Gluttony and drunkenness are one in the same in the
Pardoner’s tale. Gluttony as a general rule pertains to excess, such as excess
drinking, over eating, indulgence in money, or the excessive discussion of
gluttony itself which finally leads to this conclusion: “Allas! a foul thing is it, by my
feith,/ To seye this word, and fouler is the dede” (62-63.) I’m not even
willing to call this irony; this is simple hypocrisy.
I actually can’t stand this man, but
I also can’t stand those who are dumb enough to succumb to him and what he
says. Granted, maybe people are so devout and will do anything to get into
Heavem because they rely so much on their faith, and that’s great and all. But
come on. The most devout person should know better than anybody that you don’t
buy your way in, you confess your sins and do better next time with actual effort
to truly be better. The pardoner says in his tale “Now kepe yow fro the whyte
and fro the rede,/ And namely fro the whyte wyn of Lepe,/ That is to selle in
Fish-strete or in Chepe” (100-103), namely, I’m saying stay away because drunk
is bad, but because I don’t practice what I preach, you want to get drunk and
have a good time? Go to this place. And what do they do? They go to this place.
And what happens? They die. And surely, they’re not going to Heaven for the
sins they've all just committed.
The three brothers seek out to kill
death which is ironic in comparison to the Harry Potter tale in which the three
brothers seek to outsmart death. When they come upon the old man, the most
annoying awful brother essentially asks why he’s still alive if he’s so old, to
which the old man replies with what I take as satire and his purpose in the
story. His reply to the boy is very theatrical, like “oh I’m so old and beat up
that not even Death wants me, so I’m just hanging around in my old stupor
waiting to see if God ever changes his mind and wants to take my old, gross, pale
self.” The boys seek Death who the old man tells them is under the tree up the “croked
way” (299). The old man left the crooked path, escaping death by virtuous
decisions, and has lived to be the age he is. The young boys who grew up
endlessly sinning continue up this crooked path straight towards death.
I agree with you, I think it would seem odd to me if I was actually an audience member of the Pardoner’s story, and I wouldn’t be surprised if some did recognize his hypocrisy for saying greed is bad, yet ask for money in exchange for “relics” and penance.
ReplyDeleteI think (but maybe I read it wrong) the Pardoner mentions at the beginning that those who have too much sin cannot be helped if they try to buy penance from him, and at the same time, he likes the finer things in life. I think the Pardoner knows how greedy he is, and perhaps acknowledges himself among those who cannot be helped. It is possible that the Pardoner has accepted that he cannot be saved, or even doesn’t believe he needs to be because either 1) penance doesn’t exist, or 2) him providing the service of telling moral stories penance to others counts as his penance— which still doesn’t explain why he gets to enjoy nice things and seems to mostly target the poor… Yeah, this guy is a skeeze.
Again, I guess I am still not sure if doing something good while doing something bad in this guy’s case is justified. For me, it would have to depend on whether or not it seemed he believed in penance, and I still can’t say for sure that he doesn’t.
The function of a Pardoner was to collect money for charitable purposes. A Pardoner in this tale is supposed to reward people for their sins. When I think of an "honest" pardoner, I think of one who is entitled to a percentage. However, as we can see Pardoners are dishonest and take so much more than their share. The Pardoner is a fraud and is motivated by greed AND is guilty of all seven sins AND is a hypocrite in his profession. AT LEAST he is being honest when he confesses. Ironically, at the end of this tale he requests the pilgrims to make a contribution. Thus, the Pardoner is the most complex character in this tale! IT DRIVES ME INSANE!
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