Pardoner’s Character Analysis Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales to satirize the corruption he noticed within the church. The tales used a small group of pilgrims to show how the English society was during the Middle Ages. Chaucer used the Pardoner, a character from the tales, to show the reality of what it was like inside the church. A pardoner’s job was to sell pardons and help people repent their sins, but this pardoner did not care about getting into heaven, he was just out for the people’s money. Chaucer portrays the Pardoner as a money hunger man how is placed to do religious work for the church. The Pardoner’s job was to go around selling pardons for forgiveness of sin. He was great at his job: “There was no pardoner could
…show more content…
The Pardoner did inform the pilgrims about his wrong doings. He knew how to get the attention of people. All his sermons started off with “Radix malorum est cupiditas…” (Chaucer l. 8). That means money is the root of all evil. The Pardoner started his audience off thinking that he was not out for their money. He knows what he should say to get people to give him money: “The curse of avarice and cupidity / Is all my sermon for it frees the pelf” (Chaucer ll. 16-17). The Pardoner preaches out of greed. His sermons are about money being the root of all evil, but just because he’s guilty of that sin he doesn’t feel that it should stop him from helping others. He does not care where it comes from he just wants the money: “Though it were given me by the poorest lad / Or poorest village widow, though she had / A string of starving children all agape” (Chaucer ll. 45-47). The Pardoner wants a lot of riches, even if it’s from the poorest widow who can’t even feed her own children. He didn’t try to hide the fact that he was greedy from his audience. The Pardoner knew that people had to repent their sins and no matter what he said to them they would still buy pardons. Money is the root of all evil and the Pardoner was honest about money being all he
The Pardoner did inform the pilgrims about his wrong doings. He knew how to get the attention of people. All his sermons started off with “Radix malorum est cupiditas…” (Chaucer l. 8). That means money is the root of all evil. The Pardoner started his audience off thinking that he was not out for their money. He knows what he should say to get people to give him money: “The curse of avarice and cupidity / Is all my sermon for it frees the pelf” (Chaucer ll. 16-17). The Pardoner preaches out of greed. His sermons are about money being the root of all evil, but just because he’s guilty of that sin he doesn’t feel that it should stop him from helping others. He does not care where it comes from he just wants the money: “Though it were given me by the poorest lad / Or poorest village widow, though she had / A string of starving children all agape” (Chaucer ll. 45-47). The Pardoner wants a lot of riches, even if it’s from the poorest widow who can’t even feed her own children. He didn’t try to hide the fact that he was greedy from his audience. The Pardoner knew that people had to repent their sins and no matter what he said to them they would still buy pardons. Money is the root of all evil and the Pardoner was honest about money being all he