What Is The Allegory In The Pardoner's Tale
God Transcended Though Death and the Old Man
For my investigation and more in-depth analysis of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, I decided to follow one of my comments in class down the proverbial rabbit hole and see what I could come up with. At the time my thoughts were diluted and abrupt, unable to effectively construct a substantial argument or criticism of why I thought my idea, the Old Man as a symbol of death, had any validity to it. After completing the course, many more aspects about the Tales and more specifically the allegory that is the Pardoner’s Tale has come to the light, revealing what I believe to be true. I set out to prove the symbolism of the Old Man in the Pardoner’s Tale and why it is relevant to the tales as a whole. …show more content…
When examining the Pardoner’s Tale, the first characters introduced are the three young men who participate in “riot, hazard, stywes, and tavernes” (465). Basically, the men like to enjoy parties, gambling, prostitutes, and drinking. Chaucer makes note of their activities as a sacrifice to the devil and that the tavern represents the devils temple. Right off the bat, Chaucer explains the personality of these men and wastes no time showing their worldly actions. Chaucer explains that the three men, while carrying on with their foolish living, took claim to God as their savior. “Hir othes been so grete and so dampnable / that it is grisly for to here hem swere. / Oure Lordes body they to-tere. / Hem thought that Jewes rente hym noght uynough!” (472-475). To quote a bible verse from Psalm 73, it is apparent that “their mouths lay claim to heaven, and their tongues take possession of the earth.” In other words, the three men in this story portray both sides of the population who were split during the outbreak of the Black Plague. The reason this is relevant to the aspect of the Old Man in the Pardoner’s Tale is that Chaucer wanted to explain that death was coming for them regardless of their worldly or Godly views. In no way do I think that these men had any sliver of true, meaningful worship to God, however I believe that Chaucer is poking fun at abrupt fandom that many people, during those times, took part in by worshiping God when they knew the end was near. I like to use a modern term to describe these people: bandwagon fans. In the sports world, a bandwagon fan is described as someone who is not a true, consistent fan of a particular team, but rather calls themselves one when a certain team is doing well. In
For my investigation and more in-depth analysis of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, I decided to follow one of my comments in class down the proverbial rabbit hole and see what I could come up with. At the time my thoughts were diluted and abrupt, unable to effectively construct a substantial argument or criticism of why I thought my idea, the Old Man as a symbol of death, had any validity to it. After completing the course, many more aspects about the Tales and more specifically the allegory that is the Pardoner’s Tale has come to the light, revealing what I believe to be true. I set out to prove the symbolism of the Old Man in the Pardoner’s Tale and why it is relevant to the tales as a whole. …show more content…
When examining the Pardoner’s Tale, the first characters introduced are the three young men who participate in “riot, hazard, stywes, and tavernes” (465). Basically, the men like to enjoy parties, gambling, prostitutes, and drinking. Chaucer makes note of their activities as a sacrifice to the devil and that the tavern represents the devils temple. Right off the bat, Chaucer explains the personality of these men and wastes no time showing their worldly actions. Chaucer explains that the three men, while carrying on with their foolish living, took claim to God as their savior. “Hir othes been so grete and so dampnable / that it is grisly for to here hem swere. / Oure Lordes body they to-tere. / Hem thought that Jewes rente hym noght uynough!” (472-475). To quote a bible verse from Psalm 73, it is apparent that “their mouths lay claim to heaven, and their tongues take possession of the earth.” In other words, the three men in this story portray both sides of the population who were split during the outbreak of the Black Plague. The reason this is relevant to the aspect of the Old Man in the Pardoner’s Tale is that Chaucer wanted to explain that death was coming for them regardless of their worldly or Godly views. In no way do I think that these men had any sliver of true, meaningful worship to God, however I believe that Chaucer is poking fun at abrupt fandom that many people, during those times, took part in by worshiping God when they knew the end was near. I like to use a modern term to describe these people: bandwagon fans. In the sports world, a bandwagon fan is described as someone who is not a true, consistent fan of a particular team, but rather calls themselves one when a certain team is doing well. In