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Discuss Chaucers poetic methods EssayDiscuss Chaucers poetic methods in presenting unholy in the pardoners prologue and tale in the light of this comment.In Chaucers time, the nature of evil related to any committing of the 7 fatal sins, consisting of greed, pride, blasphemy, sloth, avarice, wrath, lust and envy. The pardoners prologue and tale is comprised of many of these sins, the pardoner himself demonstrating the majority. Other tones, much(prenominal) as the 3 rioters also realize many of these sins. This essay will explore these characters as well as their evil natures and formulate an intuitive feeling how Chaucer presents evil in the pardoners prologue and tale. The pardoners evil nature is initiated from his physical description in the general prologue. He is set forth as having hair as yelow as wex and hood we wered noon a description immediately illustrating him as a rule breaker, as for most clergymen it was assumed they would cover their hair. In addition t o this, he is set forth as having such glaryng eyen. In the medieval times, this amounted to the suggestion of evil therefore, Chaucer has constructed the pardoner in such a way to ambiguously imply he may be somewhat evil. Critics, such as Spearing, deplete noted that the pardoners repellent outer appearance reflects his inner corruption.The description of his fake relics, such as the sayle that ideal peter hadde and oure lady veyl are used to demonstrate his evil intentions taking advantage of the peasants good creed by tricking them into buying fake relics, that are nothing more than pigges bones. From the onset, Chaucer has incorporated the theme of evil at bottom the pardoner and has maintained this doneout the prologue and tale.The prologue outlines the pardoners admittance to his evil nature, and suggests he may even be majestic of this. He boldly states that his sermons are constructed around the well-known Latin biblical phrase, radix malorum est cupiditas loosely t ranslated as greed is the root of solely evil. The missing word omnium from this is used to demonstrate his lack of biblical knowledge, which is emphasised by the repititon of this phrase throughout. In medieval times, it was common and often expected, for members of the church to know and practice in Latin. The pardoner admits to using pieces of Latin to saffron my predicacioun.This cooking imagery may suggest that he solitary(prenominal) uses Latin to reinforce his false position, and therefore highlighting his evil nature, and may relate to the sin of gula as he is referencing food, again reinforcing the evilness of his character. The pardoner states in the prologue, in the form of a confession, that he preche of no thyng but for coveityse. The repetition of this ironic language along with the shocking imagery that is portrayed through his rhetorical question will I live in poverte willfully? and his admittance to taking capital from the povereste widye in the village paints an evil picture of the pardoner who is merely driven by greed.Some critics, such as Georgianna believe in the historical school of thought, and note that the pardoner is merely a fomite for the substantial form of the churchs abusement. It has been suggested and argued amongst several other critics that Chaucer had no other motive when constructing the pardoners character other than to remark and highlight the wrongdoings of the medieval church. Many fake pardoners lived amongst the medieval audience, and carried out the same evil methods as the pardoner, all for the same motive greed. As a result of this, anticlericalism grew popular amongst the peasants in truth quickly. Therefore, it can be suggested that the pardoners character was constructed in such a way to shine light on his evil nature and to deplume parallels with the medieval church.The pardoners tale is a sermon against four particular sins gluttony, blasphemy, gambling and drinking. He talks at length of each of the se particular sins, giving biblical examples that he has twisted to his benefit, such as go game and also his wyfe who were dryven for that vice. The pardoner is suggesting that gluttony was the downfall of Adam and Eve, when in fact it was temptation. To sermonize against drinking is massively ironic as the pardoner has admitted to needing a draughte before creation able to believe of a object lesson tale to tell the pilgrims irony in itself seeing as he should not have to think about a tale of morality. The fact that the pardoner is guilty of committing the very sins he prophesyes about nevertheless adds to his evil nature. Many critics, such as Ruth Nevo, suggest that the pardoner is a character in his own tale that he tells.The novelle that the Pardoner tells the pilgrims consist of trio rioters. He begins by stating the setting of the three men in the develes temple metaphorical for a tavern. The three rioters are established as sinners from the very beginning, already being guilty of committing two of the seven deadly sins drinking and blaspheming. The repeated suggestion of a brotherhood and addressing each other as brethren has underlying irony as each rioter is ultimately killed by each others greed. It has been suggested that as the rioters are not named, and therefore are nt personally addressed, that they have been constructed to suggest the embodiment of sin. Their deaths are quick and do not have much effect instead, the focus is on the sins that they do commit. This stresses that their evil natures are what caused their own deaths.However, it can be argued that although the pardoner presents evil in the pardoners prologue and tale, the fact that he acknowledges this suggests he is fully aware of his evil nature. Koff suggests that the pardoner is not so much evil as he is bold. This can be argued to an extent, as he does admit to being a ful vicious man, merely states that a morale tale yet I yew telle kan. This can be portrayed as bei ng ironic, as he is fully aware of his evil nature, yet still believes that he can preach against the sins he so readily admits to committing. In addition to this, Chaucer does incorporate some good nature into the novelle in the form of the old man.It has long been questioned as to whether he is the personification of death himself, and therefore cannot die, or whether he is merely an instrument used to emphasise the evil nature of the three rioters. His addressing of the three rioters as sires in comparison to the rude greetings of the rioters compares and relates age and innocence the old man may have been faithful during his life sentence and therefore God will not take his life. In contrast, the young sinful rioters quickly sleep together to their death through their own lack of faith.To conclude, I believe that a sinister exploration of evil is truly presented in the pardoners prologue and tale. Chaucer uses characterization of the pardoner and three rioters to present how c orrupt medieval society was, as well as how readily sins were committed. The pardoners simile of as dooth a dowve sittynge on a berne to answer for how he sees himself is used as an antithesis of his own character as a dove carries religious connotations of wild pansy and purity the opposite to what the pardoner is. Despite infiltrating some holy and pure characters, such as the quondam(a) man, he only further emphasises the lack of good in the other characters. Overall, Chaucer constructs the prologue and tale in such a way to present several layers of evil in the Canterbury tales.