Question

From your reading of "The Pardoner’s Tale," list the details the pardoner uses to describe his characters. Cite examples from the excerpt to highlight how the use of specific words aids characterization

Answer 1

The pardoner tells a didactic tale to preach that greed is the root cause of all evil. The three young men he describes are shown as greedy, lecherous, boisterous, and blasphemous. To get across their sinful nature, the pardoner uses words such as pestilence, insolent, evil, gluttony, and treacherous. The tale goes on to show how the men’s greed for money gets them into trouble. Their foolishness is brought out when they proclaim that they will slay Death. The pardoner says the men are “drunken” and full of “rage” when they make this “grisly oath.” The choice of words shows how these three men are shown to be slaves of the seven deadly sins.