Geoffrey Chaucer, the father of English literature, was born in circa in London. He is most famous for writing his unfinished work, The Canterbury Tales, which is considered as one of the greatest poetic works in English. The Pardoner is the epitome of hypocrisy. In his prologue, the Pardoner confesses that he is a fraud motivated by greed and avarice and that he is guilty of all seven sins.
Even though he is essentially a hypocrite in his profession, he is at least being honest as he makes his confession. Why are the three rioters looking for Death? They are looking for Death because a boy told them it was death who killed the person in the coffin and other people in town. They expect to find Death sitting there under the tree, but instead they find treasure. An allegory is a story which characters, settings, and events stand for moral concepts.
Allegories contain meanings that are symbolic and literal. My tale I will begin. Heere bigynneth the Pardoners Tale. By abominable excess. That it is grisly to hear them swear. And each of them laughed at the other's sin. That is joined unto gluttony. That lechery is in wine and drunkenness. So drunk he was, he knew not what he did. To slay John the Baptist, full guiltless.
Lasts longer than does drunkenness. O gluttony, full of cursedness! O first cause of our ruin! Until Christ had bought us with his blood again! Was bought that same cursed villainy! Corrupt was all this world for gluttony.
Were driven for that vice, there is no doubt. Immediately he was cast out to woe and pain. O gluttony, on thee well we ought to complain! Of his diet, sitting at his table. To get a glutton dainty food and drink! God shall destroy both," as Paul says. Through that same cursed excess.
O bely! O stynkyng cod, O gut! O belly! O stinking bag, Fulfilled of dong and of corrupcioun! Filled with dung and with corruption! At either end of thee the sound is foul. How great labor and cost it is to feed thee! To fulfill all thy gluttonous desire! That may go through the gullet softly and sweetly. To make him yet a newer appetite.
Is dead, while he lives in those vices. Is full of striving and of wretchedness. And yet, God knows, Sampson never drank any wine. Of man's wit and his discretion. He can keep no secrets; there is no doubt. That is for sale in Fishstreet or in Cheapside.
Were done in abstinence and in prayer. Look in the Bible, and there you can learn it. Bleeding ever at his nose in drunkenness. A captain should live in sobriety. About giving wine to those that have the duty of doing justice.
No more of this, for it may well suffice. Now I will forbid you gambling. To be considered a common dice player. The more is he considered abandoned to shame. Held the less in reputation. From Sparta to make their alliance. Playing at dice he found them. To ally you unto any dice-players. Than I should ally you to dice-players. This wise philosopher, thus said he. Other pilgrims interject that they would prefer to hear a moral story, and the Pardoner again agrees. After getting a drink, the Pardoner begins his Prologue.
He tells the company about his occupation—a combination of itinerant preaching and selling promises of salvation. The parishioners always believe him and make their offerings to the relics, which the Pardoner quickly pockets. The Pardoner admits that he preaches solely to get money, not to correct sin. He argues that many sermons are the product of evil intentions.
By preaching, the Pardoner can get back at anyone who has offended him or his brethren. In his sermon, he always preaches about covetousness, the very vice that he himself is gripped by. His one and only interest is to fill his ever-deepening pockets. He would rather take the last penny from a widow and her starving family than give up his money, and the good cheeses, breads, and wines that such income brings him. The Pardoner describes a group of young Flemish people who spend their time drinking and reveling, indulging in all forms of excess.
After commenting on their lifestyle of debauchery, the Pardoner enters into a tirade against the vices that they practice. First and foremost is gluttony, which he identifies as the sin that first caused the fall of mankind in Eden. Next, he attacks drunkenness, which makes a man seem mad and witless. Next is gambling, the temptation that ruins men of power and wealth. Finally, he denounces swearing.
The rioters, for example, primarily represent Greed. The Pardoner is very explicit about the lesson his audience is meant to take away from the tale: radix malorum est cupiditas — greed is the root of all evil. Of course, the Pardoner doesn't mind if his audience also learns another lesson: "show me the money. Parents Home Homeschool College Resources.
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