The Insincere Pardoner

Chaucer satirizes the Church by using irony with the Pardoner's prevaricated indulgences, homosexual features, and deceiving actions, which contributes to the meaning of the story by criticizing the Church. Chaucer creates irony by making the Pardoner sell indulgences for self gain of money. A Pardoner sells indulgences to people who have committed sins in order to repent them and gets money in exchange. However, Chaucer reveals that the Pardoner does this duty for self-interest. He writes, “His wallet lay before him on his lap”(line 706). Instead of focusing on doing God's work, the Pardoner wants money. The Pardoner has his wallet out ready to take the money of any sinner. Furthermore, he does this “by his flatteries and prevarication” (725). Not only is he intent on obtaining money, he is willing to lie to get it. This is not a characteristic of people of the Church. The Pardoner takes advantage of the people's fear of ending up in Hell. He does so by offering holy objects such as possessions of Saint Peter. Ironically, instead of sending them to salvation, the people are fooled and are drawn away from salvation. With this deception, Chaucer says, “In one short day, in money down, he drew / More than the parson in a month or two” (723-724). These lines show that the Pardoner gets even more money than the clergyman. His greed has brought him to a stage that he is making this much profit each day. A church official should be content with any money offered. With that said, Chaucer makes the Pardoner in order to reveal corruption. He is telling it how it is, and criticizes the church for selling pardons for money instead of focusing on saving people. The homosexual characteristics of the Pardoner are ironic because they go against the laws of the Church. The narrator describes the Pardoner as, “His chin no beard had harbored, nor would harbor, / Smoother than ever chin was left by barber” (709-710). The Pardoner is unable to grow facial hair, which shows his feminine features. Not only does this reflect his cowardice, it makes him seem as a homosexual because he is a man with feminine qualities. Furthermore, he has a voice similar to that of a goat. He does not possess the deep voice one imagines when he or she thinks of a man. Chaucer even goes to the extent of affirming that “I judge he was a gelding, or a mare” (711). This evidently shows Chaucer's belief that the Pardoner is essentially a homosexual. Not only does he look feminine, his actions are cowardice and unmanly. He has to hide behind the Church in order to acquire money for himself. Chaucer satirizes the Church with irony knowing that the Church disapproves homosexuality, yet the people look to a homosexual guy for forgiveness. The people can conclude that the Pardoner is feminine by looking at him, but they still want to receive pardons even though the Pardoner is conflict with the Church. With this irony, Chaucer questions whether the people are really in line with the Church or just hoping to save themselves from Hell. This is one of Chaucer's criticism of the Church and hints Chaucer's disapproval of it. Chaucer makes the Pardoner ironic by making him have deceiving actions. The narrator declares, “He loudly sang 'Come hither, love, come home!'”(692). In this scenario, the Pardoner seems to be friendly and welcoming. He desires to enjoy their presence and forgive them. However, it is affirmed that he wants money. This is ironic because he is drawing them in for God, but in the end he is taking their money. Also, the narrator reports that “[i]n church he was a noble ecclesiast...For well he knew that when that song was sung / He'd have to preach and tune his honey-tongue / And (well he could) win silver from the crowd. / That's why he sand so merrily and loud” (728-734). In church, the Pardoner is the loudest singer out of the attendees. His actions seem for God, but in reality they are fake. He creates the illusion that he is a righteous man, so the people believe they are buying pardons from a genuine follower of God. This creates the irony that the ones that seem most faithful to God are the least faithful. Furthermore, the Pardoner has a holy relic sewed on his cap. With all these characteristics, it seems easy to mimic a church official. One has to be welcoming, sing loudly at church, and wear church attire to be considered an honorable clergyman. Chaucer points this out to show that anyone can display the appearance of a church office. In result, this questions the honesty of church officials during this time. Chaucer creates a sense of irony with the Pardoner's false indulgences, feminine attributes, and fake actions. This irony criticizes the Church and questions whether they are corrupt or really connected with God. People during and after Chaucer's period may have used his ideas to begin believing they could have their own connection with God without paying pardons to corrupt church officials. This may have been an important factor to the Renaissance.