Maura Mayhew
Mrs. DeStefano
Honors British Literature
11 December 2018
Pardoner Analysis
Geoffrey Chaucer’s masterpiece, The Canterbury Tales, brilliantly asserts the foibles of the fourteenth-century English aristocracy, clergy, middle class, trade class, and peasant class, omitting only royalty and serfs. Through sharp, satirical commentary, Chaucer addresses the corruption within the five socioeconomic classes and emphasizes the importance of morality in society. The Canterbury Tales analyzes the ethics of thirty diverse characters, including Chaucer the Pilgrim, through a frame narrative structure. The outer frame depicts the journey of thirty pilgrims to Saint Thomas Becket’s shrine in Canterbury, England, in April—a traditional custom of devout English Catholics. Chaucer’s characters become acquainted with one another while staying at the Tabard Inn, outside the city of London in Southwark. While the pilgrims converse over a tavern dinner, the Host, Harry Bailly, proposes a jovial tale-telling contest to prevent boredom during their pilgrimage to Canterbury. Harry Bailly intends each pilgrim participating in his contest to narrate two tales in each direction of the journey, the winner being the pilgrim who presents the most entertaining and moral anecdote. The contest’s winner will receive a dinner at the Tabard Inn when they return from their pilgrimage, provided by those defeated. The inner frame of The Canterbury Tales is comprised of the stories told by the pilgrims, relating to each pilgrim’s distinct personality traits and flaws. However, Chaucer did not complete his intended four tales for each character, 120 tales in total. Before his death in 1400, Chaucer produced only twenty-four tales, two of which remained incomplete. Each of Chaucer’s thirty pilgrims was chosen to represent specific stereotypes based on profession and socioeconomic status. The Pardoner represents the corruption and hypocrisy of numerous fourteenth-century clergymen. The Canterbury Tales emphasizes the Pardoner’s fraudulent lifestyle through his physical and non-physical descriptions, societal role, Prologue, Tale, and responses from fellow travelers to his words and actions. Chaucer’s uncanny ability to match tale to teller is exemplified in his character, the Pardoner.
The physical description of the Pardoner is vividly illustrated in the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales as Chaucer embeds qualities of each character that correspond with his or her distinct personality traits. Chaucer describes the Pardoner’s hair as “… yellow as wax, / Hanging down smoothly like a hank of flax,” (GP 21) though the Pardoner does not possess facial hair. In addition to his distinguishing blonde hair, the Pardoner is said to have “bulging eyeballs, like a hare” (21). Furthermore, the Pardoner’s speech is described as high-pitched, alongside the deep-toned voice of his counterpart pilgrim, the Summoner (21). As Robyn M. Boyer asserts, the Pardoner’s unique hair “confers the clergyman’s probable impotence and lack of manhood” (par. 4). She further assesses the Pardoner’s lack of facial hair, concluding he may have a physical defect (par. 4). The Pardoner’s prominent, bulging eyes represent “pride, impudence, shamelessness, and lack of propriety” (par. 4). The soft and light voice of the Pardoner is specifically mentioned by Chaucer because its pitch emphasizes the Pardoner’s femininity, eccentricity, and possible homosexuality (par. 5).
The non-physical descriptions of the Pardoner further reveal his personality and lifestyle. Chaucer describes the clergyman as possessing false “holy relics” for deceit within his occupation. Moreover, the Pardoner claims to hold authentic pardons within his wallet from the head of the Catholic Church though they are implied to be illegitimate. Chaucer attributes the ability of the Pardoner to swindle others with his false relics to his incredible speaking abilities, claiming, “In church he was a noble ecclesiastic. / How well he told a lesson or story!” (GP 22). The clergyman’s eloquent public speaking and capability of cheating those around him are essential to the comprehension of the Pardoner’s character. “His admissions of falsehood are in no sense confessional. He is boasting that believing nothing can make others believe” (Smith 316).
The original role of a fourteenth-century pardoner was to sell papal indulgences, intended to reduce temporal punishment for sin. Therefore, this position in the Church was especially important as “the pardoner was not only a major conduit of important income for the Church, but was an integral part of the salvation process for parishioners” (Rogers 334). A pardoner was a member of the peasant class but technically considered a member of the clergy because he was employed by the Church. The Pardoner’s occupation is significant to his greedy, hypocritical, and cunning characterization because “The nature of the job … lent itself to fraud and exploitation” (334). Though Chaucer’s Pardoner is an individual character, his manner of corruption and gluttony corresponds to the stereotypical pardoner of fourteenth-century England. His nature is satirized by Chaucer through the General Prologue, the Pardoner’s Prologue, The Pardoner’s Tale, and reactions of fellow pilgrims.
Chaucer’s Pardoner initiates his Prologue through a description of his manner of cheating those who listen to him, even boasting his dishonesty to promote his own authority over his fellow pilgrims. Referring to his position as simply “the game” (Chaucer, PardP 241) and “not my principle intent,” (PardP 243) the Pardoner readily asserts his lack of interest in the morality of his occupation and ultimate fate of his customers. As Hallissy asserts, “Because he abuses the faith of simple believers, he who should be an agent of God’s pardon is himself unpardoned” (213). The Pardoner claims he puts “a saffron tinge upon my preaching / And stir devotion with a spice of teaching” (Chaucer, PardP 241) which displays his allegiance to wealth over faith through the use of the highly expensive spice, saffron. His prologue lists the extensive collection of false relics that a pardoner of the period utilized to defraud parishioners by claiming they healed ailments or promoted redemption in the eyes of the Church. As Sauer affirms simply, “This is what the Pardoner does for a living—sell words and ideas” (168). The Pardoner additionally attracts his audience emotionally, telling them, regardless of their sin, his relics will save them. His created concept shows his disinterest in the actual salvation of his patrons, and desire for personal gain only. The Pardoner declares his impassivity toward the fate of his listeners, saying, “For my exclusive purpose is to win / And not at all to castigate their sin. / Once dead what matter how their souls may fare?” (Chaucer, PardP 243). The Pardoner concludes his Prologue by continuously flaunting his dishonest lifestyle and expressing his willingness to take from the poorest members of society. He proclaims his lust for greed outwardly, stating “I preach against the very vice / I make my living out of—avarice” (PardP 243). The Pardoner’s Prologue is appropriate to his character because repeated discussion of his lack of a moral boundary is used to convince himself that his negative effect on society is a necessary evil rather than a harmful nature he willingly continues to exacerbate. The Pardoner’s recognition of his own callousness before reciting his Tale causes the pilgrims to question, “Should we trust, or believe in, or even listen to the tale of an unworthy teller?” (Rossignol 270).
The Pardoner’s Tale is an exemplum, a sermon that depicts an aspect of morality, through which Chaucer humors his audience with his clear use of irony. Chaucer’s immoral Pardoner claims before he begins, “For though I am a wholly vicious man / Don’t think I can’t tell moral tales. I can!” (Chaucer, PardP 244). He begins his Tale describing three lackadaisical men, using their characters to advise against their lifestyle of gluttony, drunkenness, gambling, and swearing. These vices are reflected in the Pardoner’s own lifestyle, particularly drunkenness as he is under the influence while telling his Tale. He begins his Tale ironically by describing the evil of alcohol, claiming “Wine is a lecherous thing and drunkenness / A squalor of contention and distress” (PardT 247). The three men, seeking to avenge Death for the murder of their friend, are approached by an Old Man on their journey. As Hallissy notes, “While the three rioters see Death as the enemy, a ‘false traitor’ to be slain if possible, the Old Man sees Death as a blessed relief from suffering” (219). Despite the opposing views of the three men and the Old Man regarding the end of life, the Pardoner’s Tale emphasizes the inevitability of death for people of all beliefs, yet again promoting the sale of his relics through the concept of necessary salvation. The greed of the three men leads to their own demise upon finding a sum of wealth after being directed to find Death by the Old Man. As Rossignol asserts, “Ironically, in the midst of this conscious-wrenching harangue, the detail with which the Pardoner describes the sins he cautions against gives him away, recalling his own sinfulness which he admitted in his prologue” (269). Though the Pardoner tells this moral Tale to win the Host’s contest, he does not outwardly practice the motif of his story and allows his greed to control every aspect of his character. As Rossignol details,
The reason that this tale suits the Pardoner so well is because of the way it plays off the man’s occupation and those who buy his wares. The chief error made by the three rioters is a conceptual one: In believing that they can kill Death, they mistake something nonmaterial for something material … Those who buy pardons, on the other hand, mistake something material for something nonmaterial. (270)
The Pardoner’s Tale is appropriate to his character because it is a microcosm of his profession, warning his audience of powerful vices and their possible result in death. Immediately after concluding his Tale, the Pardoner comments strongly on the sin of avarice, calling it “O cursed sin! O blackguardly excess! / O treacherous homicide! O wickedness!” (Chaucer, PardT 256). Though the Pardoner recognizes the severity of his repeated sin of avarice, he uses his sermons to enrich himself immorally through wealth as opposed to faith—the exact notion he cautions his listeners to avoid. After his Tale, the Pardoner yet again tries to sell his wares to the pilgrims in an attempt to profit from his story. He advises the pilgrims to “kneel in humbleness for my pardon,” (PardT 257) lists his various relics for sale, and then asserts the Host as the “most enveloped of you all in sin” (PardT 257). The Host greatly takes offense to this remark until the Knight pacifies the pilgrims, saying “Now, Master Pardoner, perk up, look cheerly! / And you, Sir Host, whom I esteem so dearly, / I beg of you to kiss the Pardoner” (PardT 258). Burger asserts the kindly intervention of the Knight as “Parson-like” (1152) and “representative of the larger order of disciplinary care,” (1153) as the Pardoner temporarily refuses to speak to the Host in his anger. This final selection from Chaucer’s writing of the pilgrim is significant because it reasserts the Pardoner’s inability to forgive—the intended purpose of his livelihood. From the beginning of the Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale, Chaucer characterizes the Pardoner as the antithesis of what the pilgrims and Chaucer readers expect a “pious” clergyman to embody. As Hallissy concludes, “The Pardoner is fully enveloped in his sin, as a conscious hypocrite perverting the good intentions of others to his own evil end” (51).
Geoffrey Chaucer eloquently satirizes the aristocracy, clergy, middle class, trade class and peasant class of the fourteenth-century in his work, The Canterbury Tales. Through his shameless Pardoner, Chaucer depicts the potential for ruin in the human soul as a result of excessive greed and rejection of morality, particularly in religious occupations. Though all thirty pilgrims perfectly represent vices and clichés specific to their profession and socioeconomic status, the Pardoner is outstandingly ridiculed by Chaucer because his Prologue and Tale depict the Pardoner’s apathy to his own evil. Chaucer’s biting criticism of the stereotypical lifestyle of a fourteenth-century pardoner in The Canterbury Tales is expressed through the Pardoner’s physical and non-physical descriptions, societal role, Prologue, Tale, and the pilgrims’ response to his words and actions. Chaucer sets a precedent in The Canterbury Tales as he both challenges his readers to question the morality of those around them, and widens the realm of literary satire.
Works Cited
Boyer, Robyn M. “A Portrait of the Pardoner from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.” Three Gold Bees. Web. 28 Oct. 2018.
Burger, Glenn. “Kissing the Pardoner.” PMLA 107.5 (1992): 1153. Web. 10 Nov. 2018.
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. Nevill Coghill. London: Penguin Publishers, 1951. Print.
Hallissy, Margaret. A Companion to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1995. Print.
Rogers, Shannon. “P.” All Things Chaucer (Two Volumes): An Encyclopedia of Chaucer’s World. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2006. Web. 24 Oct. 2018.
Rossignol, Rosalyn. Chaucer A to Z. New York: Facts on File Incorporated, 1999. Print.
Sauer, Michelle M. Bloom’s How to Write About Geoffrey Chaucer. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2010. Print.
Smith, Elton E. “With Hym Ther Rood a Gentil Pardoner.” Chaucer’s Pilgrims: A Historical Guide to the Pilgrims in The Canterbury Tales. Eds. Robert T. Lambdin and Laura C. Lambdin. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1996. 314-24. Print.