Geoffrey Chaucers The Canterbury Tales Essay - 629 Words

Throughout literature, relationships can often be found between the author of a story and the story that he writes, whether intentional or not. In Geoffrey Chaucers story, Canterbury Tales, many of the characters on the pilgrimage make this statement evident with the tales that they tell. Such a distinct relationship can be made between the character of the Pardoner and the tale that he tells. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Through the Prologue to the Pardoners tale, the character of the Pardoner is revealed. Although the Pardoner displays many important traits, the most prevalent is his greed. Throughout the prologue, the Pardoner displays his greed and even admits that the only thing he cares about is money: quot;I preach nothing†¦show more content†¦Although the Pardoner is extremely greedy, he continues to try and teach that quot;Avarice is the root of all evilquot; (6). He explains to the pilgrims how money is the root of all evil, and then he takes the money from them in exchange for forgiveness of their sins. This action could be seen in two ways. Perhaps the Pardoner is a very greedy, trecherous man, or perhaps Chaucer is trying to jab at Christianity by alluding to Christ. The characters in his tale display great hypocrisy as well. As the tale begins, the friends all act very trustworthy and faithful towards all of their friends. They nobly make a decision to risk their lives while trying to slay their friends murderer. As they talk about their challenge, they pledge quot;to live and die each of them for the other, / As if he were his own blood brotherquot; (241-242). At the end of the tale, the quot;brothersquot; begin to reveal their true nature. They all turn on each other in an attempt to steal the treasure for themselves. All of the loyalty, which they had pledged, was simply a lie and no faithfulness remained. While the two older quot;brotherquot; plotted to kill the younger, the younger quot;brotherquot; plotted quot;to kill them both and never to repentquot; (388). Thus, these so-called faithful quot;brothersquot; display their true ruthlessness and reveal their hypocrisy in relation to theShow MoreRelatedGeoffrey Chaucers The Canterbury Tales1030 Words   |  5 PagesGeoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales is a collection of several tales that are all told by different characters and all convey different messages. The story presented in the general prologue is that a group of pilgrims is traveling to the shrine of St. Thomas Becket, and during their journey they take turns telling tales and talking about themselves. Chaucer uses the pilgrims to express his beliefs, about religion, marriage, social class, and many other topics. 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