Rhetoric In The Pardoner's Tale

In Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Pardoner’s Tale,” the Pardoner serves as a moral exemplum in that his drunken and greedy habits highlight an opposite path of righteousness. The Pardoner embraces his love of wealth and alcohol however, and emerges as an exemplum of transparency in addition to sin. The Pardoner is in fact a skilled preacher who uses language to persuasively advertise his false relics. He specifically personifies medieval rhetoric, or the use of poetic tropes such as metaphor and exemplum to elevate speech and sway his audience. This elevation occurs at the expense of transparency however, as the Pardoner’s decorative rhetoric veils his speech with layers of symbolism and subjective interpretation. The Pardoner’s language therefore
Exemplum is the Pardoner’s favourite and most persuasive rhetorical device however, as he states, “Than telle I hem ensamples many oon / Of olde stories longe tyme agoon, / For lewed peple loven tales olde” (“The Pardoner’s Tale” 435-37). The three rioters embody the Pardoner’s fixation with exemplum, as he adapts them from Thomas of Cantimpré’s “Exemplum 103.” In Poetria Nova, Geoffrey of Vinsauf testifies to the moral worth of proverbs and exempla, stating that an exemplum must “not sink to a purely specific relevance, but raise its head high to some general truth” (Vinsauf 22). Exemplum therefore transcends narrative to establish its teller as both a narratorial and moral authority– personas that the Pardoner must cultivate in order to sell his relics. In medieval rhetoric however, exemplum is primarily a stylistic principle that elevates one’s speech or writing; while performance and truth are not mutually exclusive, truth is “nat [the Pardoner’s] principle entente: [He] preche[s] nothing but for coveityse” (Pardoner 430-433). Though the rioters’ fates warn against gambling, drunkenness, and swearing, the Pardoner’s sinful intentions complicate the seemingly clear moral of his tale. No longer “cosin to the dede” (“General Prologue” 741), his story lacks its corresponding “entente” and, as a result, its moral authority. The Pardoner’s exemplum thus mirrors his
While the Pardoner’s various exempla and poetic tropes direct his audience towards a particular perspective, his rhetoric transcends persuasiveness; not only does the Pardoner force the pilgrims to share his viewpoint, he seeks to materially benefit from his carefully cultivated language. The Pardoner’s intention is therefore not simply to persuade, but to advertise. In his essay “Advertising, Rhetoric, and Literature: A Medieval Response to Contemporary Theory,” Andrew Cowell examines Medieval preaching as a popular form of advertisement, claiming that the clergy’s persuasive discourse used “the illicit seduction of rhetoric” to appeal to “desire rather than truth” (Cowell 813). The Pardoner’s ability to incite desire is integral to his business, as his rhetoric must appeal to a longing for salvation rather than just offer it. Likewise, when customers buy the Pardoner’s relics, they are really buying the healing properties the Pardoner advertises. The Pardoner therefore sells his advertisements in tandem with the relics. For example, the Pardoner constantly repeats “tak of my wordes kepe” or “Tak kepe eek what I telle” (Chaucer 352; 360), acting as if his words were physical goods that the pilgrims can use in their quest for spiritual enlightenment. He jeopardizes his ability to induce desire however when he reveals his deceitful intentions; while he advertises