In The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer uses a satirical frame narrative to describe thirty pilgrims’ journey to Canterbury. Included in these pilgrims is Chaucer himself as Chaucer the Pilgrim. The Canterbury Tales, a cross-section of fourteenth-century society, includes every class of society of the time, except royalty and serfs. Chaucer opens the story at the Tabard Inn in Southwark, outside London. Chaucer then introduces the inner frame of the poem, stories the pilgrims are challenged to tell by the Host of the Inn, Harry Bailly, who proposes this contest to prevent boredom on the long pilgrimage to Saint Thomas Beckett’s shrine. The most moral and entertaining tale will win a feast for its teller courtesy of the “losers” when the group returns to the Tabard Inn. Chaucer planned to write one hundred twenty tales in total, each of the thirty pilgrims telling two tales in each direction if he had finished the work. Instead, The Canterbury Tales contains twenty-four tales, two of which are fragments. Chaucer has a knack for matching the teller to his or her tale through his eloquent use of satire. The Pardoner’s Tale teaches the lesson that avarice is the root of evil. Chaucer uses his uncanny ability to match the pilgrim teller to his tale through the Pardoner, who is the least moral person but is able to tell the most moral tale about greed; a quality the Pardoner himself possesses.
Chaucer introduces the Pardoner in the General Prologue and further describes the Pardoner in his own Prologue. In the General Prologue, both physical and non-physical descriptions of the Pardoner are offered. Physically, Chaucer describes the Pardoner as having a feminine appearance. Thus, the Pardoner has long blonde hair described as, “Hair as yellow as wax, / Hanging down smoothly like a hank of flax” (GP 21). In addition, “His chin no beard had harbored” (21). Furthermore, the Pardoner wears a silver cross, a cap with an illegitimate relic sewed on it, and a wallet (21). In the Pardoner’s physical description, Chaucer illustrates the Pardoner as having a woman-like appearance and being concerned with worldly goods. Because of these attributes, the Pardoner’s description holds much significance because it is intended to express his mysterious femininity or possible homosexuality, to compare the Pardoner to other pardoners of the time through satire, and to give background to the reasoning behind the Pardoner’s Tale. The purpose of describing the Pardoner’s long hair and shaven face is to convey his lack of physical masculinity to the reader (Smith 316). Therefore, critics believe that the Pardoner may have been castrated, explaining his boyish features (316). The Pardoner’s unmanly description “invites the reader to suspect that the Pardoner’s clothes conceal an anomalous body in the General Prologue” (De Costa 27). In addition, the Pardoner should not be concerned with worldly goods, such as silver crosses and fake relics, nor should the Pardoner have a wallet as he does not need to carry much money. Therefore, this description makes the Pardoner corrupt; most clergy, like pardoners of the time, were corrupt. Along with physical traits, Chaucer also describes non-physical traits. With purpose, Chaucer writes that the Pardoner travels alongside the Summoner suggesting that the two may be homosexuals (Chaucer 27). Chaucer also speaks about the Pardoner’s high singing voice (21). Logically speaking the Pardoner’s high voice may be a result of castration. In addition, the Pardoner is satirically regarded as a “noble ecclesiast” (21). Chaucer describes the Pardoner in this way to suggest he is a corrupt clergyman (Smith 316). Furthermore, Chaucer expresses the Pardoner’s greed, which is exhibited in his description, but this greed surpasses wanting money; the Pardoner is gluttonous and wants recognition (334). Both physical and non-physical description of the Pardoner are significant because the Pardoner’s descriptions effectively place him in his class and assist in the description of a pardoner’s role in society which has changed over time. However, during the fourteenth-century, pardoners collected money for indulgences, sold relics, sang for money, begged on corners, and collected money from adults joining the Church (314). Consequently, Chaucer’s Pardoner sells indulgences, sells fake relics, and sings for money. The Pardoner’s description effectively places him in the clergy. In The Canterbury Tales, the Pardoner is part of both the peasant class and the clergy. Chaucer makes the Pardoner corrupt, fitting of pardoners and other clergy members of the time (314-15).
The Pardoner’s corruption and greed are further seen in his Prologue and Tale.
Beginning his Prologue with a drink, the Pardoner elaborates about the morals of his sermons. The Pardoner tells the other pilgrims that his sermons teach “Radix malorum est cupiditas”(Chaucer, PardP 241) which translates as greed is the root of evil. Chaucer employes his use of satire because the Pardoner himself is greedy. Furthermore, the Pardoner speaks about his profession and the methods he uses in his profession (Sparkes 6). Professionally, the Pardoner sells relics and preaches, both of which he attempts to do as he tells his tale. The Pardoner claims that these relics cure disease, although shortly after he admits they are animal bones (Chaucer, PardP 241). The entire Prologue resembles the beginning of a sermon. Sparkes explains Prologue, “… the motive of his stories, he says, is to get ‘gold and silver’ (154). The Pardoner knows that people love old stories because they can keep them in mind and repeat them” (Sparkes 6). The Pardoner’s Prologue and the Pardoner himself connect because the Pardoner speaks like a preacher delivering a sermon. “Before his sermon-like tale, the Pardoner displays and explains his preaching techniques” (Dean 1). In addition, the Pardoner does not allow any of the other pilgrims to say a word during his Prologue, which is appropriate to the Pardoner because the Pardoner is intoxicated, showing his gluttony. Furthermore, the prologue is apt to the Pardoner, because the Pardoner acts like a corrupt religious person, which he is. Ending his Prologue without a reaction from the other pilgrims, the Pardoner commands everyone’s attention by asking all to be quiet as he begins his tale by saying “Now please be quiet. Here is the beginning” (Chaucer, PardP 244).
The Pardoner tells an exemplum. This type of tale seeks to teach a moral lesson, so it naturally is similar to a sermon. In the case of the Pardoner’s Tale, the Pardoner seeks to teach the pilgrims that greed is the root of evil and greed leads to death. The Pardoner teaches this moral through a story about three Flemish drunkards, who while on the search for ‘death’ come across a fortune of gold (Chaucer, PardT 253). The drunkards draw lots to nominate which of the three should go to town to get food and wine. “Bidding them draw for where the luck shall fall./ it fell upon the youngest of them all… (253). When the youngest leaves to go to town, the other drunkards plan to kill him. However, while in town the youngest poisons two bottles of wine in hopes of killing the other men (255). The three men end by killing one another in a confusing plot. The three men’s cupidity leads to their deaths and no one gets the money. The ending to the Tale “reveals, to some degree, the man’s character and the way his mind works” (Rossignol 1). Additionally, Chaucer employes irony in the ending of the Tale because the drunkards do in fact find death (Rossignol 1). Rossignol additionally remarks that the Pardoner seems to have a large knowledge on the wine he speaks of in his story. “His words betray a familiarity with the effects of this wine that could only arise from personal experience” (Rossignol 1). The knowledge of the wine shows the pardoner is greedy because clergymen should not be able to afford fine wines. Ironically, the Pardoner himself possesses the vices against which he warns. Furthermore, the Pardoner tells his tales about drunk men while being drunk proving his corrupt hypocrisy.
Chaucer uses his uncanny ability to connect and match the teller to his tale in the Pardoner’s Tale. The Pardoner is matched to his Tale perfectly. Being the least moral pilgrim, the Pardoner is corrupt and evil. The Pardoner is “one of the best stories in The Canterbury Tales collection, although the storyteller is, as he acknowledges to the pilgrims, ‘a ful vicious man.’” (Dean 1). However, the Pardoner tells the most moral tale. The Pardoner is connected to his tale because “[t]he Pardoner can sermonize so well on the subject of greed because he has himself followed the ‘croked wey’ all his professional life” (1). Since the Pardoner is corrupt by greed he can easily tell a tale about greed-driven men. In addition to the Pardoner’s Tale relating to the Pardoner, the Pardoner’s Tale is appropriate to the Pardoner. Since the pardoner is a preacher, his tale is sermon-like. According to Dean, the Pardoner’s tale is one of the “… tales in Geoffrey Chaucer’s work that resembles a sermon” (2). The Pardoner tells the Tale as if he is at a religious gathering because the Pardoner is used to preaching in an environment like a church. Because of the tale’s sermon style and ironic message the Pardoner’s tale adequately fits the Pardoner. The Pardoner’s Tale appropriately ad ironically mirrors the Pardoner’s greed. The irony Chaucer uses in the Tale makes the Pardoner’s Tale appropriate to the Pardoner. Since the Pardoner is greedy, it is natural for him to tell a Tale about greed.
The Pardoner’s Tale produces a notable reaction because after telling his Tale the Pardoner invited the pilgrims to buy pardons and relics (Chaucer, PardT 257). After being invited up first, the Host grows angry with the Pardoner. The Host says, “not I, and may the curse of Christ descend upon me if I do! (257). The two begin arguing until the Knight interjects and helps the Pardoner and the Host reconcile. The Pardoner and the Host kiss, ending the dispute. The Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale display Chaucer’s uncanny ability to match the teller and tale because the Pardoner is the least moral pilgrim, who tells the most moral Tale.
In The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer presents the reader with thirty pilgrims journey to Saint Thomas Beckett’s Shrine. Harry Bailly the Host of the tavern from which the pilgrims depart challenges the pilgrims to a tale-telling contest. To win the contest, the tale must be the most entertaining and moral. The Pardoner, a corrupt clergyman, is the least moral pilgrim. However, the Pardoner tells the most moral tale about avarice. The Pardoner himself is greedy, so the tale matches the teller. Chaucer has an uncanny ability to adequately match the pilgrim to their tale as seen the Pardoner’s tale.
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