Balti state university a. Russo chair of english philology

The Pardoner’s Tale 
The Pardoner performs in the sad context the function of an actor in a grim comedy which 
shows how a clever hypocrite exploits Christian principles in order to enrich himself. 
The medieval pardoner‟s function was to collect money for charitable enterprises 
supported by church and to act as the Pope‟s agent in rewarding donors with some temporal 
remission of their sins. An honest pardoner got a percent of his collections, still there were 
others who owed everything. 
Chaucer‟s Pardoner belonged to the most dishonest class of fund gatherers. The 
Pardoner‟s audacious description of his behavior in a church is followed by a sermon on his 
invariable text that runs as follows: “ The Love of money is the root of all evil”.
He used it most effectively in order to frighten the hearers. He proceeds to morality, 
which curiously enough does not concern the sin of avarice but drunkenness, gluttony, gambling
and cursing. The Pardoner is in all ways a master of irony. His avarice brings him to try to get 
money even from the pilgrims to whom he has revealed his hypocrisy. His secret is revealed by 
the Host‟s coarse response and the verbal expression by which he maintains his superiority. 

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Owing to a certain stylistic level the narration of some events become an elevating 
entertainment. It is no longer a moral example and neither does it supply a laughing stock for 
low people. It entertains a group of gentlemen, priests, and common people. The listeners can 
appreciate the narrative structure. It becomes clear that Chaucer isn‟t an instructive writer but a 
narrator leaving the judgments to the reader. 
Conclusions: 
1. 
The writers of the 14
th
century were inspired by the social life of the time. 
Each of them wrote for the class he belonged to: Langland expressed the thoughts of the 
peasants; Wycliffe expressed the protest against the Catholic Church, and its dogmas; 
Chaucer described the life of the new class – the bourgeoisie. 
2. 
Chaucer was the first who broke away with medieval forms and cleared the 
way for realism. 
3. 
“Canterbury Tales” is he greatest work of the 14
th
century.
4. 
“Canterbury Tales” summed up all types of stories that existed in the Middle 
Ages (he used a romance, a story of a saint, a fabliaux, a fable, a ballad, etc). 
5. 
Various ranks of society were described with humor by Chaucer but he 
observes them without indignation. 
6. 
Chaucer was the first to attack the 
clergy with humor
7. 
The only representatives of the society, that escaped Chaucer‟s satire were 
“the ploughman” and “the poor priest” the only ones who turned out to be honest. 
8. 
Chaucer was the creator of a new literary language. For the first time he wrote 
in the popular tongue. A single language emerged from a number of dialects. He used the 
London dialect which later developed into Standard English. 
9. 
Chaucer has made a number of words that remained in the language to this 
day: daisy, coal – black, snow – white, etc. 
10. 
Chaucer described one nation as a whole, depicting each class, and group of 
people separately.