Chaucer’s description of the Pardoner suggests he’s part of the Middle Age’s emerging middle class. He is well-dressed and groomed; Chaucer even describes him as a bit of a dandy, a man overly concerned with his appearance.

The Pardoner is a representative of the Church who’s authorized to go around selling relics and pardons for forgiveness of sin.

The tales that manifest Chaucer’s critique the most effectively are “The Friar’s Tale,” “The Summoner’s Tale,” and “The Pardoner’s Tale.” In all three of these stories the characters are corrupt church officials revealing their true natures and their greed by taking advantage of the common folk they are bound to serve.

frame narrative
Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales is a frame narrative, a tale in which a larger story contains, or frames, many other stories. In frame narratives, the frame story functions primarily to create a reason for someone to tell the other stories; the frame story doesn’t usually have much plot of its own.

Why does the Pardoner tell his moral stories? The Pardoner tells his moral stories not to help sinners but to help himself. He’s greedy and wishes to scare people into buying his indulgences and relics.

twelve
Since her first marriage at the tender age of twelve, she has had five husbands. She says that many people have criticized her for her numerous marriages, most of them on the basis that Christ went only once to a wedding, at Cana in Galilee. The Wife of Bath has her own views of Scripture and God’s plan.

The Canterbury Tales is considered Chaucer’s masterpiece and is among the most important works of medieval literature for many reasons besides its poetic power and entertainment value, notably its depiction of the different social classes of the 14th century CE as well as clothing worn, pastimes enjoyed, and language/ …

The pardoner, something of a swindler, is one character in this journey. Here, he is invited to tell a tale. The Pardoner’s Tale begins with the travelers listening to stories as the host of the group invites each one to speak in turn.

Like the other pilgrims, the Pardoner carries with him to Canterbury the tools of his trade—in his case, freshly signed papal indulgences and a sack of false relics, including a brass cross filled with stones to make it seem as heavy as gold and a glass jar full of pig’s bones, which he passes off as saints’ relics.

Since visiting relics on pilgrimage had become a tourist industry, the Pardoner wants to cash in on religion in any way he can, and he does this by selling tangible, material objects—whether slips of paper that promise forgiveness of sins or animal bones that people can string around their necks as charms against the devil.

The selling of false relics was an abuse frequently satirized; the adventure of Friar Cipollo (Friar Onion) in Boccaccio’s Decameron has some general similarities to the Pardoner’s trickery: Decameron; Sixth Day, Tenth Tale. The Pardoner’s Tale embodies an exemplum (for an explanation see the page for The Friar’s Tale.