The Pardoner’s Words: Life as a Game for the Craftiest and Blind to the Slowest
While the Pardoner of Geoffrey Chaucer’s poem The Canterbury Tales, is undoubtedly a prime model of hypocrisy and evil intent, and his ability to survive on earth as an aberration of all norms shows that the norms leaves the travelers, and people in general, open to folly and sin. Chaucer appears to be inspired by the Fals Semblant character of the famous poem Roman de la Rose by Guillaume de Lorris, another deceitful character who uses society’s foibles for his own gain. It is the gullible, willfully ignorant and ambitious people they con that enable their duplicity in their eyes.The Pope, the lords of the peasants, and the mercantile class emerging are all …show more content…
De Lorris’ writes dialogue from a peasant to a priest, “Father, I lately have confessed/To such in one, and he my breast/Hath clean absolved from ever sin/That might the wrath of heaven win,/My conscience suffers no such pain/As pricks me to confess again” (n.p.). Fals Semblant’s effect on the peasantry seems to imply that his activities inspire self confidence in them. In other words, though the prelates, or priests, of the churches are vulnerable to the tricks Fals Semblant plays they can’t do anything about it due to the supreme spiritual ruler on earth’s protection and their own concentrated authority becomes threatened by this master of …show more content…
He affirms through his tale that death is inevitable and presents spiritual salvation as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that would benefit the pilgrims on a worldly level, twisting the supposed purpose of indulgences, as Chaucer shows, “It is an honour to everich that is heer/That ye mowe have a suffisant pardoner/assoille yow in contree as ye ryde,/For aventures whiche that may bityde./Paraventure ther may fallen oon or two/Doun of his hors and breke his nekke atwo” (931-936). The word “aventure” in Middle English can mean: “an event or occurrence”, “danger”, “venture, an enterprise”, or a “miracle”. In consequence, when the Pardoner says that they are lucky that he is with them to absolve their sins he can mean one of these definitions or all of them and it wouldn’t be inaccurate to suppose so, as this character is very opportunistic. In fact, he resembles a
While the Pardoner of Geoffrey Chaucer’s poem The Canterbury Tales, is undoubtedly a prime model of hypocrisy and evil intent, and his ability to survive on earth as an aberration of all norms shows that the norms leaves the travelers, and people in general, open to folly and sin. Chaucer appears to be inspired by the Fals Semblant character of the famous poem Roman de la Rose by Guillaume de Lorris, another deceitful character who uses society’s foibles for his own gain. It is the gullible, willfully ignorant and ambitious people they con that enable their duplicity in their eyes.The Pope, the lords of the peasants, and the mercantile class emerging are all …show more content…
De Lorris’ writes dialogue from a peasant to a priest, “Father, I lately have confessed/To such in one, and he my breast/Hath clean absolved from ever sin/That might the wrath of heaven win,/My conscience suffers no such pain/As pricks me to confess again” (n.p.). Fals Semblant’s effect on the peasantry seems to imply that his activities inspire self confidence in them. In other words, though the prelates, or priests, of the churches are vulnerable to the tricks Fals Semblant plays they can’t do anything about it due to the supreme spiritual ruler on earth’s protection and their own concentrated authority becomes threatened by this master of …show more content…
He affirms through his tale that death is inevitable and presents spiritual salvation as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that would benefit the pilgrims on a worldly level, twisting the supposed purpose of indulgences, as Chaucer shows, “It is an honour to everich that is heer/That ye mowe have a suffisant pardoner/assoille yow in contree as ye ryde,/For aventures whiche that may bityde./Paraventure ther may fallen oon or two/Doun of his hors and breke his nekke atwo” (931-936). The word “aventure” in Middle English can mean: “an event or occurrence”, “danger”, “venture, an enterprise”, or a “miracle”. In consequence, when the Pardoner says that they are lucky that he is with them to absolve their sins he can mean one of these definitions or all of them and it wouldn’t be inaccurate to suppose so, as this character is very opportunistic. In fact, he resembles a