The Pardoner’s Tale
Geoffrey Chaucer
The Prologue to The Pardoner’s
Tale
• The host asks the Pardoner to tell a tale;
the pilgrims ask for a moral story.
• Pardoner tells the company about his
occupation- a combination of itinerant
preaching & selling promises of salvation.
• His sermon topic always stays the same:
• Radix malorum est Cupiditas or “greed is
the root of all evil.”
• He readily admits his relics are all fakes.
• His parishioners always believe him & pay
for the relics (which he pockets.)
• The pardoner admits he preaches solely
for money, not to correct sin.
• He always preaches about covetousness(the very vice that he himself is gripped
by.)
The Pardoner’s Tale
• Has elements of:
• 1) Medieval romance:
•
adventure
•
journey--quest-to kill Death (impossible)
•
heroic figures? Love?
• 2) Tale of Morality/Exemplum
•
a type of story often used to emphasize a moral
point- (shows the disastrous effects of greed.)
•
sins of gluttony/greed or avarice and lust (in the
sense of desire for that which doesn't belong to them.)
Pardoner’s Tale cont’d…
• Grim reaper origin? (Death)
• Why would it be popular during this medieval period?
•
1) morality of the time
You will be punished for your sins
•
•
•
2) death as ever-present
hygiene & disease (plague)
lack of medicine
After life as ever present
Pardoner’s Tale cont’d…
• In his tale, the Pardoner rails against four vices: gluttony,
drunkenness, gambling, and swearing.
• The three protagonists in the Pardoner's tale represent these vices.
These “sins” are what eventually lead to their downfall.
• Three friends (three rioters) decide to go after Death (personified.)
• What sets out on a journey becomes their own demise...They find a
stash of hidden treasure (enough for all three men to become rich).
• They devise a plan: two will guard the treasure and one will go to
town for supplies.
• But that’s not the only plan hatching…
• Read The Pardoner’s Tale
Summarize The Pardoner’s Tale
Summary
• Three rioters are drinking, and hear that a
mysterious figure named Death has killed
one of their friends.
• The friends see an old man (who has been
waiting for Death to come and take him.)
The old man tells them where they can
find Death-in a grove, under a tree.
Summary cont’d…
• The rioters do not find Death under the
tree, but they do find bushels of gold
coins.
• They can’t take the gold through town
during the day, or they will be charged as
thieves…they must wait until night.
• One rioter goes into town, and two stay
behind.
Summary cont’d
• The two men decide to kill the third guy
when he returns from town (so that they
will only have to split the money two ways
instead of three.)
• The youngest rioter devises his own plan
to poison the other two men so he can
claim the gold for himself. (He puts poison
into two of three bottles of wine.)
Summary cont’d…
• When the sole rioter returns to the grove,
he is ambushed and killed.
• They sit down to drink their friend’s wine
and celebrate, but they drink from a
poisoned bottle. Within minutes, they lie
dead next to their friend.
• Thus, concludes the Pardoner, all must
beware the sin of avarice, which can only
bring treachery and death.
• Then the Pardoner asks the pilgrims to
buy a pardon!
Questions to ponder…
Really, questions to answer… 
1. Give one example of the Pardoner’s hypocrisy.
2. Chaucer uses satire as a literary technique in
this poem. What is he satirizing?
3. Is this tale fitting to the persona of the
Pardoner? What was the description of a
Pardoner in medieval times?
Yes, there ARE more questions!
4.
5.
This story is didactic. How so?
Greed (also known as avarice or covetousness) is a
sin of excess. Avarice, however, is a blanket term that
can describe many types of greedy behavior. These
include: disloyalty, deliberate betrayal (especially for
personal gain), hoarding of materials or objects, theft
and robbery, or simony (where one profits from
soliciting goods within the actual confines of a church.)
Find 3 examples of avarice in The Pardoner’s Tale
and Prologue.
There’s lots of irony in this tale!
• Three types of irony:
– Verbal
– Dramatic
– Situational
• Verbal irony:
– This is the contrast between what is said and
what is meant.
– Most sarcastic comments are ironic.
– Ex. The person who says, “Nice going,
Einstein,” isn’t really paying anyone a
compliment.
• Dramatic irony
– The contrast between what the character thinks to
be true and what we (the reader) know to be true.
– Sometimes we know more than what the character
knows. Because we know something the character
does not, we read to discover how the character will
react when he or she learns the truth of the situation.
– Ex. A boogeyman is hiding in the attic, but the hero of
the movie doesn’t know that. You want him to stay
away from the attic. The irony is that the hero thinks
he is safe, when you know he’s in danger.
• Situational irony
– The contrast between what happens and what
was expected.
– Irony of situation is often humorous, such as
when a prank backfires on the prankster.
Your job…
• Is to look through The Pardoner’s Tale
and find the situational and dramatic irony.