The Pardoner and His Tale
Although
pardoner is a religious man, he never follows the Catholic rules
and regulations. He uses all kind of instruments and tricks
to cheat people' s money. He uses official documents to
assert his status and power. He said, " Oure life
lordes seel on my patente, that shewe I frist, my body to warente."
He claims that he can speak Latin to show his knowledge as a
religious man. In fact, he can speak only a little Latin.
As being a religious man, his purpose for preaching is to cheat
people's money, not to give people salvation. He tells
other pilgrims that to buy his pardoner will not assure people
salvation.
Although he criticizes how sinful it is
to be avaricious, he admits that he loves money.
He admits that being a religious man is
the best way to make money and to take revenge on those who
troubles him. Instead of using his hand to make money, he
uses his tongue to cheat money on people. He said, " I
wol nat do no labour with mine handes; ne make baskettes and live
therby. He thinks through preaching he can beat those who
trouble him. He can ruin his enemies' reputation by his
tongue, not by fists. He said, " For whan I dar noon
otherways debate, thanne wol I stinge him with my tonge smerte in
preching, so that he shal nat asterte to been defamed falsly,
.."
But the interesting thing is that he
never denies that he is cheating people. It is like mocking
the ignorant and illiterate people at that time. They
blindly believe in God's salvation. They will still buy
pardon to get the comfort in their mind even knowing that some
religious man are cheating people.
The story that Pardoner tells
illustrates his preaching. The three men drink, fool around
all day, curse to God all the time and they are greedy. The
three men are led to death by their avarice. If they are
not that greedy, they will happily share the money. The
story really illustrates what the pardoner preaches: Avarice is
the root of evil. When they first decide to find death ,
they agree to live and die together. We can see in the text,
" Togidres han thise three hir trouthes plight to live and
dien eech of hem with other. " However, after they
find the gold, they forget all about their brotherly love.
All they want is to take the money as their won. The story
really illustrates what the pardoner preaches: Avarice is the
root of evil.