Pardoner's Tale

Theme Words:

Greed, Death, Evil, Hatred, and Deceitful.

Quotations:

"Well sirs, he said, if it be your design to find Death, turn up this crooked way towards that grove...reached the tree and there they found a pile of golden florins on the ground" (Chaucer 130). This quote personifies death as a pile of gold that will eventually lead to the death of the three men. The old man knew that greed would drive the men to kill each other to take more gold for themselves so it can be said that greed is the ultimate flaw in humans.

"Exactly in the way they'd planned his death they fell on him and slew him, two to one. Then said the first of them when this was done, now for a drink. Sit down and let's be merry...Drank from it also, and they perished both" (Chaucer 132). The three men were so greedy and wanted more gold that they were willing to kill each other in order to get more gold for themselves. This shows how greedy humans can be and how dangerous objects like money can make us.

Connections: 

The pardoner's Tale can be connected to the real world of politics because on their campaign they talk about all the good things they will and can do, but when they get elected they sometimes can become corrupted and do only bad things. The three men represent the politicians, they set out with a goal to kill death but along the way they find gold. Once they find this gold they would rather kill each other than do the logical thing and just split it evenly.

The story can also relate to the British Empire's complete take over of India. India was very rich and resources and at the time the British were extremely powerful and were able to conquer India and became wealthy off of their resources. This is a direct representation of the men in the Pardoner's Tale because they were willing to kill people just to obtain riches for themselves. Both of these examples show the true nature of human greed.