Who is the pardoner in canterbury tales
The Canterbury Tales | The Pardoner's Prologue and Tale Summary & Analysis | Geoffrey Chaucer
the Pardoner's tale in The Canterbury
Tales begins with the partner describing
his preaching methods he says he puts on
a show for the purpose of manipulating
people to give money rather than any
true concern for their souls he uses the
same text each time and preachers often
about the sin of greed while living a
very greedy and selfish life after he
describes how corrupt he is he reassures
the company that he is still able to
tell a moral tale he begins his tale by
introducing the three young men who
lived in Flanders they had given into
every kind of vice including gluttony
and drunkenness sidetracking he states
that gluttony is the main cause of human
grief and misery listing several
examples from the Bible in human history
he also warns against gambling lying and
swearing in God's name the partner then
gets back to his story the young men are
drinking in a tavern and they notice a
coffin go by they learn that they used
to know the dead man he has been stabbed
in the heart by a thief called death
this same thief has killed many people
in the present plague they should be
ready to face death if they should meet
him another man adds that this thief
likely lives in a nearby town the three
young men decided to pursue the thief
and kill him in their drunken rage they
start out they meet an old man who says
he has lived a long time because death
will not take him they think the old man
knows death's whereabouts so they
threaten him eventually the old man
directs them to a tree in a nearby grove
he's seen death near they find the tree
but become distracted by coins beneath
it they believed that fortune has given
them a treasure they wait until it is
dark to sneak away with it the youngest
goes to town to get food and wine while
the other two men wait to guard the
treasure while he is away the two
conspire to kill him and take the money
for themselves but the younger man has a
similar idea and poisons two bottles of
wine when the youngest gets back he is
killed
freaking the poisoned wine the other two
also die death has indeed taken them all
after this tale the partner offers his
services to the company for a fee of
course
Harry Bailey insults him making the
partner angry the knight attempts to
make peace between them the partner is
very conscious of himself as a
storyteller he describes the various
ways he manipulates people into giving
him money the story of the three young
men is a sort of sermon illustration or
exemplar
he premises this tale by saying it is a
story he would often preach the lessons
are fairly clear sinful behavior
ultimately results in death its moral as
you reap what you sow the men's goal of
setting out to destroy death is
tantamount to blasphemy as the men
presumed to equate their own power with
that of God
