The Pardoner as Symbol in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury...

The Pardoner as Symbol for the Pilgrims’ Unattainable Goals in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales Geoffrey Chaucer’s work, The Canterbury Tales, paints a portrait of medieval life through the voices and stories of a wide variety of speakers. The people on the Pilgrimage tell their stories for a wide range of reasons. Each Tale is told in order to accomplish two things. The Tales provoke their audience as much as they are a kind of self-reflection. These reactions range from humor, to extreme anger, to open admiration. Each story is symbolic for a meaning above the actual plot of the narrative itself. The theme of social and moral balance is one theme which ties every character and Tale together. The character of the Pardoner†¦show more content†¦Though each storyteller is by some means removed from his comrades through gender, social, or political differences, each Pilgrim strives to seek a balance in his or her own life. In this respect, balance is defined as the desire to be at peace within one’s own mind, as well as with the people living around you. By relating any type of story, the speaker tries to paint an attractive portrait of a particular reality to the listening audience. In his story concerning the three riotoures, the Pardoner tries to achieve a balance between his sinful ways and the mandates passed down by his religion, directly from the Pope himself (VI, 661). The character of the Pardoner exhibits this desire more than any other character in The Canterbury Tales. Though his story talks about the ways by which people are brought down by their sins, underneath it lies a theme of self awareness through the process of learning about one’s own motivating factors. The character of the Pardoner in the General Prologue is described using words which hide, or throw into confusion, traditional gender stereotypes. The typical traits of what is considered to be masculine or feminine can not be applied to his character. He is described as being gentil (VI, 669) at the same time as he is Dischevelee, (VI, 683). His unkempt, but non-opposing physical appearance is not at all similar to the appearance of the other male characters on the Pilgrimage.Show M oreRelatedThe Pardoner, a Symbol of Greed in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales616 Words   |  3 PagesGeoffrey Chaucer’s famous medieval classic, The Canterbury Tales, offers its readers a vast array of characters. This God’s plenty features numerous unique and challenging individuals, but there is one specifically who stands out as particularly interesting. The immoral Pardoner, who, in a sense, sells away his soul for the sake of his own avarice, puzzles many modern readers with his strange logic. 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