Topic > Analysis of Chaucer's Depiction of the Pardoner in The Pardoner's Tale

The idea of ​​deceiving innocent people for personal gain was prevalent during the medieval era. The 14th-century poet of the Canterbury Tales conveys the repercussions of a vile deception through the perspective of the Pardoner, who reflects on the corrupt values ​​of medieval society. Chaucer implies the universal theme of the poem through subtle verbal irony to create a satirical tale that reveals the underlying nature of the Catholic Church. The poet exemplifies the Pardoner as a deceptive character through the use of biblical allusions and vivid imagery to illustrate how possessing corrupt morals leads to destruction. We say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The Pardoner's sermon contains biblical allusions to convey the moral of the "curse of avarice and greed" to achieve the ulterior motive of burdening guilt upon the pilgrims. The Pardoner cleverly creates a story about three drunken rioters who exemplify the sins of gluttony and drunkenness linked to avarice. The heart of the Pardoner's sermon revolves around the theme “radix malorum est cupiditas”, which means “the love of money is the root of all evil”. Verbal irony is present in this phrase as the Forgiver preaches the particular sin that consumes him while deliberately deceiving his congregation for money. Early in his tale, the Pardoner alludes to the greedy actions of the three rioters as similar to the biblical story of Adam and Eve. He describes the rioters as "eating and drinking much more than they could hold" as they "were too drunk to know what they were doing." The Forgiver preaches: “O cursed gluttony, our first anguish. . . the very origin of our damnation,” to show the comparison between the ravenous actions of the rioter and the fall of Adam and Eve, which indicates that gluttony causes disobedience to God. After gluttony, the Pardoner preaches that “wine it is a lascivious thing and drunkenness has disfigured your face" to convey the effect of the deadly sins. The Pardoner describes an alcoholic as having “a stertorous snort like 'samson-samson.' . . ” to mean how drunkenness disfigures the image of God in the human person. The Forgiver alludes to Old Testament Israelite Samson's drunkenness in an ironic manner. In the Old Testament, Samson swore to abstain from drinking, but his downfall was mainly due to his lover Deliah. Like gluttony, the Pardoner alludes to the congregation that drunkenness reduces to the hands of death. Chaucer shows the Pardoner's total understanding of biblical scriptures as he interprets them correctly and provides specific examples of lust. The Pardoner's deceitful nature is revealed as he manipulates pilgrims into guilt tripping them into purchasing bogus relics for indulgences to gain redemption. The Pardoner's sermon contains grotesque imagery as it illustrates the corrupt nature of the rioters to achieve the effect of self-condemnation on the congregation. The Pardoner incorporates grotesque imagery into his sermon to reveal the effects of rioters indulging in pleasures before recklessly pursuing Death. He preaches: "a man who quaffs vintages actually makes a mere cavity of his throat, a sink for cursed superfluities of drink." This Pardoner illustrates the image of a ravenous rioter guzzling alcohol to represent the image of humanity consumed by evils. He continues to describe the effects of gluttony by stating, “Their belly! whose end is destruction”, to reveal that being consumed by evil is equivalent to perishing and achieving no salvation. This is it.