Discuss Chaucer's approach to the problem

A detailed Summary of Discuss Chaucer's approach to the problem

In the "The Pardoner's Prologue and Tale" Chaucer's approach to evil and death are most apparent. Chaucer shows the Pardoner as being evil in all his actions. In the introduction of the book, Chaucer: The Pardoner's Prologue and Tale 's valid information is given as to how Pardoners were seen in Chaucer's time. They were seen as quite evil. Pardoners plotted their evil deeds under the good name of the church. Chaucer leaves it to the Pardoner himself, to tell the reader exactly what a scoundrel he is.

In the Prologue, Chaucer's Pardoner tells us that he preaches in churches and that he always preaches the same sermon, which he knows by heart, on the text "Radix malorum est cupitidas" which means "Greed is the root of evils". Later in "the Pardoner's Tale" Chaucer shows evil in work and death as the result of this greed.

The evil pardoner has an under-handed relic-business that, he boasts, brings him a hundred marks a year in private income. Therefore, by playing on the tenderest fears and feelings of his congregation, by terrorism, hypocrisy, cajolery, bribery, and blackmail, the Pardoner got as much money that could be coaxed or torn from the poor and superstitious. The Pardoner has composed this wonderfully powerful T

Then in the beginnings of the tale the three rioters see a corpse being carried by and they find out that the person was slain that night, dead drunk. "Ther cam a privee theef men clepeth Deeth,/ That in this contree al the peple sleeth," The man who is carrying the corpse goes on to warn the rioters of Death and calls it an adversary. He also told them to look for it at all times and to be ready to meet it at any time. "Chaucer uses personification here as he portrays Death as a person. He approaches death from the angle of an enemy that one must always be aware of and in wait for."(unknown Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia)

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Death is a key component in Chaucer's treatment, because it makes possible the idea of an adventure. It stimulates the drunken, gambling rioters to swear they will seek out Death and slay him. However, the rioters find Death without knowing it and he slays them instead.

Later on Chaucer mentions Attila, the great conqueror, who died in his sleep with shame and dishonor, bleeding at the nose in drunkenness. Again, it is shown that there is no honour to be gained by indulging in vices. It is even worse when death meets you and you are in this state of dissolution. This can be seen in the following lines, "Loooke, Attila, the grete conquerour,/ Dyede in his sleep with shame and dishonour,/ Bledyng at his nose in dronkenesse." (579-581)

The rioters say that they will slay death in line 699 "And we wol sleen this false traytour Deeth." If they can catch Death they will kill him. Here it is seen how Death is again portrayed as a person. It is an entity that may be found if it is sought after!

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1836
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels