Cantebary Tales
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“But let me briefly make my purpose plain; I preach for nothing but for greed of grain and use the same old text, as bold as brass, the root of evil is desire.” (Pardoners Tale, 1-5, p. 129)
In the narrative poem “Pardoners Tale” the author Geoffrey Chaucer warns his audience the dangers of evil, greed, and desire. The short excerpt from the story above is true because all evil actions committed by criminals are done because of avarice or desire for something better than what they have. A great example of evil can be read in the epic tale of “Beowulf”. The monstrous being Grendel, who plays one of the evil characters in the story, kills and feast upon the blood of humans because he has a desire to be fully human. In the Pardoners Tale Chaucers three main characters can fall under the category of evil because they all have the desire of greed and are willing to kill each other for money. Avaricious is defined as “immoderately desirous of wealth or gain; greedy.” (American Heritage Dictionary) In Chaucers tale the three main characters all have avarice or a desire for a better life. The question is what exactly makes these characters evil? What actions have they done that guarantee that their souls are condemned? Well through careful analyzation the answer can be found easily.
So what makes the three main characters in Pardoners Tale evil? Well lets analyze the youngest of the three men.
“And so the Fiend, our common enemy, was given power
To put it in his thought that there was always poison to be
Bought and that with poison he could kill his friends.”(Elements of Literature 238-240, p. 135)
In the story the youngest of the three is manipulated by the devil to kill his friends for money that could have easily been divided amongst all three of the men. But the youngest avarice for wealth and fame was seen by the devil and the character then was basically possessed by the devil and forced to poison the drinks of his comrades. The youngest character allowed the devil to corrupt him and put evil thoughts and actions into his mind. If the youngest character hadnt had the desire for wealth and gain then just maybe the devil wouldnt have had the power to possess him. This young man allows his soul and mind to be consumed by evil thoughts because he had the desire to get more money than his comrades under any circumstances. His other comrades on the other hand didnt evil need the devil to convince them.
The other two characters in Chaucers narrative are older and wiser than the third but also have that dangerous desire to become rich and powerful. In the story when the gold is found the older rioters send the youngest to get supplies so that they may camp out for the night and be able to sneak their treasure back to their homes unseen and hidden by the night. As soon as the youngest leave the oldest of the three suggest to the second oldest that they kill the third and take the gold for themselves.
“As soon as he had gone the first sat down and thus began to parley
With the other: “You know that you can trust me as a brother; now
Let me tell you where you profit lies; you know our friend has gone
To get supplies and heres a lot of gold that is to divided us three
Nevertheless, if I could shape things thus so that we shared it out-
The two of us- wouldnt you take it as a friendly act?”(Elements of Literature, 200-209, p.134)
The first and oldest of the three is considered evil because he manipulates the second into a scheme that will eventually