In Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, there is a pilgrim whose dominant character trait seems to be hypocrisy itself: Pardon, wallowing in sin and, at the same time, violently preaching to the masses against precisely his immoral behavior. Indeed, the difficult task of understanding the Pardoner's intention is further complicated by the interaction between the different audiences subjected to his preaching. The pilgrims to whom his speech in the Tales is addressed, aware of the duplicity of the Pardoner's thoughts and behaviors, digest his words in a completely different way than the "ignorant" masses for whom the speech was constructed and is most often preformed. To unravel the layers of meaning in the Pardoner's speech, we must simultaneously be aware of how the speech is received by both parties, as well as understand the tension between truth and deception that encompasses even the Pardoner's stated motivations and desires. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned"?Get the original essay From the Pilgrims' point of view, the Pardoner is a hypocrite par excellence, capitalizing on his oratorical skills to drain the masses of what little wealth they have. However, the extreme, cruel and seemingly indefensible position advocated by the Pardoner suggests that there is more at stake here than a simple critique of clergy greed and hypocrisy. One cannot read the story of the Pardoner without recognizing that the masses are in fact driven to spiritual reformation despite the Pardoner's everyday behavior, and without also recognizing the way in which his confessional style seems strangely to support his moral and spiritual argument. By carefully examining the rhetorical strategies that the Pardoner employs in his speech, we can see that the Pardoner, by decoupling spiritual belief from personal responsibility, has himself become an unlikely but nonetheless very effective tool for propagating morality. illustrates the ultimate divergence between religious belief and personal responsibility to uphold religious values. “For though I am a totally vicious man, / A moral story, I tell you,” he tells his companions, asserting that his role as teacher is not usurped by his transgressive behavior (171-72). . and the behavior is further illustrated in some of the first words we receive from the Pardoner, spoken in response to the host's request for a lecture on morality. "'I drink, yes,' he says, 'but I think without object / Of something honest while I drink,' replies the Pardoner (39-40). This sentence is delivered with the expression 'thing honest” and the word “drink” visibly close to each other, our first clue that by destroying the idea of ​​living his life according to his principles, the Pardoner intends to use, for example, his enjoyment of drink to. concretely support his preaching In fact, the Pardoner gives us clues to understand the mechanism of this tactic: “So can I take back this same vice / The one that I use, and which is avarice” (139-40) In this simple statement, the Pardoner goes a step further than saying that his preaching can continue despite his behavior, suggesting that he is in fact exploiting his own greed in order to become a better salesman for spiritual reform. 'exploit his greed in several ways, many of which are freely available to the attentive reader. More importantly, it is aware that by offering products and services whose consumption is equated with spiritual progress, its financial success depends on the spiritual success of the individual. massesto which he preaches. This awareness translates into efforts that are known to be dishonest because of the behavior he confesses to pilgrims, but which are nevertheless effective in spreading spirituality. As he explains to the pilgrims, "in Latin I speak a few words, / Poursafran with my predicacioun, / And to stir them to devocioun" (56-57). Without knowing that the goal of Pardon is simply to empty his audience of 'money, one could assume independently of these lines that the use of Latin in his speeches is both a clever and admirable rhetorical strategy, because inciting the masses to religious devotion should clearly be seen as a positive outcome of his speech, whatever the "true" intentions of the Pardoner Knowing that the financial reward the Pardoner reaps is intertwined With regard to his ability to bring the masses towards spiritual reformation, we can see that another strategy employed by the Pardoner. is to empower his audience to this end. The Pardoner focuses his empowerment of the masses in both general senses relating to their lack of social and political authority, and in more specific ways that help them facilitate their own spiritual improvement. A clear example of the first strategy is the way in which the Pardoner focuses on the transgressions of the rich and powerful. When preaching about the sins of King Herod, for example, the Pardoner subtly attributes partial responsibility for Herod's moral transgression to his wealth. “When he was satisfied at his feeste, / Just at his own table, there yaf his heeste / For sleen the Baptist John, without gold,” explains the Pardoner (201-3). The only context given here for Herod's transgression is that he was full at his feast, a critique of excess aimed specifically at the rich. This rhetorical strategy allows the public to more clearly identify with Forgiveness on a social level, however false the reality may be, and transforms the purchase of their religious items into an admirable act of solidarity in itself. - the esteem of the modest masses through criticism of the powerful, it also promotes ideas suggesting that the masses hold subtle power over their leaders. When discussing the game's errors, for example, he explains: "If a prince uses the hazardrye... / ...He is, according to the opinion of the commune, / Yholde le lasse in reputacioun" (311-14) . In this seemingly throwaway statement, the Pardoner subtly suggests to the audience that by taking a stand on the importance of spiritual reform, the masses can wield power by simply judging the spirituality of the powerful. Thus, the purchase of religious services offered by the Pardoner becomes to some extent a worthwhile political act inspired by the Pardoner's empowerment, a clear example of how the Pardoner's strategy linking his own financial success to the spiritual reform of the masses can be of mutual benefit. beneficial arrangement. Having attached his own financial rewards to his audience's ability to enact spiritual reform, the Pardoner also offers his audience gifts by enabling them to acquire spiritual knowledge independently. A good example of this strategy is how the Forgiver intentionally structures his lesson around a story so that the weak-minded are better able to digest and repeat his message. “For obscene people who like old stories ---/ can some things be well reported and remembered,” he explains (149-50). By using the word “rapport,” the Pardoner implies that the transmission of his message will continue beyond his sales pitch. However, taken in isolation, the idea that Forgiveness would allow individuals to takecontrolling their spiritual reformation is yet another positive outcome of his overall strategy. The spiritual benefits become even more apparent when we consider the advice Pardon gives to explain the morality of these heroic figures involved in biblical miracles: "all sovereign acts... / Were in abstinence and prayer: / Look at the Bible and there you can read it here” (286-90). The advice to seek spiritual answers from an outside source, the Bible, is quite indicative of the Pardoner's intentions. The Pardoner declares that he is not interested in any spiritual reform that might follow the reception of his speeches, but does nothing to stop this process. In fact, he allows peasants to progress spiritually by suggesting that they consult the Bible in addition to purchasing his goods. This approach to the Pardon speech, suggesting that its financial success is intimately linked to the moral and spiritual benefits its audience receives, is useful in responding to arguments that its apparent hypocrisy is simply an example of corruption within the clergy. The Pardoner, for example, heartlessly portrays his indifference to the plight of the masses, a fact that calls into question how we should interpret his moral and spiritual purpose as a character. This indifference often becomes almost vicious when the Pardoner describes the depths of his avarice. “I would have money, wool, cheese and wheat,” he said to the pilgrims, “If that were the case... from the poorest widow in a village ---/ His children would suffer from famine” (160-63). ) However, in our approach, we understand that the Pardoner makes this shocking comment in the context of his never-ending quest for wealth, which relies on breaking the spiritual assumptions of his audience, in this case his fellow pilgrims, in order to that they accept spiritual reform. by purchasing its services. The Pardoner does not simply mock the masses or profess simple superiority over them; instead, he cruelly marginalizes them, forcing the pilgrims around him to question whether their own spiritual beliefs, divorced from practice, could lead them to such cruelty without the kind of active spiritual reform proposed by the Pardoner. Another clue to Pardon's "true" intentions is the awkward transition he makes between his wild speech and his offering of relics and pardons. In a very short time, the Pardoner goes from "O homicidal traitors, O wikkednesse!" (608) to "But gentlemen, oo word I forgot in my tale: / I have relikes and pardon in my male" (631-32). This abrupt change makes it clear to the reader, but perhaps not to the host, that the Pardoner is deliberately trying to shake the spiritually apathetic minds of the pilgrims in order to incite them to moral reform and thus to the purchase of his services. the indifference that Forgiveness professes toward the lives of those to whom he preaches becomes the intellectual equivalent of the mechanism of indifference toward actual moral practice. Both distinctions ultimately aid the Pardoner in his mutually beneficial arrangement of acquiring wealth by spreading spirituality. This position is affirmed from the beginning, since the Pardoner sets out his intentions in indisputable terms: “my agreement is only to win, / And nothing to correct sins” (115-16). The Pardoner here is clearly aware that his actions affect the moral behavior of the audience, but denies any higher purpose for his evangelism. Again, in addressing the statement understanding that the Pardoner simply wants money from his companions, we can see the power of a faith-based approach that allows the Pardoner to capitalize on indifference.