Canterbury Tales - The Pardoner - Essay Example

Canterbury Tale-The Pardoner Pilgrimage is always an essential part of the Christian faith as it accomplishes the desire of the Christians to grow in their relationships with God. The journey of pilgrimage is a good way of letting the outward journey of our bodies enrich and allows the inner journeys of our hearts and even our minds. The mode of movement or travel is very important as it helps in finding the slower pace of noticing and even engaging with the world around them and even with their creator. Despite the mode of movement, destination is one of the most important in every journey, for example, most of the routes of the pilgrims are ancient. They help to take a lot of people to holy places that have been made through the events that have been taking place in those places in the footsteps of those individuals who have gone before them or the presence of shrines or relics of the holy individuals. Pardoner giving his tricks of the trade in most of his works, for example, he explains to the pilgrims the major cause of most evils. This expression forms the key theme that he uses most of the time while preaching so as to understand better and loosen the purse strings of most of his audiences. On arrival to town, Pardoner demonstrates some of the relics and their curative traits some of which appeared to be fake though he does not appear to be caring a bit. In most of his preaching, Pardoner struggles to ensure that most of the pilgrims learn to understand that he only work through preaching to earn more money thus he does not hesitate to take money even from the poor widows. He often praises himself that he is a good speaker through tossing some English and Latin phrases to make things sink in the people a bit and in most cases he uses biblical philosophies to look more serious. Following the tales that were given by the physician, the host started confessing as though he was mad wishing a shameful death on the judge and his advocate making a lot of people conclude that the death of the maiden was his making. The host declared the tale to be a piteous one that is worth listening to, and he prayed that the Lord may protect the soul and body of the physician. The tales of the physician were such a brutal tale that pushed the Host to have a heart attack, thus making him decide to take medicine in the form of a merry tale so as to help in restoring his heart (Norton, 236) The main intention of the Pardoners preaching to most of the pilgrims was to get a lot of money from his followers and not to correct any sin that people may be committing. He argues with his pilgrims that most of the sermons that he makes are as a result of the intentions of the evil and that preaching he could easily get back to any person who might have offended him or even offended some of his brethren. A lot of his preaching were full of the vice of covetousness, a vice that he found himself most of the time being a victim of with and intention of filling his pockets that were ever deepening for money. The Pardoner would rather take even the last coin from a widow with a starving family that is just giving out the money that he had pocketed or even the bread, cheeses or even wines that have been purchased using such incomes. He only spoke of alcohols at the point when he was sure he had full finished drinking his "corny ale," that is when he would begin giving his fake tales. There are a lot of ironic relationships that exist between the tales that were given by the physician, and the tales that were given by the Pardoner as both of the tales suggest that men are self- loving dissemblers. However, the Pardoner possess a lot of self- knowledge to understand what he is than the other fellow who was self-satisfied though affected in one way or the other. During the time of the Chaucer, the Pardoner played the role of collecting money for the charitable purposes and to be the key agent of the pipe in dispensing and even rewarding contributors with a particular pardon as a remission of sins. Following the requirements of the canon law, a pardoner is required to be in a particular position and from this area he could visit churches, receive contributions and even dispense indulgences in the name of Pope. A lot of pilgrims like the Parson had good tales to listen to for example he is the only devout churchman within the company who lives in poverty but had a lot of holy thoughts and deeds. He is viewed as the pastor of the entire town since he preaches and follows his preaching; he is one a character that is quite different with other pilgrims like the Monk, the Friar, and the Pardoner. Another good character is the Plowman who is the brother to the Parson who is equally good –hearted who pays tithes to the church and he follows a good Christian life. Parson is a parish priest who lives the words he teaches, for example, he lives the gospel he teaches through remaining holy and virtuous in almost all the things. He gives a lot of offerings to the poor while he lives a life of poverty giving a lot of pastoral imagery to his followers. A lot of priests at that time decided to choose to take a benefice which is a position that is not close to their parish in which their major roles were to offer mass for the group of people especially the rich once a day. This was one of the ways through which priests like the Pardoner would make a lot of money, however, it requires him to remain a way from his parishioners. Parson did not follow the option that his brother pardoner chose instead he rejected to indicate that he is very willing to sacrifice his own comfort to perform his function as a shepherded of souls. Comparing the Parson with some other characters like the Friar, Pardoner, and Monk makes some of these characters to look more selfish and even more sinful. The presence of the Person on the pilgrimage is for a particular reason and that without him, a lot of people may not have the idea of what religious figures is like because, with him, people can make a comparison of Christ-like character. Just like the brother Parson, Plowman has also proved to be very holy than thou living a simple life of hard labor for example he had to do some of the dirty jobs of the medieval world saying that he is doing both for his fellow Christians and for the Christ himself. He is the most recognized symbol of the poor who was associated with a very great virtue, for example, he was viewed as the character who was God-like and the one who could help save his society from the results of their sinful acts. Following the actions of his brother with religious figures, Plowman offered an important point of contrast with his fellow characters we currently see in the tales like the Pardoner. Work Cited Norton, G. The Canterbury Tales. New York: Briston Press, 2009. Read More