Irony in the Pardoner's Tale

A detailed Summary of Irony in the Pardoner's Tale


Geoffrey Chaucer is indeed one of the greatest English poets. His masterpiece The Canterbury Tales is noted one of the finest works of literature in the world. Chaucer used the setting of a pilgrimage to Canterbury, where Archbishop Thomas a Becket was murdered, as a frame story to tell the tales of each of his memorable and vividly drawn characters. One noted tale is that of the Pardoner, in which Chaucer uses exemplum to provide full effect of this simple but brilliant anecdote. In the Pardoner's tale, the pardoner tells a vicious anecdote filled with greed and sin, as the Pardoner is himself. The pardoner narrates a powerful sermon which he fathoms will move his listeners to repent from their affluence of sins. Although, he does not desire to save them from their sins but he wants to make them anxious so they can give him money in exchange for false pardons. The pardoner's purpose is that the audience, realizing their sins, will giv


Conclusively, the pardoner implies throughout his entire sermon that the men were punished for their evil greed. By entrancing the audience and enticing them to repent, the pardoner is committing the equivalent of what he deems sinful. The pardoner preaches "Greed is the root of all evil", as avarice is his only objective. Lastly, the pardoner looks to satisfy his own corrupt intentions by selling pardons for money. The moral of the story is that love of money causes corruption and death, all of which the pardoner knows to well.

e him money to benefit from his false pardons. Thus, the pardoner embarks upon imparting a sinister tale full of sin and avarice to satisfy his own selfishness and greed.

Irony comes when he explains that avarice is his own vice, yet he proceeds to preach against greed to brings his audience to repent from their own greedy sins. The pardoner's meaning and intent are contrary. His story of three young men over come by greed illustrates t

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Approximate Word count = 658
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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