The Pardoners Tale By Geoffrey Chaucer

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The Pardoners TaleBy Geoffrey Chaucer

• PowerPoint by Valerie

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First of all, what is a Pardoner?

• A pardoner was a person who had a license to
  sell pardons for sins committed. Basically, if
  you wanted your sins to be forgiven, you would
  give the pardoner a certain amount of money, and
  he would take away your sins.

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Genre-category a story or script falls into (i.e.
thriller, horror)

• The genre of my story is Sermon.
• Sermons are exhortations (encouragements) to
  abandon vice (moral weakness) and turn to being
  virtuous (morally excellent)

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The Pardoners Talea Sermon?

• There are a few reasons why this tale is
  classified as a Sermon
• 1.) The story begins with the Pardoner preaching
  about sins like gluttony (eating excessive amount
  of food) and avarice. (an intense need for
  wealth)
• 2.) The actually tale itself is about what
  happens when you commit sins like avarice.

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Theme, Tone, and Moral

• Theme-Avoiding sin and the consequences of
  sinning
• Tone- Hypocritical SIN
• Moral-When you commit a sin, like greed, it will
  usually be the death of you. Also, if you go
  looking for Death, you will find him.
• Chaucers Attitude-The Pardoner will eventually
  reveal his sinful side. There are a few hints in
  the prologue about how the
  Pardoner isnt as pure as he seems to be. (i.e.
  at the end of the prologue, it says that the
  Pardoner will get the money and food that he
  wants whether he has to take it from a poor widow
  or a poor page)

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What kind of guy is this Pardoner?

• The Pardoner isnt exactly noble, but he is well
  respected. A lot of people believe that he never
  does anything wrong. It is almost like the
  Pardoner tells the tale to make up for all the
  bad things he did and does. The character is
  telling the story like he was giving a sermon in
  church. He wants to teach people not to be sinful
  and do things like gamble, be greedy or drink and
  eat in
• gross amounts.
  

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Summary of the Prologue

• Chaucer said that the Pardoner is always
  preaching about staying away from avarice, which
  is a overwhelming desire for wealth. But towards
  the end of the prologue, Chaucer reveals that the
  Pardoner said that no matter what, he will get
  money, wool, cheese, and wheat whether he has
  to take money from a poor widow or page, or a
  person who has no kids because of famine. Every
  town he visits, he says that he will have a
  wench, which is a young woman. And by have he
  meanswell you know what he means. And no matter
  what, the pardoner will not get a job, because he
  doesnt want to work his poor, fragile hands. He
  will preach and beg in sundry (different) lands
  until he gets the money and goods he needs. At
  the end o the prologue, the Pardoner says that
  even though he is a vicious man (someone who
  will inflict pain or suffering), he can still
  tell a moral tale.

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The Pardoners Tale

• The first part of the tale consists of the
  Pardoner giving a sermon about how bad avarice
  (intense need for wealth) is and how everyone
  should repent for their sins. Then the Pardoner
  goes on to tell a story about three men. The
  three men were drinking at a tavern, and they saw
  one of their friends being carried away. They
  discovered that he had died. They then decided to
  try to find Death and kill him. On the way to
  find Death, they came across an old man that
  tells them where to find death, which was by a
  tree. Once they arrive at the tree, they find
  bags of gold.

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The Pardoners Tale

• The three men agree to share it and they send
  one man to the town for bread and wine. Once he
  left for town, the other two men plot to kill him
  with a dagger. The man who went to town plots to
  kill the other two with rat poison he bought and
  poured into wine bottles. Once the one man got
  back from the town, he was killed by the other
  two with a dagger. Afterwards, they decided to
  drink and be merry. They ended up drinking the
  poisoned wine. Needless to say, all three men
  died and no one received the gold.

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The Pardoners Tale

• At the end of the tale, the Pardoner talks
  about how he sells fake relics in order to make a
  lot of money. He also makes people pay him gold
  and silver before he would pardon their sins.
• A Deeper Meaning?-I believe that there was a
  deeper meaning in this tale. There may be a few
  humorous parts, but overall The Pardoners Tale
  was serious. The tale points out that
• 1.) even the most unlikely person (a pardoner)
  sins
• 2.) sins (like greed) can lead to death and
• 3.) if you look for Death, you will find him

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Actions, Plot, Time Period and Lifestyles

• The actions and the plot of the story reveal
  the characters lifestyle how?
• The way the pardoner views his actions, it
  just shows how big of a hypocrite he is. It
  almost as if he believes since he pardons peoples
  sins, and preaches the word of God, that he can
  do whatever he wants, and not pay the
  consequences. He acts like he doesnt feel any
  guilt about stealing peoples money, food, and
  committing the same sin he preaches about
  everyday, avarice. Basically, he leads a sinful
  life without any cares.

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Actions, Plot, Time Period and Lifestyles

• Clues given about the time period?
• Church was a big thing back in the day, and
  people were firm believers in being forgiven for
  their sins. The church had a lot of power, and
  controlled quite a bit of peoples everyday
  lives. Usually if you were some-sort of church
  member, you were respected and people rarely
  doubted your actions. So when the Pardoner would
  ask people for money or food they would never
  think that he was going to use it for his own
  pleasure.
• Alcohol was used quite often to celebrate,
  relax or just to have something to drink. For
  example, when the Pardoner starts to tell his
  tale, he starts off with a small group of guys
  drinking together in a tavern. He later ends the
  tale with two guys drinking to celebrate not
  having to split their gold.
• Groups of people going off to find someone or
  something, and kill them/it. They are usually
  seen carrying pitchforks and torches. At the
  beginning of the tale, the three men were in the
  tavern, and saw their dead friend being carried
  away, Right then and there, they decide to go out
  and find Death, and kill him. They dont even
  stop to think about getting weapons, or being
  prepared once they find Death, they just know
  that they are going to find him and kill him.

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Modern-Day Person Similar to the Pardoner

• Billy Graham
• Billy Graham is a TV Evangelist. He traveled
  around the country, preaching Gods word. He said
  that everyone is a sinner, and will burn in hell
  if they do not repent. Sometime during the year
  of 1977, a bank account was found with a sum of
  23 million dollars in it. To cover up this bank
  account, Graham started the Samaritans Purse.
  People were encouraged to give money to the
  Samaritan's Purse, which provides aid to victims
  of natural disaster, disease, war and poverty.

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Billy Graham

• Later in the year of 1992, he was being
  investigated for his use of the company plane,
  and how much money he was paying himself from the
  Samaritans Purse. Obviously Billy boy is going
  to keep on taking money and what ever else he
  wants from the Samaritans Purse and other
  organizations.

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