what is chaucer's overall characterization of the Pardoner

The Pardoner is an effeminate and shamelessly immoral man, the Pardoner is intensely self-loathing yet devoted to his task of defrauding people of their money by making them believe that they have sinned and need to buy pardons. His tale is an allegory about three rioters who find death through their avarice. The Pardoner uses this tale as an attempt to sell pardons to the company, but is silenced by the Host.

The Pardoner is a sinful man who sells pardons from the Pope that are not pardons at all. He sells easy pardon for the sins to anyone who can buy them with a huge amount of money; he has relics that are not real; he is simply a liar and he even has long, waxy, yellow hair. There is a suggestion that Chaucer is not sure whether he is a "gelding or a mare."