1. The Pardoner Mr. Miller

2. 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

3. Personality Traits Collects profits for himself
Excels in fraud, carrying a bag of fake relics
Has a gift for singing and preaching

4. 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.

5. Social Class
Lower class
Social climber
Part of the clergy

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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!

9. Focus Question
Knowing what we know about the Pardoner, why is his tale, which preaches against greed, ironic?

10. Works Cited http://www.stjohns-chs.org/english/pardon/pdr.html
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