Irony In The Pardoner's Tale

In the 1300s, literature began to advance. The famous writer, Geoffrey Chaucer, was working on The Canterbury Tales. This story was a collection of small stories told by the travellers on their journey to the remains of Saint Thomas Becket. Around the same time, Giovanni Boccaccio was writing The Decameron, which was a collection of small told by nobles to pass the time while trying to hid from the plague. Bother stories have a similar concept, but also have completely different styles. Both “The Pardoner’s Tale” and “Federigo’s Falcon” use irony and plot to show that obsessed devotion can destroy everything one has worked for. One of many similar elements that these two stories hold is irony. It is used as a meaning of missing the goal
or doing the complete opposite of what was set out to do. In “The Pardoner’s Tale”, three rioters vow to stick together to kill Death. As they stumble upon a pile of gold, the first rioter whispers a plan to kill the third rioter by “fun to have wrestle” and “put [the first rioter’s] dagger through his back” (Chaucer 248-254). Though they vowed, when they find gold, which they all desired, they immediately were willing to kill each other. Boccaccio also uses irony in “Federigo’s Falcon” by Federigo trying to win Monna’s love with riches. He worked hard, “rode at the ring” and jousted. He became very rich, so he gave sumptuous banquets, and distributed a large number of gifts, spending money without any restraint whatsoever” (Boccaccio 160-161). He ended up losing his money and had to move to the country. Federigo tried to show off how rich he was to empress Monna, only to become poor. He now had nothing to give her to show his love. In both stories, each character gave up what their prized belongings, whether it be an object or a vow, to gain what they most longed for, only to lose everything. However, the end of the two stories have completely different messages.
In each story, the characters’ choices cause a different outcome. In “Federigo’s Falcon”, Federigo gives up everything for Monna. He loses his money and cooks his bird because, he’d rather have her than anything else. At the end Monna sees “Federigo to be a gentleman of great merit even though he was poor”. She decides to marry him and Federigo finds himself married to this great lady with whom he was so deeply in love” (Boccaccio 165). Even though his dedication to have Monna lost him everything he had, he had no consequences in the end. He married the woman of his dreams, which is what he truly wanted. Whereas, in “The Pardoner’s Tale” the end isn’t as forgiving. For the rioters obsession for riches, caused them to turn against and kill each other. With the third rioter stabbed and the two others poisoned, the gold was left alone and was owned by noone. By disregarding their own promises “these two murderers received their due, so did the treacherous young poisoner too” (Chaucer 316-318). By being greedy only caring about power, the had a suffering consequence. Though the same theme occurs in each story, the message about obsession is
different. Through irony and plot, both Chaucer and Boccaccio show that obsession can cause turmoil to one’s self and others. Although ending differently, the two stories share similar aspects of what greed can affect one’s life.