The Pardoner In The Canterbury Tales

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The characters in Chaucer’s General Prologue from The Canterbury Tales are diverse – they come from different social standings, therefore have dissimilar points of view. This diversity helps create a very interesting dynamic when the characters interact with each other, and contributes to the shaping of the reader’s perceptions of the characters as a result. The perceptions, in turn, help with the exploration of the themes Chaucer wanted to delve into. The descriptions of the Pardoner’s character create a view of him as a greedy and corrupted hypocrite. The Pardoner was introduced by Chaucer as “gentil” (671). This introductory characteristic immediately sets up a warning for the reader that the Pardoner might not be what the word connotes,…show more content…
A pardoner’s job, as could be inferred, is to forgive people who had acted sinfully but has shown contrition. The fact that the Pardoner was considered by the Somnour as “his freend and his compeer” (Chaucer 671) creates this curious and ironic situation because of the disparity with their respective jobs. Due to the fact that the Somnour’s task is to summon people suspected of wrongdoings, the readers are then left to question why the Pardoner would associate himself with someone who, in a way, puts the people who he could possibly pardon in the future into the situation where they have to be forgiven in the first place. This opens the door for the Pardoner to be seen as greedy and corrupted because his relationship with the Somnour – who is understood to be also greedy and corrupted – seem to reflect the colloquial term, partners-in-crime: the latter gets money from the summoned people by bribing them of a pardon, courtesy of the former. This possibility is further supported, and perhaps embodied, by the fact that their voices seem to complement each other: when the Pardoner sings with his “smal” (Chaucer 690) voice, the Somnour would “bar to him a stiff burdoun” (Chaucer 675). It seemed like the former would sing the melody and the latter would harmonize accordingly. The negative impressions of the Pardoner, therefore, are…show more content…
He seemed to have considered the money (tithes) collected during the offertory as his selfishly claimed possession – a trophy after winning a game instead of a gift given by the congregation for the church. His intent on the money reinforces his greed and corruption. The fact that he, an ecclesiastical person, is the one who sins and lives the kind of life the church contradicts highlights the irony of it all, as mentioned
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