Preview

The Sin Of Greed In The Pardoner's Tale

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
186 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Sin Of Greed In The Pardoner's Tale
The moral of “The Pardoner’s Tale” suggests that all must be cautious of the sin of greed, which can only bring treachery and death as seen when three rioters go looking for death, literally, except their plan is disrupted by the need to have a pot of gold they find under a tree. One rioter goes off to find food and as soon as he leaves, the other two decide to kill him upon his return and split his share of the gold. Meanwhile back in town, the youngest rioter is having the same idea about the gold. He puts poison into two bottles of wine, leaving a third bottle pure for himself. He returns to the tree, but the other two rioters leap out and kill him. They sit down to drink their friend’s wine and celebrate, but each happens to pick up

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The Pardoner's Tale

    • 501 Words
    • 3 Pages

    I was not surprised by the fate of rioters because this is an anecdote from which we should learn a lesson, and I knew from the beginning that the Pardoner is preaching against greed and the horrible things that come from it.…

    • 501 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The allusion between Chaucer’s “Pardoner’s Tale” and the article is accurate. The governor is like the pardoner, he doesn't pardon anyone for his entire first term and no one in his second term until the last minute. The pardoner preached against greed, yet he was handing out “confessions” if you paid. Oh, the hypocrisy of the Medieval Catholic Church.…

    • 485 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Pardoner’s Tale In the Pardoner’s tale, he explains that money or greed is the root of all evil. What that statement means, greed is the root of all evil, is most of everything bad that happens, usually begins or has a base starting with greed. The Pardoner explains this in his tale of the three friends that were searching for Death. The friends were in search of their dead friend’s killer, that being Death, so that they could claim their revenge on him, but instead they found lots and lots of gold, and as soon as their eyes saw the gold, like the plague that took their friend, the one thing that would help them reach their goal sank in, greed.…

    • 408 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    It has been stated that “greed is the root of all evil” and the Pardoner even preaches this in his sermon that he preaches each and every time and has down by memory. In the prologue that the Pardoner gives of himself, he states that “I preach, as you have heard me say before, And tell a hundred lying mockeries more. I take great pains, and stretching out my neck To east and west I crane about and peck Just like a pigeon sitting on a barn. My hands and tongue together spin the yarn And all my antics are a joy to see. The curse of avarice and cupidity Is all my sermon, for it frees the pelf. Out come the pence, and specially for myself, For my exclusive purpose is to win And not at all to castigate their sin. Once dead what matter how their souls may fare? They can go blackberrying, for all I care!” What the Pardoner is pretty much saying is that he preaches against greed and doing things for self gain, yet he turns around and does his preaching for greed and gain. He can make money off of the individuals that are brought to him so he can forgive them of their sins. The Pardoner says that this whole thing is like a game to him and he doesn’t honestly care what happens to people’s souls after they die. He only wants to make money and benefit at the expense of other individuals. There is extreme satire in the preaching’s of the Pardoner. He doesn’t…

    • 1886 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the Pardoner's Tale, Chaucer writes about a man who preaches to his audience for money. The pardoner speaks of three men that lost their lives due to greed. This leaves the reader with the knowledge that money is the root of all evil. I think the whole world is nothing compare to the pardoner's greed. The pardoner admits that his job is not to encourage people to become better from sin, but to make himself rich. According to the text “but let me briefly make my purpose plain, I preach for nothing by for greed of gain”. Also he even goes so far as to say that he would steal from the poorest page, the widow and even a starving child if it meant that he would gain from the process.…

    • 450 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In conclusion, greed can overcome the best of people and some of them even know why it’s so bad to do so, but they still do it so they can be “happier”. Like I stated before, The Pardoner himself knew he had a personal issue with greed, but he never tried to change anything. He was only preaching for the payment he got from the pardons he received. The townsfolk had to go through a…

    • 634 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    To begin with, the rioters in the Pardoner’s Tale have shown greediness because at one point in the story they considered betrayal so that they could stay with the gold that was under the tree. The rioters were leaded to their death by the old man which represented Death, Death was the one that showed them to their death only because they wanted all the gold that was under…

    • 684 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Although the Pardoner deceives the public, he still confesses his sin "the very vice / [He] makes [his] living out of – avarice" (243). The Pardoner openly admits how much he values wealth over religion by "preaching" against “the very vice” – avarice. Similar to the Wife of Bath, the Pardoner seems “proud” of himself for beguiling innocent people. It is also evident from his tone that he does not believe in religion, but in wealth. Moreover, the Pardoner unambiguously states to the pilgrims, "Let me preach and beg from kirk to kirk / And never do an honest job of work...I mean to have money..." (244). The Pardoner, again, is open about his dishonesty and implies he will “never” be honest in his profession as his only goal is “to have money” despite how sacred his work is. His "work" is to con people of their money by selling pardons and artificial items. Hence, in “The Pardoner’s Tale”, an ethic that was delineated is that corruption, due to cupidity, is present in an infinite number of people, including religious officials, because they act out of arrogance rather than…

    • 1296 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is composed of a plethora of characters with varying personalities. Romeo and Juliet is a tale of a boy and a girl from feuding families who fall in love with each other, and end up killing themselves. Shakespeare ends with “Some shall be pardoned, and some shall be punished” (Cite). Among the ones who deserve to be punished for their selfish actions are Friar Lawrence, the Nurse, and Lady Capulet. Through these characters’ malevolent actions came the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. On the other hand, the two characters that deserve to be pardoned for doing everything in their power to keep Romeo and Juliet alive are Balthasar, and Friar John.…

    • 1754 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    One of the people's traits affected by human nature in many stories is greed. As shown throughout, greed is an evil sin. This is especially obvious in the Pardoner's Tale, where the Pardoner, a church-appointed official who collects gold for absolving people their sins, tells about the evils of money. In the story, three friends, who wanted to make the world better by killing death, find gold, and unwilling to share, start planning to kill each other. Two friends sent the third to bring them food and wanted to kill him after he came back. The victim, however, also wanted the money, and poisoned their drinks. As a result, all three friends die. "Thus were these two homicides finished,/ and the false poisoner too." (Chaucer 365). Even though Chaucer's conclusions are not expressed and actually are very different from what the Pardoner says, Chaucer manages to convey his message to the audience. In the Reeve's Tale, greed and envy caused two young students and the Miller to trick and steal from each other. "This Miller has done me great mischief, and I will not leave without first finding his daughter" (The Reeve). In the end, the students sleep with the Miller's wife and daughter, and the Miller ends up beaten and losing many of his possessions, but the story doesn't justify the students, the stealing, or even the greed itself. Chaucer leaves it up to the…

    • 641 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    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:…

    • 490 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The pardoner's only purpose was to obtain money by all means in order to live a better life. In the tale the pardoner states, "as long as I can preach and get their silver" proving that this was his sole purpose and he did not care whom he hurt or what lies he had to tell nothing mattered to him only the money. He knows his gift and will use his gift of preaching and gaining people's trust and attention and he has no shame in using this gift to get what he wants. He tells how he will continue to preach and tell the same tales elaborating them each time he tells them in order to get more attention from the people and keep them interested in what he has to offer.…

    • 632 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Pardoner's Tale

    • 971 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Geoffrey Chaucer was the man who wrote “The Canterbury Tales” and one of his most famous stories is the “Pardoner’s Tale”. “Each historical study of The Canterbury Tales has necessarily nibbled off one on aspect of history, finding in medieval thought a dominant idea, technique, pattern, or style which may be discovered in the poem” (Howard 4). Giving context clues on Chaucer gives small examples of what it was like living during the Medieval Times. Each story was given a message is meant to change the audience’s mind. Greed can ruin a strong relationship between anyone no matter what the circumstances were between them. Hillary Clinton’s speech “Remarks to the U.N. 4th World Conference on Women Plenary Session” was about how women…

    • 971 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Lessons

    • 430 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In light of the Pardoner’s true motives, as revealed in the “Prologue,” why is the moral of this tale ironic?…

    • 430 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    satire in pardoner's tale

    • 1497 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The story that the pardoner's tale begins with the pardoner telling the people about his condemning avarice while benefiting from selling relics to people. He justifies his greed by saying that he helps others stop sinning. The pardoner then begins his tale. Three young men drink, gamble and blaspheme in a tavern, committing the "tavern sins". One of the young men hears the burial bell, and the dead was one of his friends. He became angry, and asked the undertakers who killed his friend. The undertakers said that it was death that killed him and thousands of others. The drunk man then sets out an revenge to slain Death. The three meets an old man en route and asks him whether he is Death. Giving an answer "no", the old man tells them that they can find death at the foot of an oak tree. When the men arrive at the tree, bags of gold coins jumps into their view. They then forget about their quest to kill Death; instead, they decide to sleep at the oak tree over night in order to take the coins in the morning. The three men draw straws to see who among them should go back in town and get wine and food while the other two wait under the tree. The youngest of the three men draws the shortest straw and leaves. While he is away, the other two connive to hold him down and stab him when he returns. However, the one who leaves for town plots to kill the other two…

    • 1497 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays