Geoffrey Chaucer's masterpiece "The Canterbury Tales" depicts characters from every stratum of feudal society and exposes the contradictions of the character's social roles. As a Church representative, the Pardoner, for instance, is to be a scammer of gullible believers. His tale is an ironic narrative that speaks about human morality. The Pardoner's tale is of three men finding fortune to have a better life and defeat death, but end up killing each other. Though the use of irony in "The Pardoner's Tale" satirizes both the corruption of the Catholic Church and individual human greed and materialism as evidenced by the characters in the tale and the Pardoner himself. The prologue or the introduction of the Pardoner's tale reveals his true character. The Pardoner uses his ties as a Church to manipulate people into giving him ill- gotten funds. He tells false tales and displays false artifacts just to fuel his "avarice." The Pardoner makes a lucrative living preaching "mockeries" in his "sermon, for it frees the pelf" and his purpose is to "win" and not to redeem people of "sin." The Pardoner himself is an embodiment of irony and contradiction by not only his practice of corruption but his tale being a moving parable that would strike shame within a person. The main characteristic of his personality and his tale is summed in his biblical statement in Latin, "Radix malorum est cupiditas," translated as "the love of money is the root of all evil." His irony derives from his wealthy-beggar status, corruption of the Church, and his tale denouncing all of his practices. The tales three main characters of three young men drinking at local tavern and stumble upon the rumors of a thief named Death that began killing ruthlessly around a local village. The three men then swear to "kill this traitor Death" and made an oath to "live and die for one another." Their oath begins the theme of irony as later, these men who wished to protect each other like brothers all lay dead, being murdered by one another over ill-gotten fortune. Their oath also calls to kill and murder death, death being an unstoppable inevitable way life cannot be defied, and it is humorist thought that they challenged a natural factor of life. Though they pledged to rid death from the people, when they meet an old man, they ask why he is even bothering to live.
In “The Pardoner’s Tale,” Geoffrey Chaucer masterfully frames an informal homily. Through the use of verbal and situational irony, Chaucer is able to accentuate the moral characteristics of the Pardoner. The essence of the story is exemplified by the blatant discrepancy between the character of the storyteller and the message of his story. By analyzing this contrast, the reader can place himself in the mind of the Pardoner in order to account for his psychology.
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. .
In Livre des Persecutions des Crestens, Paris there is a wood carving that depicts Satan's influence on reformers of the Catholic Church ( document 5). The carving represents society's view on both reformers and the church's response to the reformers. Society was all of the community of people with the same customs laws and organization and they were not in favor of change. We also discover society’s discontentment with the church in Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales (Document 3). The Canterbury Tales, written in 1388, describe the pardoner using negative connotation and possessing bad morals. We are told that the partner puts on a show for the assembly at mass in order to encourage them to pay indulgences: “To win some silver, as he right well could;/ The loude and the merrier he would sing” (Document 3). Chaucer’s views and description of the pardoner was true because he was a part of the general population meaning he was a common man. The significance of him being a common man means that the other common had similar view points to his. He used real life to create his social satire of a book. The indulgences in the church were viewed in many different ways. Before the Reformation the sale of indulgences granted partial salvation and remission of sins in purgatory
In Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the Pardoners Prologue, we see the theme of hypocrisy throughout the play. The pardoner knows he is a con artist and liar and freely admits it in both word and action in his tales prologue. The pardoner begins with the tale itself. In his sermon he describes gluttony in detail, and defines it as not only overeating, but the intense pleasure of doing it. He also denounces wine with examples of drunkenness. He also discusses swearing and cursing and concludes with condemning gambling.However, we can see hypocrisy be4 the tale even begin.The pardoner before telling his tale stops off at an inn for food &bear .He also partakes in a bet , whoever tells the best story wins. The pardoner also insults the host, who just before asking the pardoner to speak has been cursing and using bear to mend his broken heart. Furthermore, he is also the owner of the tavern which encourages eating &drinking. We can also assume that the pardoner and the host r drunk.In addition, the pardoner offers his lisnters a chance to redeem themselves, not through relics by acknowledging what they did wrong.However,at the end of his tale is saying his relics are needed for redemption eventhough he knows they are fake. In conclusion we see how through the pardoner the theme of hypocrisy.
Chaucer, Geoffrey. "The Pardoner's Tale." Chaucer's Works. Ed. Walter W. Skeat. Vol. 4. London: U of Oxford, 2007. N. pag. Web. 24 Apr. 2014
Are there many ways that themes and symbols can be shown in stories? Geoffrey Chaucer uses many different themes, symbols and styles in writing all of tales in The Canterbury Tales. By using these things, Geoffrey utilizes several specific symbols to illustrate various central themes. The characters in the tales make the same mistakes that ordinary people would make, and they receive the same or even worse consequences. One message that is portrayed is greed can make people to evil actions. An example of this is in "The Pardoner's Tale," when the three friends wind up killing each other because of their greed for the money. The second message that is displayed is that one should be careful when meeting strangers and to be cautious of the sincerity of false flattery from those that one does not know. For example, in "The Nun's Priest's Tale," Chanticleer falls for false flattery from Sir Russell Fox, but then he gets even with him when he to uses it to trick Sir Russell Fox. The third and last message that is shown is that reformation in a person can occur because of some type of punishment. This theme occurs in " The Wife of Bath," in that the lady that the knight has to marry is old and ugly, but because of this punishment of having to marry her, he eventually starts to like her. As shown with the three friends in "The Pardoner's Tale", greed stabs friends in the back and deceives them into doing wrong. There are two occasions in which the three friends plot against each other so one may receive more money than the others may. First of all, the three friends find a collection of gold coins under a tree, which they decide should be theirs and they choose to try to take it. They realize ...
One of the most recognized attribute of Chaucer’s narrative was the ability to create characters that embodied features distant from the fiction, making them very real and believable through the writing. To verify this statement it is necessary to examine Chaucer’s work. The most celebrated of them is the collection of stories "The Canterbury Tales" (originally written in Middle English) which were the last work of Geoffrey Chaucer and perhaps the best of the middle ages in England. Therefore, for literary reasons, three characters were taken for an analysis to distinguish the level of transcendence recognized (if any) in their inner and outer lives.
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 pardoner shows major hypocrisy through his actions by being someone of authority in the church but coming off as very untrustworthy. He is a thief, a liar, and a fraud and is open about all of this to the people. He admits that he is only doing what he does for money. He tells this comical story to the pilgrims and is really just describing his tactics and letting the people know that he thinks he is doing no wrong. He is literally preaching but doing the opposite of what he preaches. Chaucer could have included this story to tell readers to be careful who they trust and that fraud surrounds us if we aren’t careful with what we choose to
Through the Prologue to the Pardoner's tale, the character of the Pardoner is revealed. Although the Pardoner displays many important traits, the most prevalent is his greed. Throughout the prologue, the Pardoner displays his greed and even admits that the only thing he cares about is money: "I preach nothing except for gain" ("Pardoner's Tale", Line 105). This avarice is seen strongly in the Pardoner's tale as well. In the Pardoner's tale, three friends begin a journey in order to murder Death. On their journey, though, an old man leads them to a great deal of treasure. At this point, all three of the friends in the tale display a greed similar to the Pardoner's. The three friends decide that someone should bring bread and wine for a celebration. As the youngest of the friends leaves to go buy wine, the other two greedily plot to kill him so they can split the treasure only two ways. Even the youngest decides to "put it in his mind to buy poison / With which he might kill his two companions" (383, 384). The greed, which is evident in the character of the Pardoner, is also clearly seen in the tale.
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.
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.
The Church is the first institution that Chaucer attacks using satire in The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer wants to attack the church’s hypocrisy. Chaucer decides to create the character of the pardoner to prove his point. Cawthorne conveys, “His Canterbury Tales collects together 24 narratives with a General Prologue and an epilogue or Retraction.” Chaucer describes the character before telling their tale. The Pardoner is a man who steals from the poor. Chaucer says on page 127 line 77, “For though I am a wholly vicious man don’t think I can’t tell moral tales.” The pardoner knows what he does is wrong, but he continues to do it anyway.
The Canterbury Tales is a great contemplation of stories, that display humorous and ironic examples of medieval life, which imitate moral and ethical problems in history and even those presented today. Chaucer owed a great deal to the authors who produced these works before his time. Chaucer tweaked their materials, gave them new meanings and revealed unscathed truths, thus providing fresh ideas to his readers. Chaucer's main goal for these tales was to create settings in which people can relate, to portray lessons and the irony of human existence.