Announced Treason

The Pardoner's Tale incorporates death, drinking, gambling, greed and treason as themes in depicting a situation different from previous tales. Unlike the tale of the Wife Of Bath, the current obviously incorporates a clear moral and provides a teaching to the reader. And then again it is quite ironic, for the narrator of such tale is not precisely an exemplary character, but rather one immersed in greed and personal profit. But beyond being an evil preacher, he goes as far as admitting it and possibly finding pride in it: " Yet I can tell you a moral tale, Which I am accustomed to preach in order to profit (460-461)." He is treating as his normal audience in effect, and according to what we know about such, they are people willing to listen to words of hope and wisdom which only really camouflage a lucrative business, and this we must keep in minds as we read.

And time and again he reminds us that the moral "is not my principal intention; I preach nothing but for greed (432-433)." But it is hard to register and without much notice we take this tale so seriously, trying to dig into its essence so hard that we become that audience which he openly mocked previously. But our interest goes beyond that, onto what his words might mean, almost as if they could give intention to the character and not the other way around. And the effect gains momentum as we find the pardoner talking about the evils of mankind, criticizing our sins as if he meant it, almost making him a figure of approval, of superiority. We forget what he waned us against as soon as he "would rather die than I should ally you to dice-players (615-616)," for it seems suddenly that he has some conscience after all.

And as naive readers we are, we suppose that because the pardoner knows the difference between good and evil, he abides by his words, but they are only the vehicle of his obscure intentions. And he mocks us as he talks about the evils of mankind for " Corrupt was all this world for gluttony (504)" as he impersonates his words, what irony! But time and again we forget and forgive, we fail to remember his words only because we don't find any benefit in accepting them and find that denying them makes everything so much brighter.

And the story talks about treason between fellow travelers and "these two scoundrels are agreed to slay the third, as you have heard me say (835-836)," and we make no connections. He warns us against himself yet again by asking us to pay attention to what we have heard him say, almost as if in his evil, our naive nature would make his intentions acceptable because why not? Didn't he warn us about everything after all? And if we go a little beyond the obvious and maybe even stretch the possibilities a bit we might remember that before God we are all brothers, all fellow travelers in the path to spiritual satisfaction. It is as in his story of treason and greed that he behaves, for he is the traitor and we the trusting blind.