The Pardoner's Tale: Chaucer's Use of Irony to Criticize the Church

Nearly every aspect of the Pardoners tale is ironic. Irony exists inside the story itself and in the relationship between the Pardoner and the story. The polish of the story presents a good message scorn the Pardoners circuitous intentions to swindle money from the otherwise pilgrims. By using vitriolic remark in the Pardoners tale, Chaucer effectively criticizes the church system. The irony begins as short as the Pardoner starts his prologue. He tells the other pilgrims that his sermons reflect how money is the fundament of all evils, radix malorum est cupiditas. He actually preaches against his sustain problems and sins. Pardoners who took money in return for pity were supposed to determination the the money for charity, but he, like many other Pardoners in his time, used the money for his own satisfaction. He even admits to his greed. And therefrom I preach against the very vice I scramble my living out of avarice.(p. 259) The Pardoner makes a mockery of th e full church by fabricating stories about his phony relics. Chaucer shows how the Church is so corrupt, that even a Pardoner who admits to his evil ways, can dumb cheat the multitude out of their money. The Pardoner begins his story by condemning the commons sins of society such as imbibition and gluttony.

The irony of his criticism lies in the fact that he has been boozing himself, and that he is an admitted glutton. There ar also many ironic elements of the stor itself. The rioters in his story, vow to set out and slay Death. In doing so, they promise to fight and evanesce for each other. There are d euce ironies in their mission. First, Death! is hardly a universe that can be killed. Second, the three drunken fighters pledge to die for each other, but... If you want to get a full essay, erect it on our website: OrderCustomPaper.com

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