The Pardoner, a Symbol of Greed in Geoffrey Chaucer’s...

Geoffrey Chaucer’s famous medieval classic, The Canterbury Tales, offers its readers a vast array of characters. This God’s plenty features numerous unique and challenging individuals, but there is one specifically who stands out as particularly interesting. The immoral Pardoner, who, in a sense, sells away his soul for the sake of his own avarice, puzzles many modern readers with his strange logic. Already having laid his considerable guilt upon the table, this corrupted agent of the Church attempts to pawn off his counterfeit relics for a generous price. His actions are slightly troubling and mysterious, but his shameless misdeed is easily explainable if a reader chooses to interpret the man as a symbol rather than a fully formed human†¦show more content†¦A dishonest clergyman could easily prey on the insecurities of the population in order to profit from the sale of false relics. The Pardoner, similarly, is only â€Å"fixed on what [he stands] to win† (PP 75). Perhaps this suggests that the corrupted character has little else on his mind, wishing only to cheat the devout and turn a greedy profit; he thinks of nothing but of his personal gain. He â€Å"won’t do any labor with [his] hands,† but his greedy heart intends to live the life of the most well-to-do (PP 114). The Pardoner’s sermons, preaching the ills of avarice, condemn the sin of which he is guiltiest. â€Å"Radix malorum est cupiditas,† is the general theme of the Pardoner’s sermons, meaning that greed is the root of all evil (PP 6). In essence, evil is born from the foolishness of greed, and playing the part of Greed, the Pardoner is a fool. His sermon drips with the revelation of his own guilt, for he can think of little else other than his next financial gain, and so, he thoughtlessly speaks of his own wicked guilt. Then, oddly, the Pardoner has the audacity to pitch a sale, offering forgiveness for â€Å"pennies, silver brooche s, spoons, or rings† (PT 424). He is incapable of doing otherwise. After all, the Pardoner is the symbol and purest form of guilt; his avarice is too great a temptation to steer him from making his eloquent sales pitch to the traveling pilgrims. It is inevitableShow MoreRelatedChaucer s Candide And Shakespeare s Macbeth1317 Words   |  6 Pagesliterary works were written as a way to give commentary on the society in which the author lived such as Voltaire’s’ Candide and Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Geoffrey Chaucer, famous for his The Canterbury Tales, and considered instrumental in the creation of English literature, is not as well known for social commentary in his writing. However, The Canterbury Tales do indeed possess insight and analysis of society, namely the role of the authority figures in the Church. Chaucer was critical of the abuses andRead More The Pardoner as Symbol in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales2609 Words   |  11 PagesThe Par doner as Symbol for the Pilgrims’ Unattainable Goals in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales Geoffrey Chaucer’s work, The Canterbury Tales, paints a portrait of medieval life through the voices and stories of a wide variety of speakers. The people on the Pilgrimage tell their stories for a wide range of reasons. Each Tale is told in order to accomplish two things. The Tales provoke their audience as much as they are a kind of self-reflection. These reactions range from humor, to extreme