Who is the pardoner pardoners tale

The Pardoner also admits that his main purpose is to acquire money, "I preach for nothing but for greed of gain. Are there more examples of the seven deadly sins in the tale? Do you know what the seven deadly sins are? Take a guess. The tale's setting is in the town of Flanders. The main characters are three young men who engage in many sins: gambling, drinking, blaspheming.

The three young men are in search for Death Death is personified as a character in the story because the older man, whom they encounter along the way, tells them that Death won't take him, but they can find him lying under the tree. What is about that statement? Irony is the use of words to express something other than the literal meaning. Verbal--the opposite of what is meant is said sarcasm Dramatic--the reader knows something the character does not Situational--the opposite of what is expected to happen occurs.

The basic development of plat follows the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement form.

Death is personified as a character, and he is symbolic that death is predictable and inevitable. Lesson 2. The Pardoner then explains to the pilgrims the methods he uses in preaching. His text is always "Radix malorum est cupidatis" "Love of money is the root of all evil".

Always employing an array of documents and objects, he constantly announces that he can do nothing for the really bad sinners and invites the good people forward to buy his relics and, thus, absolve themselves from sins. Then he stands in the pulpit and preaches very rapidly about the sin of avarice so as to intimidate the members into donating money. He repeats that his theme is always "Money is the root of all evil" because, with this text, he can denounce the very vice that he practices: greed.

And even though he is guilty of the same sins he preaches against, he can still make other people repent. The Pardoner admits that he likes money, rich food, and fine living. And even if he is not a moral man, he can tell a good moral tale, which follows. In Flanders, at the height of a black plague, three young men sit in an inn, eating and drinking far beyond their power and swearing oaths that are worthy of damnation.

The revelers mark the passing of a coffin and ask who has died. A servant tells them that the dead man was a friend who was stabbed in the back the night before by a thief called Death. The young revelers, thinking that Death might still be in the next town, decide to seek him out and slay him. On the way, the three men meet an old man who explains that he must wander the earth until he can find someone willing to exchange youth for old age.

He says that not even Death will take his life. Hearing him speak of Death, the revelers ask where they can find Death, and the old man directs them to a tree at the end of the lane.

The revelers rush to the tree and find eight bushels of gold coins, which they decide to keep. They decide to wait for night to move the gold and draw straws to see which one will go into town to get food and wine. The youngest of the three draws the shortest straw. When he leaves, the two others decide to kill him and divide his money. The youngest, however, wanting the treasure to himself, buys poison, which he adds to two of the bottles of wine he purchases.

When the youngest reveler approaches the tree, the two others stab him and then sit down to drink the wine before they dispose of his body. Thus, all three indeed find Death. They draw lots, and the youngest of the three loses and runs off toward town. As soon as he is gone, the sly plotter turns to his friend and divulges his plan: when their friend returns from town, they will kill him and therefore receive greater shares of the wealth.

The second rioter agrees, and they prepare their trap. Back in town, the youngest vagrant is having similar thoughts. He could easily be the richest man in town, he realizes, if he could have all the gold to himself. He goes to the apothecary and buys the strongest poison available, then puts the poison into two bottles of wine, leaving a third bottle pure for himself.

He returns to the tree, but the other two rioters leap out and kill him. Within minutes, they lie dead next to their friend. Thus, concludes the Pardoner, all must beware the sin of avarice, which can only bring treachery and death. He realizes that he has forgotten something: he has relics and pardons in his bag. According to his custom, he tells the pilgrims the value of his relics and asks for contributions—even though he has just told them the relics are fake.

He offers the Host the first chance to come forth and kiss the relics, since the Host is clearly the most enveloped in sin The Host and Pardoner kiss and make up, and all have a good laugh as they continue on their way. We know from the General Prologue that the Pardoner is as corrupt as others in his profession, but his frankness about his own hypocrisy is nevertheless shocking.

He bluntly accuses himself of fraud, avarice, and gluttony—the very things he preaches against. And yet, rather than expressing any sort of remorse with his confession, he takes a perverse pride in the depth of his corruption.

His boasts about his corruption may represent his attempt to cover up his doubts or anxieties about the life of crime in the name of religion that he has adopted. It is possible to argue that the Pardoner sacrifices his own spiritual good to cure the sins of others. We can assume that the Pardoner is well practiced in the art of telling this specific tale, and he even inserts some of his sermon into it. The hypocrisy he has described in his Prologue becomes evident in his tale, as all the vices he lists in his diatribe at the beginning—gluttony, drunkenness, gambling, and swearing—are faults that he himself has either displayed to the other pilgrims or proudly claimed to possess.

As if on automatic pilot, the Pardoner completes his tale just as he would when preaching in the villages, by displaying his false relics and asking for contributions. His act is intriguing, for he makes no acknowledgment of his hypocrisy.