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Irony In The Pardoner's Tale

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Trinidad Basulto
British Literature 2322
Cregar
March 7 2016
Irony in Pardoner's Prologue and Tale
There are several accounts of irony in the Pardoner's prologue and tale, the Pardoner's profession may be the reason why his story is so ironic, and there are many examples that show this to be true. Although he plays an important role in his church, his true goal is to steal money from anybody he pardon's. He does show remorse for his actions, and he does state that he regrets stealing from the poor; however, he does not say that he will stop.
In his prologue, the Pardoner mentions what he does as his profession; however, he tells everybody on the trip that he uses his profession to steal money from innocent people. His profession is to pardon people from the sins that they have committed, he says that his intentions to correct sins are fake, he just wants to con people out of their money. "I wol none of the Apostles countrefete: I wol have moneye, wolle, cheese, and whete, Al were it yiven of the pooreste page, or of the poorest widwe in a village- Al sholde her children sterve for famine", he …show more content…
Just at the start of the story the Pardoner describes three drunken men that are upset over the fact that their friend has been slain by a mysterious figure named Death. An elderly man tells them Death's location, yet all they find is eight bushels of coins. "Ne lenger thanne after Deeth they soughte", they quicky forgot about their friend and began to plot to take the gold (Chaucer, 321). This quote is important because it offers the audience another example of irony, that is representative of the Pardoner's greed for money. Near the end of the story, these men end up killing each other because of their own greed for the gold. That must be why the Pardoner decided to name the coins "Death". This means that their friend could have also been killed by his own

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