The Pardoner's Tale Essay

The Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale, by Geoffrey Chaucer is a perfect example of an exemplum due to its’ moral lesson that is taught by exemplification. People often learn from example, which is why an exemplum provides an effective way of teaching a moral or lesson. The exemplum featured in this tale works specifically to provide credibility to the Pardoner as well as to give the story a general purpose for being told. The moral taught in this tale is that love is the root of all evils. Chaucer uses a tale about gambling, drinking, and the use of profane language to show the greed that is present in the world. The tale itself teaches a moral by example. It shows the effects that drinking, gambling, and the use of profane language can have on a …show more content…
By describing himself as, “ But though myself be gilty in that sinne” , he shows that he is greedy and wants money, but knows that it is not a good trait to have (PardT 141). Although his willingness to tell the truth helps the reader put more trust in the truthfulness of the future words of the Pardoner, it still does not show that he is a credible source. “Ironically the Pardoner narrator—a charlatan who displays phony saints' relics to lend credibility to his selling of indulgences, or pardons for sin—freely admits to his pilgrim audience that he is himself guilty of the very sin he preaches against” (Ruud). Due to this reason, his credibility must come from the tale itself and the number of examples, as well as the truthfulness present in the tale itself. Not only did the tale talk about greed itself as a method of downfall, it also showed three examples of people who had been affected by greed and how together, they were able to let greed ruin their lives. The Pardoner did not downplay the consequences of greed to make himself feel better, he made sure the tale was told in a way that conveyed the story in an accurate