"Liar Liar Pants on Fire"

Which is worse: being a liar or not sticking to your morals? Are they the same thing? Arguably, The Pardoner and The Wife of Bath are not the best role models, but I don’t think that makes them bad people. As we discussed in class, the difference between lying and fiction is hard to identify, but it seems that lying has a worse connotation and is therefore thought as something terrible. This being said, I have started to compare The Pardoner and The Wife of Bath and where their truths lie.

            The Pardoner openly admitted to being a cheat and conning people of their money, but I don’t think admitting his wrongs necessarily make him a better person. However, the Wife of Bath claims that what I may consider to be her “wrong choices” are actually what God has sent her in this world to do, so she is not taking any responsibility for her action. In this way I respect The Pardoner a bit more. Yes, he is still a cheat, still tricking people after he tells them he will trick them, but at least he admits that. As I learned in my 9^th grade physics class, the first step to solving any problem is admitting you have one (I always volunteered to state that I had a problem). This being said, the Pardoner is already on the right path by admitting his wrongs while The Wife of Bath does not take full responsibility for her actions.

            Does a lack of taking responsibility for her actions make the Wife of Bath a liar? The argument could go either way, but I think that she is a liar. The Wife of Bath very well may have had some sort of “vision” from God in which He told her that she was put on this earth to marry and have lots of sex to have children, but it seems a lot more likely to me that she was just a lust seeking woman who wanted to sleep with lots of men so she told everyone that God told her to do so. After all, who would question God?

            In regards to The Pardoner, although he is admitting his wrongs by still continuing to lie and cheat everyone, I am not his biggest fan. As we learned in our class activity last week, some people are very good liars. This being said, even if the Pardoner said he would change his ways, after all the lies he has told, I’m not sure whether or not I could trust him.