Allyson Krohn
Professor Scott
Eng 333
02/04/2018
The Knight Vs the Pardoner The General Prologue in the Canterbury tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, there is a general introduction of the characters who are going to be competing to tell the best tale of the group. There are two characters that I would like to focus on, because they are quite the opposites; The knight and the Pardoner. The knight is the vision of a chivalrous knight and the pardoner being quite the opposite is known for swindling people of their money Knights are one of the most mistaken figures of the medieval era due to fairytales and over exaggerated fiction novels. When medieval knights roamed the earth, it was known that they were only human and, like humans, had faults. …show more content…
This sentiment is further reinforced through the description of his having a high pitched ‘small voice a goat has got’ which is another physiognomic trait denoting effeminateness, and evoking the probability of homosexuality. Additionally, Chaucer as the narrator judges him to be ‘gelding, or a mare’, an allusion to the possibility the Pardoner may be a eunuchus ex nativitate (a natural eunuch due to congenital defect). Physiognomic interpretation also gives the reader to understand that his ‘bulging eye-balls, like a hare’ were signs of pride, impudence, shamelessness and lack of propriety. Finally, his bare chin which ‘no beard had harboured, nor would harbour, smoother than ever chin was left by barber’ were believed to denote great cleverness and ingenuity and gives an overall portrait of a man who is ‘an abandoned rascal delighting in hypocri]sy and possessed of a colossal impudence’. (Duino, pgs 324-325; Gross, pgs 6-8)
The Pardoner is thoroughly emasculated and given characteristics of sexual abnormality to draw parallels between his physical and sexual deviancy and his spiritual and moral perversions. Chaucer brings his audience’s immediate attention to the Pardoner’s preternatural sexuality to draw on the powerful association in the medieval mind between homosexuality and wickedness, immorality, licentiousness and even
Professor Scott
Eng 333
02/04/2018
The Knight Vs the Pardoner The General Prologue in the Canterbury tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, there is a general introduction of the characters who are going to be competing to tell the best tale of the group. There are two characters that I would like to focus on, because they are quite the opposites; The knight and the Pardoner. The knight is the vision of a chivalrous knight and the pardoner being quite the opposite is known for swindling people of their money Knights are one of the most mistaken figures of the medieval era due to fairytales and over exaggerated fiction novels. When medieval knights roamed the earth, it was known that they were only human and, like humans, had faults. …show more content…
This sentiment is further reinforced through the description of his having a high pitched ‘small voice a goat has got’ which is another physiognomic trait denoting effeminateness, and evoking the probability of homosexuality. Additionally, Chaucer as the narrator judges him to be ‘gelding, or a mare’, an allusion to the possibility the Pardoner may be a eunuchus ex nativitate (a natural eunuch due to congenital defect). Physiognomic interpretation also gives the reader to understand that his ‘bulging eye-balls, like a hare’ were signs of pride, impudence, shamelessness and lack of propriety. Finally, his bare chin which ‘no beard had harboured, nor would harbour, smoother than ever chin was left by barber’ were believed to denote great cleverness and ingenuity and gives an overall portrait of a man who is ‘an abandoned rascal delighting in hypocri]sy and possessed of a colossal impudence’. (Duino, pgs 324-325; Gross, pgs 6-8)
The Pardoner is thoroughly emasculated and given characteristics of sexual abnormality to draw parallels between his physical and sexual deviancy and his spiritual and moral perversions. Chaucer brings his audience’s immediate attention to the Pardoner’s preternatural sexuality to draw on the powerful association in the medieval mind between homosexuality and wickedness, immorality, licentiousness and even