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Critical Paper No.1

The Pardoner's Tale from The Canterbury Tales is a satirical story about greed and hypocrisy. It depicts three drunk men who encounter Death and find a hidden treasure of gold coins. Driven by greed, two of the men plan to kill the third to keep the treasure for themselves, while the third poisons the other two with wine in hopes of keeping it all. The tale highlights the Pardoner's own hypocrisy, as he preaches against sins like drunkenness and greed that he himself is guilty of. It uses the story to show how even minor sins can lead people astray and damn their souls.

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Maynard Lontoc
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66 views2 pages

Critical Paper No.1

The Pardoner's Tale from The Canterbury Tales is a satirical story about greed and hypocrisy. It depicts three drunk men who encounter Death and find a hidden treasure of gold coins. Driven by greed, two of the men plan to kill the third to keep the treasure for themselves, while the third poisons the other two with wine in hopes of keeping it all. The tale highlights the Pardoner's own hypocrisy, as he preaches against sins like drunkenness and greed that he himself is guilty of. It uses the story to show how even minor sins can lead people astray and damn their souls.

Uploaded by

Maynard Lontoc
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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MAYNARD A.

LONTOC MARCH 26, 2021

SINS OF A SINNER

The Pardoner’s Tale, is one of the stories in The Canterburry Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. As
what have been discussed in the previous meetings, Canterburry Tales is considered Chaucer's
masterpiece and is among the most important works of medieval literature for many reasons besides its
poetic power and entertainment value, notably its depiction of the different social classes of the 14th
century CE as well as clothing worn, pastimes enjoyed, and language/expressions used. are known to
be satirical works about the social classes, politic and the religion. After reading one of its part, the
Pardoners tale these are all the salient points that I observed and what I’ve understand about the text.

The Pardoner rages against plenty of different sins – such as gluttony, drunkenness and
gambling, despite the actual fact that he's guilty of all of them. It preaches a protracted sermon against
drunkenness despite having insisted that the pilgrims stop at an ale house before told his tale, and  is
probably drunk while telling it. It also came to me that gluttony is the one to blame for mankind's
damnation, for he has cited wide array of examples about it. Compounding the hypocrisy is that
the sheer intensity of the writer’s attack. Most used tool of this particular tale, Pardoner is the
"apostrophe," or the address to an abstract concept or inanimate object, emotionally delivered. The
identical treatment to drunkenness and oath swearing heightened the emotion and makes it all seem
that far more sanctimonious.

The Pardoner admits that he preaches solely to get money, not to correct sin. He argues that
many sermons are the product of evil intentions. By preaching, the Pardoner can get back at anyone
who has offended him or his brethren. In his sermon, he always preaches about covetousness, the very
vice that he himself is gripped by. His one and only interest is to fill his ever-deepening pockets. He
would rather take the last penny from a widow and her starving family than give up his money, and the
good cheeses, breads, and wines that such income brings him.

The first situation sets us up to expect a downfall for the three "heroes," since it places them at
a tavern at nine within the morning before going into detail about all the horrible sins related
to taverns, and therefore the horrible fate that awaits sinners like them (I felt uneasy and wary reading
that specific situation, thinking that it might also happen to me). All that is still to be seen is how this
downfall will happen, and with the mention of Death, wherein I am able to already begin to imagine the
chances. Then Rioters explicitly declare themselves the enemies of Death, and  conceive to a course of
action that puts them in direct conflict with him, since we will assume that Death has an interest in
living.
The unexpected discovery of the “gold”, in which I thought that it would be a confrontation with
Death. Or it really does it? There are questions that suddenly appeared in my mind. Like will this
unexpected discovery of gold is that the Three Rioters' meeting with death? given the theme of the
story is "greed is that the root of all evil," Yet, I am correct, two of the Rioters decide to kill the
opposite upon his return so they only must split the gold two ways. Meanwhile, the opposite one buys a
bottle of poison and doses his friends' bottles of wine with it, hoping to possess all the gold for himself.
For me it’s a great twist, especially on pointing out how gluttony, gambling and greediness in an
everyday life (of sinful people) basis.

In conclusion, the Pardoner shifts focused from the particular sins that occur within the Tale to


a general discussion of all sin – from the simple ignorance of the rule to gluttony; hunger of food, ale
and power to gambling – the implication being that everyone's guilty of it, and thus, of offending their
creator. This can be probably all calculated to place every of the audience or reader during a guilty and
penitent mood just like what I felt when I read the tale.

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