Essays on The Pardoner's Tale

The old man in ‘The Pardoner’s Tale is a strange character, there are many different ideas as to who, or what, he is. Old age in Chaucer’s time wasn’t something that many people would live to, so there are questions raised about how this man came to be so old. Nonetheless the encounter between him and the Revellers allows both Chaucer and the Pardoner to explore the morality of their characters and add to their tales. One of the most obvious answers as to who death is is given by the ...

In our society today, feminism is an extremely loaded topic. Some would say it is a futile and or unnecessary fight, while others proclaim its eminent importance. Still others refuse to form an opinion, and some don’t even care. Feminism has been around for a few hundred years, and the fight over it has gone on for decades. Even in the early 1300’s, during the time of Geoffrey Chaucer, the idea of women having rights, and which ones they should be, was a controversial issue, as well as a part ...

Selfishness and greed are strong motivators; they plant seeds of determination that cannot be ignored. Even so, the consequences of selfish and greedy actions do not always prove to be positive. This is evident in both Macbeth by William Shakespeare and “The Pardoner’s Tale” by Geoffrey Chaucer. Each story has a protagonist or a set of protagonists that break moral codes and risk everything in order to be victorious. Both Macbeth and “The Pardoner’s Tale” depict murder as a way of achieving a ...

In the four epic tales of Beowulf written by an anonymous Anglo-Saxon poet, Le Morte D'Arthur written by Thomas Malory, and The Wife of Bath and The Pardoner's Tale written by Geoffrey Chaucer, there are many morals presented. Each tale holds a different moral. In Beowulf, the tale depicts that good conquerors evil. In Le Morte D'Arthur, the tale portrays trust. In The Wife of Bath, the tale shows that women want to be in charge of their men. In The Pardoner's Tale, the tale represented how ...

Geoffrey Chaucer uses exemplums within The Pardoners Tale to show that greed is the root of all evil. An exemplum is a story within a story that typically teaches a lesson, Chaucer uses several so that the Pardoner can emphasize the dangers of greed. Before he begins his tale he attempts to sell ‘holy relics’ to the pilgrims and states that he cannot do anything for the sinners beyond redemption, though they may try. The Pardoners exemplum’s are sermons about the effects greed and drinking in ...

Stories are built on trust. But who or what we put our trust in is relative. Pardoner’s Tale is a story about a corrupt pardoner telling his interesting story. The Pardoner makes sure that the audience knows that he is a liar, driven by avarice above all else and that his intentions are foul. I will argue in this paper that no matter what the Pardoner's intentions are, or how controversial his dishonesty is, he achieved something positive by completing a moral story. I will also claim that the ...

Hypocrisy is “the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform. The Pardoner in “The Pardoner's Tale” by Geoffrey Chaucer portrays a perfect example of hypocrisy as shown he “does not practice what he preaches” (141-142).The Pardoner assaults selfishness in his sermons to impact his social event of people to surrender their gold to him to atone from their insatiability. Medieval Catholics were strong enthusiasts and might buy the relics ...