Corruption In The Pardoner's Tale

Around the late 13th century, Geoffrey Chaucer was known as the "Father of English literature." His most famous work, The Canterbury Tales, is a collection of frame stories. A frame story is a set of stories within a story. In "The Prologue," Chaucer describes each of the twenty-nine pilgrims that are traveling to Canterbury. Of all the characters Chaucer speaks of, the Pardoner is the most corrupted of all.

Chaucer's description of the Pardoner portrays him as unattractive at best. He describes the Pardoner's hair as "yellow as wax...hanging down smoothly...locks behind his head down to his shoulders...like rat-tails." (Chaucer, ll. 695-699) The Pardoner can also be described as being beardless, bug-eyed, and wearing a cap with no hood that …show more content…
His manipulative, vile, and greedy intentions are what shape the Pardoner of who he really is. His characteristics can be seen by his deceptive jobs of making people believe that they have really sinned and influence them to buy pardons. The Pardoner's core of greed and manipulation is what creates him as the most evil and corrupted man in the trip. In "The Pardoner's Prologue," he states in lines 1-2, "But let me briefly make my purpose plain; I preach for nothing but for greed of gain..." This shows that the Pardoner does admit that his desires and characteristics shape what he intends to reveal about his true identity. As it shows in the Pardoner's personality, his characteristics prove to the fact he is indeed a man with no real religious …show more content…
In "The Pardoner's Prologue," he admits that his true intention is to gain wealth and become powerful. He makes his remarks clearly from his prologue: "...preach for nothing but for greed...preach against the very vice I make my living out of, avarice...I mean to have money, wool, and cheese and wheat..." This reveals that the Pardoner does not focus in his duties, but cares much of his growing greed for money. This also signifies the hypocrite he reveals to be when he tells his tale for the pilgrims on the way to Canterbury. The Pardoner's tale fixes on the evil of greed and how it can destroy somebody's life; therefore, shows the fact that the Pardoner does not have much to say when clearly the tale speaks about himself. The Pardoner's other motive is to manipulate people to buy pardons from him and gain more money for his greed. The Pardoner's motives are one of many descriptions Chaucer speaks of when describing his