The Pardoner’s Tale on Betrayal and Foolishness

Brendan Bompane

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                The Pardoner’s Tale on betrayal and foolishness

The Pardoner's Tale by Jeffery Chaucer, the author of The Canterbury Tales, describes the journey of three young greedy men. The story is being told to the other travelers by a man referred to as the Pardoner. His own greed, ironically helps to put the moral of his fable in context. The idea that greed and betrayal of your loved ones will eventually bring you to your death. They begin their search to kill the thief known as “death”, who took their friend away from them. As they search, the three men come across a very old man who has been acquainted with the death the men are searching for.  He tells them death is under the tree, they go to find gold. In the end they all end up planning behind each others back to kill one another in order to have the most gold. This story has many messages to be told. The foolishness and betrayal the three men portray in this story is a main theme in the pardoner's tale.

            The story is based in late 1300s in modern day Europe. The Pardoner, who is the character telling the story, was a man who would pardon your sins and grant you reserved access into heaven. He would collect payment from even the poorest of villagers, and claim to pardon them. The Pardoner was an example of a greedy man that would use religion and faith to pawn people into his con. He would tell people that he had the ability to get them into heaven. He would even carry objects that he would claim to be sacred relics, such as the bones from holy Jewish sheep or cloth from the blessed Holy Mother.

            When the Pardoner begins to tell his story, to the fellow travels from Canterbury, he describes the three main people as disgusting and greedy men. A dead man, who was a supposed friend of the three, gets carted by them as they are outside a local pub. They are told that their friend was taken by death, who is personified in this novel. They all profess their anger towards death and they begin to plot against the man that is death. The three men agree to go on a journey to find death and to kill him. They leave at once and begin their journey. Not far into this quest the three young men approach a very elderly man dressed in a ragged gown. They have no sympathy for the old man as they begin to hassle the man and ask him why he is so old. He tells the three that death is a friend and has endowed the man with a long and seemingly endless life. The three men are astonished that this man is a friend of death’s. They quickly ask him where they might be able to find the one called death. The old man tells them that he just saw his friend down the path under the old tree on the hill. The three bravely continue on their journey. When the reach the tree they find a pile of gold coins. They all believe they are going to be rich. The three men are overjoyed at the sight, they send one off into the town to get supplies for the men so they can guard the gold until night. While the three are separated, the two with the gold and the one in the town, they each plan to kill the other group. The Man in the town buys poison to put in their drinks for when he returns. The other two plan to slay the third when he returns. After some time the man returns with food and drink. The two man don't hesitate to kill him. To celebrate their increased riches they drink and eat. Both soon die from the poison.