One of these storytellers is a questionable character called a pardoner, who mak es money by selling forgiveness of sins.

The Pardoner is one of the most flamboyant, but also tricky character from The C anterbury Tales . He is a member of the ordained priests but doesn t assert that he is an honest, t rustworthy person. Instead the pardoner is extremely corrupt and deceives people to believe that they can essentially buy their way to heaven. The Pardoner s job is supposed to be to absolve people of their sins when they see k him out, but instead he cares little about the correction of their sins. The P ardoner is more concerned with making a personal profit. Therefore, he steals people's donations that intended for the church and in turn , offers indulgences to people. These indulgences were believed to wipe away people s sins and guarantee entrance to heaven, however; this was merely a scheme of the Pardoner for his own persona l benefit to gain wealth. Although very immoral, the Pardoner is a member of the clergy, and therefore enj oys powerful positions in medieval England and would be considered a part of the upper class. SUMMMARYYY--The Pardoner begins his tale by preaching about all of the vices and sinful beha vior that happens as a result of alcohol and gluttony. He even references to specific stories in the bible where acts of sin were do ne as a result of alcohol. He makes his viewpoint clear to his listeners that the greatest deeds and triu mphs that a person reads about in the Old Testament were all done through prayer and without alcohol.

Pardoner further argues that gambling, including cheating and lying, goes agains t God and should be avoided. The Pardoner then discusses three arrogant ruffians who get drunk at a bar. They see a dead person being brought by the bar and realize that it is one o f their friends. In disgust, they agree to be brothers and go out into town searching for dea th in hopes of killing him. Instead, they find an old man who they continue to disrespect and they ask him where they can find death. He points to a nearby oak tree where they find bags of gold on the ground. While the younger ruffian goes to find food, to other two plot to kill him w

hen he returns so they can have more money for themselves. While the youngest ruffian is getting food he also buys poison. He intends t o use this method to kill the other two men so he can have the money all to hi mself. He ends up being killed first, but then the other two men drink his poison and die shortly after. The pardoner uses this story to preach to his listeners about the negative out comes of greed, alcohol, and sin. The Pardoner then tells his audience that they should suspend from their greed iness and allow him to pardon them of their sins so that they can attain their h oliness again.

FACTS---The Pardoner s intentions are simply for to wynne (to profit), and cioun of synne (and nothing to do with the correction of sin) Deception There is three strands of deception in the Tale:

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The three young rioters deceives themselves into believing they can kill the thi ef Death 2) Deceived by the Old Man into going to where the gold waits them. Either becau se the old man is Death or a supernatural agent 3) They bring about their own Death by two acts of deception against each other