving someone for who they are. Although both tales are great tales and give a great moral lesson, The pardoner's tale is the better tale of the two because of its ability to teach a lesson while still creating a great story.
Chaucer, Geoffrey. "The Canterbury Tales Study Guide : Summary and Analysis of The Pardoner's Tale | GradeSaver." Study Guides & Essay Editing | GradeSaver. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2011. .
The Pardoner is the best representation of an allegorical character in “The Prologue” of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. The Pardoner is the perfect personification of fraudulence. He shows this in three basic ways: his appearance, speech, and actions. If one just glances through the reading of the Pardoner than one will think that he is a good religious man, but if one look further into it than he will find the small double meanings that he is the exact opposite. Chaucer likes to use an allegorical style to add some comedy and sophistication to his writings.
The difference between the tale of the Three Brothers and the Pardoners Tale is that in the Pardoners Tale the pardoner told a story of three rioters while the Tale of the three brothers was about three brothers. Unlike the tale of the three brothers, the rioters went searching for death because they wanted revenge. When they found the old man, he said he knew where death was after the three men threatened him and said he was in an old grove and pointed in the direction. When they came upon death they forgot it was death they were searching for because they found 8 barrels full of gold. They wanted everything for themselves and they were willing to kill the other rioters to get it. So they sent the youngest one to go get supplies in the town
There are seven deadly sins that, once committed, diminish the prospect of eternal life and happiness in heaven. They are referred to as deadly because each sin is closely linked to another, leading to other greater sins. The seven deadly sins are pride, envy, anger, sloth, gluttony, avarice, and lechery. Geoffrey Chaucer's masterpiece, The Canterbury Tales, provided an excellent story about the deadly sins. Focusing mainly on the sins of pride, gluttony and greed, the characters found in The Canterbury Tales, particularly The Pardoner's Tale, were so overwhelmed by their earthly desires and ambitions that they failed to see the effects of their sinful actions, therefore depriving themselves of salvation.
Does a morally sound tale become less morally sound based on the teller’s morals? A tale is a tale, and to base a story’s morals off of the teller rather than the message is absurd. This is why The Pardoner’s Tale should win The Host’s contest in the Canterbury Tales over The Wife of Bath’s Tale. When choosing a winner between these two tales, one must first consider the rules on the contest. The Host set the rules that the story must be morally sound, yet entertaining. The tales of the Wife of Bath and the Pardoner are both entertaining, however The Pardoner’s Tale was the only one of the two to be considered morally sound. The Pardoner’s Tale should win over The Wife of Bath’s Tale based on comparison of the tales being entertaining, morally sound and meeting all contest rules set by The Host.
...s laid the stone for. He expresses his tales and describes how he has deceived individuals into buying multiple relics from him. The pardoner mocks the pilgrims with tales of how he has a metal shoulder bone that he received from a holy persons sheep, and that he would tell people that if you were to take this bone to a well and wash it in the water that your livestock would be unable to receive and illness once they drank the water. The most shocking at first is that the Pardoner is not ashamed at all at what tricks he plays on innocent people that trust him. The Pardoner says,
Throughout literature, relationships can often be found between the author of a story and the story that he writes. In Geoffrey Chaucer's frame story, Canterbury Tales, many of the characters make this idea evident with the tales that they tell. A distinct relationship can be made between the character of the Pardoner and the tale that he tells.
The Canterbury Tales is a literary masterpiece in which the brilliant author Geoffrey Chaucer sought out to accomplish various goals. Chaucer wrote his tales during the late 1300’s. This puts him right at the beginning of the decline of the Middle Ages. Historically, we know that a middle class was just starting to take shape at this time, due to the emerging commerce industry. Chaucer was able to see the importance and future success of the middle class, and wrote his work with them in mind. Knowing that the middle class was not interested in lofty philosophical literature, Chaucer wrote his work as an extremely comical and entertaining piece that would be more interesting to his audience. Also, Chaucer tried to reach the middle class by writing The Canterbury Tales in English, the language of the middle class rather than French, the language of the educated upper class. The most impressive aspect of Chaucer’s writing is how he incorporated into his piece some of his own controversial views of society, but yet kept it very entertaining and light on the surface level. One of the most prevalent of these ideas was his view that certain aspects of the church had become corrupt. This idea sharply contrasted previous Middle Age thought, which excepted the church’s absolute power and goodness unquestionably. He used corrupt church officials in his tales to illustrate to his audience that certain aspects of the church needed to be reformed. The most intriguing of these characters was the Pardoner. Chaucer’s satirical account of the Pardoner is written in a very matter-of-fact manner that made it even more unsettling with his audience. Chaucer uses his straightforwardness regarding the hypocrisy of the Pardoner, suggestive physiognomy of the character, and an interesting scene at the conclusion of the Pardoner’s Tale to inculcate his views of the church to his audience. The way that Chaucer used these literary devices to subtly make his views known to an audience while hooking them with entertainment, shows that Chaucer was truly a literary genius.
The Canterbury Tales is more than an amusing assortment of stories; it is an illustration of the society in which Geoffrey Chaucer lived. It portrays the culture and class system of the medieval ages in microcosm. Every strata of human life at the time were represented by the many characters whose tales are told. Each character’s basic human nature also plays a role in their stories, and each one has within them the strengths and weaknesses that make up all of humanity. Each character exemplifies their life and reputation through the stories they tell. The Pardoner uses his tale as a ploy to garner money. His tale embodies each deadly sin, and every reader can relate to his story and feel the guilt of his characters. The Wife of Bath’s tale expresses her own ideals in the way her character is given a second chance after committing a crime. The Franklin’s tale, because of its straightforwardness and honesty is a direct representation of the Franklin’s simple and joyful life. Each character tells a tale that is a suitable match to their personality. These characters’ tales represent prevalent themes of the middle ages, including greed, corruption of religious clergymen, violence, revenge, and social status. In Chaucer’s society, the traditional feudal system was losing its importance and the middle class began to emerge. The middle class characters within the Canterbury Tales, with their personal lives and interactions with members of differing social classes, gave an understanding of the growth of society, especially the rising middle class, during medieval times.
• Genre: Moral Exemplum • Characters: Three men, old man, Death The story starts by showing three drunken men receiving word that one of their friends was killed by a man named Death. Due to their intoxication the trio decides to go after Death and avenge their friend. While the three are travelling down a road they run into a old man who is mumbling about how he is filled with sorrow and has waited for death to take him for a very long time. The men respond by asking the senior where they can find Death.
The Canterbury Tales is a very popular and well known set of stories, written by Geoffrey Chaucer. This collection of stories is great entertainment and some even provide very good moral lessons; most of these stories show the contempt Chaucer had for the Church of England which had control at the time over most of England. Chaucer’s bias towards the corruption of the Church is best demonstrated in the Pardoner’s Prologue, in contradiction with the Parson’s Tale, and the level of power within the Church structure. These are two of the stories of the many that are in The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer uses the Pardoner as a high level leader who is corrupt and yet enables him to convert the sinners even if he does it for personal gain. While the Parson is of lower standing in the Church, he is not corrupt, and gives the message to the pilgrims so that they might be forgiven.