The Pardoner as Symbol in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales Essay

The Pardoner as Symbol for the Pilgrims Unattainable Goals in Geoffrey Chaucers The Canterbury TalesGeoffrey Chaucers work, The Canterbury Tales, paints a portrait of medieval life through the voices and stories of a immense variety of speakers. The people on the Pilgrimage tell their stories for a ample range of reasons. Each Tale is told in order to accomplish two things. The Tales provoke their audience as much as they are a kind of self-reflection. These reactions range from humor, to extreme anger, to open admiration. Each story is emblematic for a meaning above the actual plot of the narrative itself. The field of study of social and moral balance is one theme which ties every timbre and Tale together. The character of the Pardoner exemplifies this ideal. By embodying imagery of balance in his character and in his story, the Pardoner becomes a symbol for the Pilgrims unattainable terminal of spiritual and moral balance. All the characters in The Canterbury Tales are on a pilgrimage. Their physical journey takes them to the cathedral at Canterbury, to visit the shrine of a former archbishop, Thomas a Becket. When their stories are looked at allegorically, the pilgrimage takes on a new meaning. Beyond a physical journey, these Pilgrims engage their minds and thoughts upon a symbolic journey. The subjects of their stories vary widely, but common to all is the desire for self-knowledge and understanding. The gymnastic horses Tale, with its emphasis on courtly love and chivalric ideals, is a portrayal of the changes happening within the higher classes of medieval English society. The intoxicated Miller shows his anger towards the aristocracy by telling a spoof of the Knights Tale. The Pardoners Tale tells the story of terce young men who wa... ...omes a way of reconciling the unbalanced portions of tender-hearted experience in order to promote growth in the grammatical case of sin and death. Works Cited and ConsultedAmes, Ruth M. Gods Plenty Cha ucers Christian Humanism. Loyola University Press Chicago, 1984. Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Pardoners Tale. The Canterbury Tales Nine Tales and the General Prologue. Ed. V.A. Kolve. freshly York W. W. Norton & Company, 1989. Colby, Elbridge. Chaucers Christian Morality. The Bruce Publishing Company Milwaukee, 1936.Ellis, Roger. Patterns of Religious Narrative in the Canterbury Tales. Banes & Noble Totowa, 1986.Patterson, Lee. Redemption in Chaucers Pardoners Tale. Journal of knightly and Early Modern Studies. Durham Fall 2001. 507-560Reiff, Raychel Haugrud. Chaucers The Pardoners Tale. The Explicator. Washington, Summer 1999. 855-58