Deception In The Pardoner's Tale

Deception is a dangerous thing because while used by people for their own personal advantage it causes others to believe a lie. This concept plays an important part in people’s actions because it tells a lot about who they are as a person. Individuals who are deceiving will go to any length to be satisfied. The role deception plays in “The Pardoner’s Tale” is to communicate that greed is not beneficial and will lead to the death of the church. Chaucer uses the men’s deception to illustrate their selfishness. The three rioters were looking for death and when directed to where they could find it they found money instead. At this point they became very ecstatic and immediately started configuring a plan to avoid splitting the money. Their greed came into play while one rioter was in town because the other two conspired a plan to …show more content…
In this tale, the pardoner says his intent is to “win and not at all to castigate their sin. Once dead what matter how their souls may fare?” (76-79). His goal is to instead take their money but forgive them for having such high value for money in their lives. He is a hypocrite because while he is forgiving others for being greedy, he is taking their money for his own selfish needs. Chaucer uses the pardoner to essentially show how corrupt the church is because while they are supposed to be leading others and setting an example they are also taking money. They are greedy themselves and expect others not to be. This is not good because Chaucer communicates through the Pardoner’s tale that money symbolizes death. Therefore, since the church is being deceiving and showing greed, Chaucer is saying it will ultimately die. The author is setting it up so through the Pardoner's hypocrisy individuals will realize the church is corrupt and