The Pardoners Tale Essay

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The Pardoner’s Greed The pardoner, in Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Pardoner’s Tale,” is a devious character. He is a man with a great knowledge of the Catholic Church and a great love of God. However, despite the fact that he is someone whom is looked at with respect at the time, the pardoner is nothing more than an imposter who makes his living by fooling people into thinking he forgives their sins, and in exchange for pardons, he takes their money. His sermon-like stories and false relics fool the people of the towns he visits and make him seem as a plausible man, which is exactly what the pardoner wants. In fact, the pardoner is an avaricious and deceitful character whose driving force in life is his …show more content…
Due to the people’s ignorance, the pardoner refers to the congregation from which he receives his money, as stupid and describes them as his “apes”, or fools in “The General Prologue.” “The pardoner is not at all ashamed to say that he does not care a fig about the state of their souls, but only about their pocketbooks,” (Rossignol, 268), in “The General Prologue.” His main concern is greed, rather than salvation of those who come to him seeking it. What the pardoner is doing is committing a sin, and he is very aware of it himself. The pardoner has let the greed drive him away from God’s ways and is following his avaricious feelings. The Pardoner has argued that from evil intention may come good, and being evil himself, he might inspire some good in others, (Pichaske, 130), however, it is evident that the pardoner’s preaching and deeds do no good to the people. “The fact that good may often come from evil does not , however, excuse one who preaches against that same vice which characterizes his own action …,” (Pichaske, 127). The pardoner preaches against avarice, while he himself practices it during his sermons and false pardons. The pardoner is so intrigued with avarice that he becomes blind to the evil that he is committing while he preaches about it. The blindness explains why he is able to speak about avarice and how it kills, while he also is living a life that is
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