A Pardoner's Guilt Joshua Lopez

Chaucer is renowned for his psychologically intricate character portrayals. The Pardoner, an irreverent character in Chaucer's framework narrative The Canterbury Tales, is an excellent example of just such a complex character. Although alcohol may have been partially responsible for the Pardoner affording his companions such an introspective narrative, the insight into the Pardoner's character is intoxicating. Overwhelmed by a subconscious need to "pardon" or absolve himself of the guilt caused by a dishonest lifestyle, the Pardoner exploits his prologue and tale as vehicles of confession and edification.

The Pardoner begins by introducing himself to the reader as being a disingenuous purveyor of false relics. The insincere ecclesiast reveals, "I say in Latin some few words or so to spice my sermon; it flavors my appeal and stirs my listeners to greater zeal" (ls.16-18). Rather than incorporating the Latin text into the sermon in a manner that would prove advantageous to his parishioners, the Pardoner confesses that he simply utters the words for their euphonic and stimulatory effects. He later states, "Then I display my cases made of glass crammed to the top with rags and bones. They pass for...