Chaucer’s Pardoner is unique within the group travelling to Canterbury. While the Parson, the Wife of Bath, the Clerk, and others would love to sway the group toward their respective opinions and views, the Pardoner intends to swindle the group out of its money. His sermons are based on sound theology, but they are rendered hollow by his complete lack of integrity in applying them to his own life. He is a hypocrite - his root intention is to accrue money. Curiously, the Pardoner is openly honest about the nature of his operations. The portrait of the Pardoner in the “General Prologue” gives an overture to this character by stating simply what he does. He targets simple (often consequently poor) country people to sell false relics, and he uses his talents in sermonizing and singing to sell pardons. The Pardoner discloses all of his evil actions in the prologue to his tale, stating that his “entente is nat but for to wynne and nothing for correccioun of synne” (403-404). Later, he attempts such swindling on the pilgrimage in the epilogue to his tale. One can safely state that the Pardoner is a complete scoundrel based on these surface actions. The nature of the Pardoner’s tale strikes a discord with his outward nature. It condemns greed and holds a more richly theological message than most other tales, while the Pardoner himself is driven by greed and is criminally impious. If this is written off as mere verbal craft or a device he uses for his nefarious ends, the overarching implications of such a tale remain. We are extended an entertaining story with heavy “sentence” and religious meaning at its core by a character that is himself impure and unholy and whose intentions are not to instruct. What does such a message mean when it comes from such a mouthpiece? The Pardoner’s tale becomes a microcosm of the Canterbury Tales itself: an attempt to find a holy...
