Pardoner’s Tale (Block 2) Summary Prologue: The pardoner introduces himself and tries to sell him merchandise and services to the others on the pilgrimage. He discusses his business model and how he makes his living off of pardoning peoples sins. The pardoner admits that he is sinning when his greedily earns money from the people he services but also advocates for a sin free life. Tale:Pardoner begins by outlining some evil sins such as gluttony, drunkenness, gambling and cussing and how those sins turn people away from their connection with God. Now the story starts, a couple of men at a bar ask a child what happened to a man in a passing coffin. The child responds with a personification of Death in explaining that Death took the man and is plaguing the country. A random Publican enters the scene and proposes a plan to kill Death himself. The other two men join readily and embark on their quest. The three dudes run into an old man on the road. The man talks about the curse of his immortality. The men are rude to him and they ask him if he knows where to find Death. He send them to a tree in the woods to find Death. When they reach the tree, they find a ton of money sitting there. The “wickedest” suggests that one of them should go to into the town to get food and wine while the others wait because bringing all the money into the town during the day would look sketchy. The youngest ends up going, and while he is gone, the other two plan to kill him when he gets back and take the money for themselves. While he’s gone, the youngest plans to kill the other two by poisoning their wine. When he returns, the others kill him and decide to celebrate with wine, which ends up killing them in turn. Questions: 1. How does chaucer use irony to describe the hypocrisy of the Pardoner? 2. How are the florins a metaphor for death? 3. what is the moral of the Pardoner’s parable and how does he use it to his advantage? 4. how might Chaucer be criticizing the church with this tale? 5. in what ways could the old man in the parable represent Death? 6. Given what you know about Pardoners, would you trust this man? why or why not? Use evidence from the text. Prologue: The Pardoner begins by saying “I, like every other holyman, preach for selfish reasons, not for holiness.” Tale: Although he’s supposed to be telling a tale, the Pardoner warns people not to lie, swear, gamble, or be gluttonous for like 8 pages. Then he begins his tale. There are three rioters in a bar. A coffin is being moved to a morgue, through the street. The rioters tell the tavern­knave to let them know who has died, but he already knows; it’s an old friend of theirs, murdered by a knave named Death. The rioters decide to avenge their friend, and set upon a journey to a village where Death is known to live. They encounter an old man, who tells them he’s cursed to never die, lest someone agree to swap their age with his. In explaining this he mentions Death, and they accuse him of being an agent of Death’s. They demand to know where Death is. He directs them down a forest path, where they find a sack of gold florins, to which they are overjoyed. Fearing that they will be suspected of robbing someone for these florins, they agree to take them home through the night. They draw straws to decide who will go to the town and fetch food and drink, and the youngest rioter is chosen. When he leaves, they agree to kill him when he gets back, so they can split the gold among themselves. The youngest one decides on his own that he’ll put poison in their wine bottles, so he can have the gold for himself. When he returns, they kill him, and settle down to drink before they bury his body. They drink the poisoned wine and die themselves. Questions: 1. The Pardoner discusses sin for a long time before starting his tale. What does this say about his character? 2. What did the Pardoner talk about in the prologue versus his rant about sin in the tale? What about this difference made the rant about sin work better as part of the tale rather than the prologue? 3. It’s ironic that the Pardoner is drunk yet tells a tale about how drinking is bad. What is the purpose of this instance of situational irony? 4. What does the Pardoner say to support the idea that he cares about the people’s repentance? What in the text shows that the tale was told for selfish reasons? 5. Did Death exist as a person with a symbolic name or as a misunderstood concept? Why? 6. How would the absence of the Pardoner’s rant about sin affect the message of the tale he tells?