Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales

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In his The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer delivers biting critiques of many facets of his medieval society, mostly delivered through characterization of the twenty-odd pilgrims he takes on a pilgrimage to Canterbury. Through this pilgrimage, he is able to cover all bases of his society, as in medieval times, everyone went on pilgrimage (Scott 67), due to the fact that medieval life revolved around Christianity(Scott 10). However, he seems to focus on criticizing church officials, grotesquely exaggerating their physical appearances and behaviors. One of these such characters is a pardoner, who tells of his strategies getting money in everyday life and also preaches a bit for his audience, enthusiastically condemning sin. Chaucer’s pardoner …show more content…
Much of Europe, in Chaucer’s medieval era, was dominated by Christianity. While religion brought salvation from the cruel hardships from the world, it also “injected a powerful sense of fear into everyday life”(Scott 10). God was thought of as “a vengeful, all-powerful, all-knowing being”(Scott 11), so citizens were constantly paranoid about what natural disasters and the like meant in terms of signs from God, fearing that they had somehow displeased Him. Therefore, many aimed to please God and invite divine intervention, often through either veneration of a saint’s relics, embarking on a pilgrimage, or both (Scott 31). Chaucer’s pardoner cleverly takes advantage of this fear, gently goading his audiences to feel obligated to pay for his relics and services. During his sermons, he says that those “guilty of sin, so far beyond expression”, are “horrible” for “dar[ing] not make confession”(Chaucer 242). Targeting feelings of shame, the pardoner does not specify exactly what constitutes sin, at least, for men, leading the audience to search their consciousnesses until a sin has been found, as a medieval person would hardly risk God’s wrath for not confessing. Once a sin has been identified, the pardoner guilts the listeners even further, calling them “horrible” for not fulfilling their religiously mandated actions and subtly calling them cowards, not “dar[ing]” to make confession. The insult to a man’s bravery would also resonate deeply, as “the medieval world was based on a culture of honor, expressed in the form of incessant demands for deference and respect”(Scott 22). For women, the pardoner is a bit more specific with his sin, condemning those that cheat on their husbands. Lust is one of the seven deadly sins; thus, it was recognized as a part of life
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