Nominalism is the belief that signifiers, appearances, and perceived and felt reality carry no weight and do not show the deeper truth. In The Canterbury Tales, notably in the Prologue and the Pardoner's Tale, Geoffrey Chaucer affirms nominalism. In the Pardoner's prologue, the Pardoner admits that he is not who he appears to be and that his relics are fake. In his paradoxical story, the Pardoner condemns the vice of avarice, which he is guilty of practicing. Although the tale means what it seems to mean in matters of morality, for the Pardoner, the words he speaks have no moral value. Chaucer not only asserts nominalism in the Prologue and the Pardoner's Tale, but also in other parts of the book, such as in the warnings of various narrators. In The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer uses his characters and their tales to assert nominalism. The Pardoner is a noble cleric who sells indulgences. Being a man of the Church, he seems holy, pious and better than ordinary people, but in reality he is no less sinful than anyone else. In his prologue, he admits that he is deceitful and that his relics are not authentic. He says that his “intention is to make money, not at all to drive away sins,” and that he would “never intentionally live in poverty” (Chaucer 511-513). He preaches with arrogance to hide his true intentions. His social status as a pardoner is true only in name. An authentic Pardoner would live like the apostles and care about helping sinners, but the Pardoner admits to wanting "silver, wool, cheese and wheat, even if they are given by the poorest page, or by the poorest widow in a village, although her children will die of hunger” (513). Chaucer reveals through the Pardoner that people are not what they seem. The relationship... middle of paper ... not what they seem. They are misleading because they do not reflect the narrator's opinions; they reflect the people whose stories are told. Chaucer uses his characters and their stories to assert nominalism. The Forgiver and his story prove that he is forgiven only in name: his social status does not reflect who he really is. The metaphor that Death is a man in the Tale of Forgiveness should not be taken literally because it actually symbolizes the plague. The warnings given by various narrators reveal that their words are misleading – they appear to reflect the narrators' opinions, but this is not the case. Throughout The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer asserts nominalism and destroys the convention that things are what they seem. Works Cited Chaucer, Geoffrey, A. Kent Hieatt, and Constance B. Hieatt. The Canterbury Tales. Toronto: Bantam, 1971. Print.