The theme of body parts is found in abundance in the Pardoner's Tale, from the bone fragments the Pardoner sells to make a profit, to the explicit descriptions of body parts involved in gluttony, to the wasting and withered body of the Old Man the rioters meet on their way to find Death. The Pardoner's own body is put to good use in his preaching, stretching his neck to peer over his audience like a bird and flapping his hands and tongue emphatically.
At the end of the Tale the Host returns our attention to the Pardoner's body in his shocking use of genital imagery to threaten him with castration. Some people, remembering Chaucer's characterization of the Pardoner as a "geldyng or a mare"—a neutered or female horse—believe that the Host's words are a subtle dig at the Pardoner's status as a eunuch.
The medieval church was pretty suspicious of the body. The goal of all life was to get the spirit into heaven, and the body—with its love of eating, drinking, and sex—was seen as too prone to temptation, just an evil impediment to salvation. There was a movement towards asceticism and even self-flagellation as a way to control those pesky bodily urges and resist temptation.
Questions About The Body
- What parts of the body do the Pardoner's Prologue and Tale talk about?
- What happens to the body of a drunkard or glutton, according to the Pardoner? Why do you think Chaucer was so explicit in this description?
- How do bodily urges lead people into sin?
Chew on This
The body is always described in the Pardoner's Tale as lewd and disgusting, never something to admire or appreciate.
The explicit talk about body functions adds humor to the tale. Apparently, fart jokes were popular even in the 14th century.