How Important Is the Character of the Old Man in Turning a Macabre Story Into a Truly Chilling Tale?

How important is the character of the old man in turning a macabre story into a truly chilling tale?
Macabre stories were popular during the 14th century, particularly due to its themes of war and plagues in the middle ages. The word is believed to originate from the old French phrase ‘danse macabre’ translating to ‘dance of the dead’. Death was a popular subject for the population, who had survived the black plague. During the epoch of the plague and due to its after math, death became a theme within art and literature, although death still scared many, it was omnipresent and almost the norm, therefore death was not always used to create a chilling tale, however, the Pardoner’s tale takes a chilling turn as it turns from a moderate macabre into a truly chilling tale with the presence of the mysterious old man.
The text is filled with a macabre atmosphere before the presence of the old man. This is achieved by Chaucer’s depiction of the attractiveness of evil. From a medieval perspective, the corruption of avarice would have been viewed of as a very macabre, it’s referred to as “swich cursedness” because of the societies view that it was a curse due to taking away people’s attention from achieving eternal life. The three rioters show the attractiveness of avarice in the presentation of treasures they fine “florins fine of gold, y-coined rounde…so faire and brighte, a precious hoord.” This line evidently shows the rioters are overpowered by the lust of riches and money, something that would set the macabre story as it signalled a life of damnation as their attention is focused on the materialistic world at the expense of the eternal one.
Ironically, the pardoner, a clergy of the Church, commits avarice as his daily job, despite preaching ‘radix malorum est cupiditas.’ Chaucer, as an educated man, and one who lived his daily life in close contact with the monocracy, was aware of the corruption of the Church. The Church at the time was the established authority of England, however, the Church tended to exploit the public, it got the majority of its wealth through taxing peasants and other citizens in the society. The pardoner is Chaucer’s presentation of how corrupt the Church was, he purposes employs the pardoner with a hypocritical personality in order to show the double standards of the Church. The pardoner often preaches about carious other sins that cause bodily corruption, this theme is also another one that reinforces the beginning of the text for be a macabre one, he states that “corrupt was all this world for gluttony.” bodily corruption was viewed a sin as everyone was expected to take care of their bodies since it was given to them by the divine. Destroying one’s body was associated with the macabre.
The biggest association with the macabre was death. The ‘dance of the dead’ was a popular theme within medieval culture, literature and art. It was often personified which is demonstrated in the Liber Chronicarum picture titled ‘the dance of the dead’, the cartoon shows four skeletons following their leader ‘death’, it has been thought that the personification of death originated from this picture, either way, it’s a technique that was adapted by authors’ of 14th century literature, including Chaucer in the pardoners tale. The theme of death was a popular one in the middle ages culture as it surrounded everyday life, some modern interpretations believe that the 14th century contemporary reader, death was expected and therefore not as feared as it is in the 21st century, this view could stem from the fact that over 70% of the population in London had died from the black plague, which had spread across England from foreign lands only a few years before Chaucer had written the tale.
On the other hand, people have interpreted as death being something that was just as much feared as it was today, making the story truly chilling even before the presence of the old man as the tale, it’s first introduced at the start when “a cors, was caried to his grave.” Death in the pardoners tale represents the death of all life, it’s symbolic of a fear of the society of early death , this is evident from the time “beth redy for to meete hym everemoore” as the corpse is clearly a warning to be prepared for death as it may come at any time. The corpse is also a symbol of unexpected death as the man was “yslayn [that nyght]/ for droke as he sat on his bench upright” from this quote, we can infer that the man seemed healthy and was drinking at what seemed like the prime of his life before he died. This view of unexpected death coincides with Robert of Avesbury’s statement on the black death that “those marked for death were scarce permitted to live longer than three or four days” overtly showing that once hit with the plague, even if you were at the prime of your life, death had fallen upon you. This perception on death is one that would instantly make the novel truly chilling to some people; however the majority of readers would only believe the story to take a chilling turn with the presence of the old man.
The introduction of the old man is pivotal to the poem, it’s the moment the poem turns from the traditional, familiar Macabre stories that were popular at the time to one that was truly haunting and chilling. The old man is a character that has been open to many speculations, apart from the pardoner and the three rioters he’s the only one to that has a speaking role and a function in the tale. Chaucer perverts the conventional depiction of old men, who were normally portrayed a wise, and instead gives him an eerie air. He represents old age and morality; this would have been extremely chilling as he knew the fate of the three young men. The old man says that he’s looking for someone that “wolde change his youthe for myn age” making it more creepy know that this old man had lived long enough to have had survived the plague, showing his power, but also that in his old age he’s nearly on the same level as death.
The fact that the old man wants Death to take his life is rather chilling, he says that “Ne Deeth, allas, ne wol nat han my lyf” suggesting that he actually wants to die, this could be because of the view that the old man lives in death as he’s “an oold man and a povre.” It has been argued that the old man is Death personified, as he leads the three rioters down the crooked path to the tree, however Helene Cooper argues that “he cannot be death because heath is his desire.”, despite this argument, the old man seems to be in the same league as death.
Chaucer, in his representation of the old man, gives him this sense of mystery, John Halverson argues that “the greatest enigma of the tale is the old man.” Mystery is key in making the story turn chilling as it tampers with the audiences emotions as they deal with the unknown. Chaucer manipulates the effect of truly chilling feeling by changing the speed of the rhetoric, the storyline seems to halt by the “eerg quiet of the old man” and the pace dramatically slows down, making the reader more anxious to his function in the poem. Chaucer presents the old man with an eerie atmosphere “This olde man gan loke in his visage” which endorces a sense of horror into the reader as they picture him just glaring at one of the young rioters.
It’s clear that most aspects of the begin part of the text make it start out as a Macabre story, however when the old man appears the direction changes to a truly chilling story, therefore the old man is crucial for this change in direction.