The Pardoner's Prologue and Tale
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The Pardoner's Tale is one of The Canterbury Tales. A Pardoner used to be a person selling indulgences for the Church. In the Introduction, the host invites the Pardoner to tell the next tale. The Pardoner's Prologue is a sermon against greed, gluttony and gambling, linking into the main tale. After the tale, the Pardoner invites the other pilgrims to pay him for pardons and sell them relics.
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[edit] Summary
The tale is based on a folk-tale of Oriental origin, although many variations exist. Three rioters set out to find and kill Death, whom they fault for the death of their friend, and all other people that previously died. An old man directs them towards a tree, underneath which they find gold coins; they forget about their quest to kill Death, and send one among them to fetch wine and food while the other two wait under the tree. They secretly plot to kill the other one when he returns, while the one who leaves for the town poisons some of the wine with rat poison. When he returns with the food and drink, the other two kill him and drink the poisoned wine - also dying in result. The tale is supposed to illustrate the Latin phrase Radix malorum est cupiditas - "Greed for wealth (Avarice) is the root of all evil", which the Pardoner himself quotes as the theme of the story.
[edit] Analysis
The relationship between teller and tale is particularly significant in the Pardoner's Tale. The Pardoner is an enigmatic character, portrayed as grotesque in the General Prologue and apparently aware of his own sin—it is not clear why he tells the pilgrims about his own sin in the prologue prior to his tale—and yet his preaching is correct and the result of his methods, despite their corruption, are good. Mention by him of a "draughte of corny [strong] ale" may suggest that he is being so open because he is drunk but this is not certain. This confession is similar to the details the Wife of Bath gives away about herself in her prologue. Like that prologue the Pardoner's is heavily influenced by the Romance of the Rose particularly the Fals Semblaunt episode.
The Pardoner is also described as a good speaker in his portrait in the General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. The quality of the narrative reflects this. The critic A. C. Spearing has written that "much of the individual colouring of the actual tale ... is drawn from its teller." This is true of many of the tales and their tellers but the Pardoner and his motives are woven even more tightly into his tale than most.
Many features of the narrative contribute to the mystery and interest of the tale, such as the description, the central irony that the revellers set out to find Death and die, and the fact that the names of all characters except for Death are not specified. These attributes make the tale seem 'dreamlike', possibly demonstrating the drunken state of the protagonists, the three revellers. The old man in particular is an ambiguous character, who could represent good, evil, God's mercy or the Pardoner himself. Despite the simplicity of the plot, the tale is told with great intensity and pace.
[edit] Character Analysis
In the General Prologue, the narrator describes the Pardoner as having: “a vois [voice]... as small as hath a goot [goat]” and a face “as smooth... [as] it were late yshave [lately shaved].” From this, the narrator concludes that the Pardoner is either “a gelding [eunuch] or a mare [effeminate].” Yet, more importantly, such physical descriptions portray the Pardoner not only as sexually deficient, but spiritually deficient as well.
The religious climate at the time that Chaucer wrote this piece was pre-Reformation. Therefore, the Sacraments were still largely considered, as explained by St. Augustine, “outward and visible [signs] of an inward and invisible grace.” The suggestion that outward appearances are reliable indicators of internal character was not considered radical or improper among contemporary audiences. Indeed, the vivid depiction of the Pardoner’s hair, those locks “yellow as wex [wax]/ But smoothe... as a strike [hank] of flex [flax],” does little to improve the reader’s opinion of his moral character.[1]
Chaucer develops his description and analysis of the Pardoner throughout the Pardoner’s Tale using suggestive analogies. As he does so, the reader perceives a man of not only extreme sexual poverty, but of spiritual poverty also. Eugene Vance illustrates one parallel effectively fostered by Chaucer’s sexual innuendoes. He writes: “The kneeling posture to which the Pardoner summons the pilgrims would place their noses right before his deficient crotch.” Thus, Chaucer draws an analogy between the Pardoner’s sexual and spiritual scarcities.[2]
In addition, Vance expands upon this comparison, identifying a sexual innuendo implicit in the Pardoner’s many relics. “The pardoner conspires [to set] himself up as a moveable shrine endowed with relics unsurpassed by those of anyone else in England.” Yet, of course, the relics are all fakes. Consequently, again we are faced not only with the suggestion of his impotence, but also of his spiritual ill-worth.[3]
[edit] General Themes
Though the Pardoner preaches heavily against greed, the ultimate irony of the character that Chaucer creates is based in the Pardoner's hypocritical actions. Using his position as an agent of the Roman Catholic Church, he admits extortion of the poor for money, pocketing of indulgences, and failure to abide by teachings against jealousy and avarice.
The Pardoner is also deceptive in how he carries out his job. Instead of selling genuine relics, the bones he carries along belong to pigs, not departed saints. The cross he carries appears to be studded with precious stones, but those are just bits of metal.
This irony underlies Chaucer's seeming dislike for religious profit. Because it was written on the eve of the Reformation and Renaissance, it is generally believed that while it was still dangerous to denounce Church practices, Chaucer was able to use literary techniques to make his message more subtle.
In the General Prologue of the Tales, the Pardoner is introduced thus:
With him there rode a gentle Pardoner
Of Rounceval, his friend and his companion,
That straight was come from the court of Rome.
Full loud he sang "Come hither, love, to me!"
This Summoner bore to him a stiff burden ...
A voice he had as small as hath a goat.
No beard had he, nor never should have;
A smooth it was as it were late shave.
I trowe he were a gelding or a mare.
Rounceval was the Hospital of St Mary Rounceval, located in Charing Cross near what is now the corner of Whitehall.
[edit] References
1. Vance, Eugene. Chaucer's Pardoner: Relics, Discourse, and Frames of Propriety. New Literary History 736. Retrieved on April 03, 2007.
2. Vance, Eugene. Chaucer's Pardoner: Relics, Discourse, and Frames of Propriety. New Literary History 741. Retrieved on April 03, 2007.
3. Vance, Eugene. Chaucer's Pardoner: Relics, Discourse, and Frames of Propriety. New Literary History 741. Retrieved on April 03, 2007.
