The Pardoner In The Canterbury Tales

Religious pilgrimages have been the foundation of religion since the dawn of time. In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer identifies an infamous character that shares his ironically moral tale along with those whom accompany him on the way to Canterbury. This particularly wretched pilgrim was the Pardoner: a most loathsome and diabolical character. The sly and mischievous Pardoner is described by Chaucer as a dishonest and cheating man, and his appearance matched. With long and thin hair that fell “like rat tails, one by one” (699), a hairless face, and speech that “had the same small voice a goat has got” (711), he was falsely advertised as the young being he was not. The lies continued within his person. Though within the church he was required to
Unfortunately, the pardoner described in Chaucer’s tale was among the dishonest and fraudulent pardoners. He would preach and allow people to buy forgiveness of their sins though as a Pardoner, it was considered sinful to do so. The Pardoner’s clothing was also a demonstration of how inapt the Pardoner was in his position. He would expose his long hair abandoning the traditional headwear of a Pardoner. He proved himself as being physically as well as religiously fraudulent. The Pardoner’s Tale is a story of three incredibly sinful rioters who make a pact to uncover the face of Death. It is a moral tale that exposes the consequences of unholy acts: primarily greed. Thus the story begins and the three men cross paths with an old man who is unable to die, and upon request, points the men in the direction of Death in which they seek. Though the men believe they have stumbled upon wealth and riches, their sinful greed ironically brings them to find what they initially set out to find: