The Pardoner Mr. Miller
Physical Characteristics Blond, greasy hair as yellow as wax Carries a wallet (knapsack) Wears a small red cap with a holy relic (revered for its association with a holy person) Bulging eyeballs Small voice “like a goat” Clean-shaven
Personality Traits Collects profits for himself Excels in fraud, carrying a bag of fake relics Has a gift for singing and preaching
Occupation Pardoner: a medeival official engaged in three activities: Selling indulgences Selling “holy” relics Preaching Along with receiving an indulgence, the penitent (person who repents for wrongdoing) would make a donation to the church by giving money to the Pardoner. Widespread suspicion held that pardoners counterfeited the pope’s signature on illegitimate indulgences, pocketing the money for themselves.
Social Class Lower class Social climber Part of the clergy
Ambiguous gender/sexual orientation Tendencies or Flaws Highly untrustworthy Preaches on GREED Attempts to sell pardons to the group of pilgrims– a violation of rules made by the host Ambiguous gender/sexual orientation
Is the Pardoner Liked? The Pardoner is not favored by Chaucer or others in the group due to his greed He freely admits that he does despicable things It’s possible that Chaucer especially dislikes the Pardoner due to his profiting in the name of the church
A Pardoner in Today’s Society Think of a pardoner as one who solicits A solicitor is someone who tries to obtain something by urgent requests or pleas Think of a telemarketer!
Focus Question Knowing what we know about the Pardoner, why is his tale, which preaches against greed, ironic?
Works Cited http://www.stjohns-chs.org/english/pardon/pdr.html http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www2.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/sc/chaucer/14pardoner2b.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.larsdatter.com/chaucer.htm* Presentation template by SlidesCarnival