The Pardoner's Tale: The Real People in Unreal Situation

     

The Pardoner’s Tale is a story that portrays the reality of life as you see them today. It’s a tale where you can easily grasp how the characters react for you have seen them or have experienced being part of that plot. The author seemed to present his intent to bring out a moral lesson for his readers to learn by introducing ‘shocking’ characters and situations. The story provides quite a parallelism on what was happening nowadays, especially in the area of religion, where the Pardoner is the present-day preacher and the pilgrims or his listeners the members of the church. Out of the fear of death and the promises of salvation, people blindly tend to “donate” some of what they have in exchange for it. People give out contributions despite knowing that the relics are fake and the Pardoner (preacher) is acceptably corrupt.

     

To cover up for his greediness, the Pardoner told tales to his listeners with stories that sound to be ironic and comical at times. And that what makes the story interesting. The presentation of the Pardoner about the story of the three drunkard, gambler, and greedy Flemish youngsters is the best part of the story, where life’s realities are exposed and moral values provided for readers to learn. “Greediness is the root of all evil” is what Pardoner’s sermon is almost always is all about and can be broken down into several other sinful nature of man like the love of oneself, materialism, idolatry, hatred, and the like. The tale might sound to be comical at times as the Pardoner was able to convince the pilgrims to donate despite knowing his corrupt intention but the moral lesson he had conveyed is what matters most.