Mrs. McKenney
British Lit
Response
November 1st, 2013 The Pardoner’s Tale The Pardoner’s Tale is different from a normal tale. The Pardoner begins to first stress the vices that corrupt people. He explains the vices of gluttony, drunkenness, gambling, and swearing. The pardoner deviates from the norm because he starts out with a sermon rather than a tale. Corruption is detrimental. Out of the many types of corruption, avarice is very destructive. Avarice can blind a person into striving to achieve something by whatever means, no matter how bad. As soon as the three rioters saw the gold, they immediately forgot about their purpose to kill Death. They each began to formulate ideas to keep the gold for themselves. Consequently, they even went to the extent of killing each other for the cursed gold. The importance of being wary of greed and its devastating effects is the main message of the story. After hearing about the death of their young friend by Death, 3 rioters take a vow to kill the traitor death. The 3 rioters are passionate about fulfilling their good task of bringing justice to the one who is responsible for the mass murder of the local inhabitants. The 3 rioters are imbued with the feelings of righteousness and are filled with good intentions of bringing justice to Death. They confront the old man who tells them about Death’s whereabouts. The 3 rioters venture to the spot the old man told them about but to their surprise, they were met with shining gold. It is important to note that before they saw the gold, the 3 rioters were ardently seeking Death to bring justice to him. After seeing the gold, however, their attitude immediately changed and they ultimately forgot why they were there in the first place. Their original objective was to find and kill Death but immediately after seeing the gold, their intentions were abruptly converted to that of greed. Overcome by happiness, the 3 rioters decided to bet who will run