The Pardoner
Canaan Hahn
Occupation
Need For Occupation
Social Standing
Day To Day Life
Left Out Details
A pardoner is a shamlessly immoral man. Pardoners are self-loating but devoted to their task of conning people by taking their money and making them think they have sinned and need to buy pardons.
Modern Day
Paraphrased Lines
Affected by the Physician's tale of Virginia, the Host praises the Physician by using as many medical terms as he can think of. However, he rejects the Physician's moral to the tale and substitutes one of his own: The gifts of Fortune and Nature have been the cause of the death of many a person. Thinking that the pilgrims need a happy tale to follow, the Host asks the Pardoner. Members of the company ask the Pardoner for a tale with a moral.
The Pardoner tells the pilgrims the methods he uses in preaching. "Love of money is the root of all evil." He constantly announces that he can do nothing for the really bad sinners and invites the good people forward to buy his pardons and clear themselves from sins. He preaches quickly about the sin of greed to trick the members into donating money.
He repeats the theme "Money is the root of all evil" because he can put down the main thing he practices, greed. (Not known to the public he is greedy.) Even though he is guilty of the sins he preaches against, he can make other people repent. The Pardoner admits that he likes money, rich food, and fine living. Even if he is not a moral man, he can tell a good moral tale.
In Flanders, at the height of a black plague, three young men sit in an inn, eating and drinking beyond their limit and swearing. They pass a coffin and ask who 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 rmen, thinking that Death might still be in the next town, decide to seek him out and kill him.
On the way, the three men meet an old man who explains that he must walk the earth until he can find someone willing to exchange youth for old age. He says Death won't take his life. Hearing him speak of Death, the men ask where they can find him, and the old man shows them a tree at the end of the lane. They rush to the tree and find many 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 the 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 man comes to the tree, the two others stab him and then sit down to drink the wine before they get rid of his body. They drink the poison and all three end up encountering Death.
Physical Apperance
"This pardoner hadde heer as yelow as wex,
But smothe it heng, as dooth a strike of flex;
By ounces henge his lokkes that he hadde,
And ther-with he his shuldres overspradde;
But thinne it lay, by colpons oon and oon;
But hood, for Iolitee, ne wered he noon,
For it was trussed up in his walet."
Personality
He was in chirche a noble ecclesiaste."
Specific Words For Personality
Spelling Variations
rede = read
lessoun = lesson
coude = could
storie = story
wel = well