Li Emily Mei Hartman Lin
Ms. Kingsley
AP English 12
Summary of the Prologue:
In the beginning, the pardoner is asked to tell a happy story by the host, by the group suggest a story about morals. As a result, the Pardoner tells the group about his career of preaching and selling promises of salvation. He always uses the phrase "Radiz malorum est Cupiditas," meaning "greed is the root of all evil." He goes into depth, preaching solely for money. The pardoner claims his preaching is for evil intentions. He preaches for vengeances of those who have mistreated, and offended him. The pardoner also explains how he would rather take the last penny from a widow than give up his money, and anything he can buy with the money. After that confession, the pardoner explains how he has now finished his alcohol and is going to begin his tale.
Summary of the Tale:
The pardoner starts his tale by talking about a group of Flemist people, who often drinks, but he gets off topic by talking about gluttony, gambling, and drinking. He claims that these sins offend god, cause the fall of Eden, and destroys power and wealth. After the sermon, the pardoner continues his story of the Flemist people. The story describes three friends that are drinking, and a reveler's servant comes in and tell them one of their friends is killed by Death. In hopes of revenge, they want to kill Death. On their way, they see an old man and said why he is sorrowful. He tells them he is waiting for Death, and they can find Death under an oak tree in the grove. When the three friends arrive, they find eight bushels of gold with no owner in sight. One of the three rioters suggest that they would be taken as thiefs if they arrive in town with all the gold, so they decided to have one of them go get food while the other two watch the gold. While the youngest runs to town to get food, he plans to buy some poison to kill his other two friends in order to keep the gold to himself. At the same time. the two friends that are left behind, plots to kill the friend going to town for the same intentions. When the friend returns from town, the two friends kills him. After they kill him, they drink the poison. This concludes the pardoner's tale and he warns other of sin. He claims sin causes death. He tells the pilgrims the value of his relic, but asks for contributions, right after he has told them that relic are sins. He asks the Host for the contribution first, but the host gets mad and makes a negative comment about he pardoner's genitals. In the end, the knight calms them down.
Irony with the tale and prologue: The pardoner tells the group of his selfish reasons for preaching the prologue, but in the tale he takes about the sins and asks for contributions. This ironic, because it contradicts what the pardoner just told the group before the tale.
Does Chauncer's description of the Pardoner match up to his actual conduct?
Yes! Chauncer describes the Pardoner as a lying, cheating hypocrite. He sells his pardons for money and other goods, and convinces the public that he is a holy god fearing man. He has fake relics that convince people of his authenticity as a pardoner, but really uses them to get rich himself. He is greedy, and as mentioned above, frequently commits the very same sins as the people he condemns. In this way, he satirizes the Pardoner, almost making fun of his short comings and sinfulness. Chauncer may be trying to generalize about the profession of pardoning, or just about the nature of the church. The church often took bribes in exchange for salvation. Officials were corrupt, and took money from absolution to line their own pockets, while the poor, plebian sinners continued to starve. Chauncer might have felt this way, because he had the unique experience of being part of all the social classes at a time in his life. Although he worked for the government, he knew what it was like to be at the bottom of the ladder, and saw from the peasants position, and from the uninvolved observers position how the church was taking advantage of the public. This is not only evident in his descripition of the Pardoner, but of other church officials as well.
Ms. Kingsley
AP English 12
Summary of the Prologue:
In the beginning, the pardoner is asked to tell a happy story by the host, by the group suggest a story about morals. As a result, the Pardoner tells the group about his career of preaching and selling promises of salvation. He always uses the phrase "Radiz malorum est Cupiditas," meaning "greed is the root of all evil." He goes into depth, preaching solely for money. The pardoner claims his preaching is for evil intentions. He preaches for vengeances of those who have mistreated, and offended him. The pardoner also explains how he would rather take the last penny from a widow than give up his money, and anything he can buy with the money. After that confession, the pardoner explains how he has now finished his alcohol and is going to begin his tale.
Summary of the Tale:
The pardoner starts his tale by talking about a group of Flemist people, who often drinks, but he gets off topic by talking about gluttony, gambling, and drinking. He claims that these sins offend god, cause the fall of Eden, and destroys power and wealth. After the sermon, the pardoner continues his story of the Flemist people. The story describes three friends that are drinking, and a reveler's servant comes in and tell them one of their friends is killed by Death. In hopes of revenge, they want to kill Death. On their way, they see an old man and said why he is sorrowful. He tells them he is waiting for Death, and they can find Death under an oak tree in the grove. When the three friends arrive, they find eight bushels of gold with no owner in sight. One of the three rioters suggest that they would be taken as thiefs if they arrive in town with all the gold, so they decided to have one of them go get food while the other two watch the gold. While the youngest runs to town to get food, he plans to buy some poison to kill his other two friends in order to keep the gold to himself. At the same time. the two friends that are left behind, plots to kill the friend going to town for the same intentions. When the friend returns from town, the two friends kills him. After they kill him, they drink the poison. This concludes the pardoner's tale and he warns other of sin. He claims sin causes death. He tells the pilgrims the value of his relic, but asks for contributions, right after he has told them that relic are sins. He asks the Host for the contribution first, but the host gets mad and makes a negative comment about he pardoner's genitals. In the end, the knight calms them down.
Irony with the tale and prologue: The pardoner tells the group of his selfish reasons for preaching the prologue, but in the tale he takes about the sins and asks for contributions. This ironic, because it contradicts what the pardoner just told the group before the tale.
Does Chauncer's description of the Pardoner match up to his actual conduct?
Yes! Chauncer describes the Pardoner as a lying, cheating hypocrite. He sells his pardons for money and other goods, and convinces the public that he is a holy god fearing man. He has fake relics that convince people of his authenticity as a pardoner, but really uses them to get rich himself. He is greedy, and as mentioned above, frequently commits the very same sins as the people he condemns. In this way, he satirizes the Pardoner, almost making fun of his short comings and sinfulness. Chauncer may be trying to generalize about the profession of pardoning, or just about the nature of the church. The church often took bribes in exchange for salvation. Officials were corrupt, and took money from absolution to line their own pockets, while the poor, plebian sinners continued to starve. Chauncer might have felt this way, because he had the unique experience of being part of all the social classes at a time in his life. Although he worked for the government, he knew what it was like to be at the bottom of the ladder, and saw from the peasants position, and from the uninvolved observers position how the church was taking advantage of the public. This is not only evident in his descripition of the Pardoner, but of other church officials as well.