The Pardoner

Character Analysis

The Pardoner is a representative of the Church who's authorized to go around selling relics and pardons for forgiveness of sin. Although Pardoners were allowed to keep a portion of their receipts, our guy has taken it to a whole new level. He's an unrepentant swindler and lover of luxury who makes a very good living taking advantage of people's concern about sin and selling relics and pardons that are completely fake. He's a master of his art who seems to be able to convince anyone of anything and he's totally upfront with the Pilgrims about his fraudulent sales tactics. He's also a weird-looking guy, and we're meant to understand that there's something strange about him sexually.

Smart and Sneaky

In the General Prologue, we see that the narrator has a grudging admiration for the Pardoner's sales tactics. He doesn't condone what he does, but he admits that he's very good at it because he makes a lot of money doing it. He tells us that the Pardoner sure knows how to give a speech and win over the crowd; there's no one else as good. He knows his Bible verses and his philosophers.

We can see this for ourselves in the prologue to the Pardoner's tale, as he elaborates on the clever sales tactics and reverse psychology he uses to get people to part with their money. He's able to convince people that his pig bones are relics of saints. He touts his credentials in a way that makes him seem like a holy representative of the Pope himself. He knows his audience: there's the setup, the story, and the sales pitch, all perfectly delivered. He uses Latin phrases, constantly cites scripture, and even cites ancient philosophers and historical figures to prove his point. He's a learned guy who puts his smarts to selfish use.

Myne handes and my tonge goon so yerne
That is joye to se my bisynesse. (112-113)

He's very proud of himself.

Show Me the Money

Chaucer's Pardoner is one of his most famous characters, right up there with the Wife of Bath. In fact, people often compare these two characters, because both of them deliver a confessional speech in which they give us all the nitty-gritty details of their sinful lifestyles. Both characters use sophisticated deceptive performances to manipulate people into giving them money. In the Pardoner's case, this performance takes the form of hawking fake relics and selling expensive pardons, pretending to be concerned for the salvation of people's souls when, as he makes very clear:

[…] myn entente is nat but for to wynne / And no thyng for correccioun of synne. (117 – 118) 

Bonus points for honesty, we guess; he's in it for the money. His greed is so extreme, in fact, that he doesn't hesitate to take the last penny from a poor widow "al sholde hir children sterve for famyne" (164). Wow, that's heartless. The Pardoner has to pay attention to his bottom line, though, because no way does he want to live the ascetic lifestyle recommended for monks and Christ's apostles:

I wol have moneie, wol, chese, and whete […] licour of the veyne, / and […] a joly wench in every toun." (162, 166 – 167)

So add to the list of the Pardoner's sins what a medieval person might call "luxurie," meaning lechery, the unrestrained indulgence of bodily appetites.

Shameless Self-Promotion

You're probably getting the impression at this point that the Pardoner isn't shy about confessing his shortcomings, and you're right: in fact, it's a point of pride for him that he can inspire people to repent of their greed "though myself be gilty in that synne" (143). Unlike the Wife of Bath, who "confesses" in part as a means of defending her way of life, the Pardoner just doesn't seem all that concerned with what people think him. He's so nonchalant in this respect that he even tries to sell his fake relics to the pilgrims at the end of his tale, encouraging them to come forward and pay up even after he's told them what a fraud he is.

Is the Pardoner stupid? We know he's not. Maybe he's drunk: he demanded that he pilgrims stop at an alehouse before he told his tale. Anyway, he definitely seems proud of what he's doing. He boasts about his absolute lack of concern for the souls of his customers.

I rekke nevere, whan that they been beryed,
Though that hir soules goon a-blakeberyed! (119-120)

For all he cares, they can go berry picking when they die, and he's not apologetic about it.

Don't Have to Practice What I Preach

Chaucer uses the character of the Pardoner to raise a question that was being debated in the Middle Ages over whether or not an effective preacher had to live the lifestyle he preached. Since part of being a good teacher in this time period was to lead by example, many theologians answered with a resounding "yes." But on the other hand, no one could deny that even the words of the corrupt preacher could and did inspire the faithful Christian to holiness. The Pardoner acknowledges that "many a predicacioun / comth oft tyme of yvel entencioun" (121-122). As greedy as they come and freely admitting it, he says,

Thus kan I preche agayn that same vice
Which that I use, and that is avarice.
But though myself be gilty in that synne,
Yet kan I maken oother folk to twynne
Fro avarice, and soore to repente. (142-145)

So he knows he's able to turn people away from sin, even though that's not his intention.

Maybe the words of God were so powerful to medieval folk that they transcended the sinfulness of the preacher. It doesn't hurt that his audience, by his admission and probably by design, were uneducated and ignorant. A more sophisticated bunch might have seen through the ruse. We don't really know how the pilgrims responded to his sales pitch after knowing what a greedy guy he is. The only sample we have is the Host's response, and it isn't pretty—he threatens to cut off his you-know-whats and use them as relics.

The Pardoner's Private Parts

Speaking of you-know-whats, we should probably also mention here a debate over the Pardoner's sexuality that's been raging for centuries. For a character in an allegorical tale, who tells one short story, the Pardoner has to be one of the most psychologized characters in English literature. Especially about his sexuality or lack thereof. This issue is raised by his description in the General Prologue and the interaction that occurs between himself and the Harry Baily after his tale is over. In the Prologue, the narrator describes the Pardoner as rather effeminate and concerned with fashionable clothes.

A voys he hadde as smal as hath a goot,
No berd hadde he, ne nevere sholde have;
As smothe it was as it were late shave,
I trowe he were a geldyng or a mare.

He's got thin hair, no facial hair, and a high voice: signs of, as the TV commercials call it, "low T." The narrator has the idea that the Pardoner could be "a geldyng or a mare," – either a neutered male horse or a female horse; people have speculated that he means to portray the Pardoner as either a eunuch (a man with nonfunctioning or missing testicles) or a homosexual.

There's a whole body of scholarship on what exactly is going on with the Pardoner's sexuality. Is he a eunuch? Gay? Lustful? A fashionista (or fop as they called it back then)? In medieval times, as in ours, there was a lot of confusion about the differences between homosexuality, bisexuality, transvestitism, and transgender. The narrator thinks there's something different about the Pardoner, but he's not sure what. (Source)

Neither are Chaucer scholars. In the journal Chaucer Review, Elspeth Whitney writes that, "Since Walter Curry's introduction of the topic in 1919, when he named the Pardoner as a eunuch ex navitate [born that way], the Pardoner has been categorized as a "normal" male, a congenital eunuch, a man who has been castrated, a man impotent but physically intact, a hermaphrodite, "a testicular pseudo-hermaphrodite of the feminine type," an oversexed womanizer, an alcoholic, a "drag queen," a cross-dressed woman, and, most resonantly, a homosexual." (Source) Whitney thinks that it's too easy for modern scholars to project modern views of sexuality onto medieval views, which were actually very different. We'll give you a brief tour through the different theories to show you what life will be like if you ever become an English professor.

Scholars from the "eunuch" school of thought, which has been very influential in understanding the Pardoner, believe that the Narrator's physical description of him identifies him as a eunuch, either congenital or castrated. The Pardoner's trying to compensate for his sexual inadequacy by being general raunchy and suggestive, so much so that the pilgrims have to warn him not to tell a bawdy story when the Host requests a tale. He falsely claims to enjoy "a joly wenche in every toun." (167)

As we discuss in our "Symbols" section, some interpreters of the "eunuch school" understand the Pardoner's relics and pardons as objects that substitute for his missing parts. The Pardoner's always drawing attention to his "sack" or "male," the purse he carries in his lap. Because he's missing his real "sack," what's in his purse are the substitutes. They make him feel complete. As a eunuch, he's both physically and spiritually infertile.

On the other hand, people have pointed out that eunuchs don't have thin hair; in fact, lack of testosterone can actually prevent male hair loss. Also, the gospel of Matthew (19:12) says that "there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can." (NRSV). In this view, being free from sexual urges was a good thing; it freed a person up to devote himself to God. This may seem like a stretch for our decidedly unholy Pardoner, but it complicates the eunuch theory.

Chaucer scholars who think the Pardoner is homosexual suggest that the Pardoner admits to greed as his major sin to deflect attention from what he thinks is his even worse defect or sin—his homosexuality. (Source) At one point he describes himself as "a ful vicious man." (173) He certainly is greedy and hypocritical, but completely evil? Is he referring to some deeper sin he sees in himself? In his tale, he definitely seems to see the body as the source of all sin. And in his sermon to his audience, he singles out sexual misconduct as "synne horrible" that even his relics can't fix. In his sermons, he mentions a sin that's so horrible that a man is too ashamed to even mention it. Is he referring to himself here?

In medieval times, homosexuals would have been social and spiritual outcasts, poorly understood by society. In the Parson's tale, the Parson warns against "thilke abhomynable synne, of which that no man unnethe oghte speke ne write." So in this view, the Pardoner's job of selling relics and forgiveness is how he tries to forgive himself and possibly get salvation for his sexual "sin." He's a learned guy; he knows what the Church says is in store for the likes of him. He's a pilgrim after all, traveling to Canterbury like the others in hopes of penitence.

This is a sympathetic view of the Pardoner—he's a lost soul seeking forgiveness and acceptance. This is why he self-discloses to the pilgrims about his lifestyle, and why he asks them at the end of the tale to kiss him and buy his relics. That doesn't go over too well with the Host, who sees it as a sexual come-on. But maybe our Pardoner just wants what everyone else wants: acceptance, maybe a little love, salvation. Maybe his story about the Old Man is really about himself, looking to die and be restored to an eternal relationship with God.

Not so fast, says Professor Richard Green. We don't really know what the narrator meant in his comments. We're going way overboard in our analysis based on a single speculative remark. There's no evidence that effeminacy points to homosexuality. In fact, other medieval texts suggest that effeminacy is a result of excessive lust; when you have sex with too many women, you become womanly. His goat-like voice and rabbit-like eyes don't mean he's a eunuch. In fact, goats and rabbits were used in medieval literature as symbols of lust and lechery (Source).

If the Pardoner's sexuality is unusual at all, it's just because it's so extreme. He's just a regular guy who likes to booze and sleep around a lot. All this discussion about eunuchry and homosexuality is just a projection of our modern obsession with figuring out everyone's secret sex life. Why would the Host threaten to castrate him if he was already a eunuch? Maybe he does have a wench in every town. And sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

From this perspective, a preoccupation with the Pardoner's supposed sexual sins distracts from the real sin that Chaucer wants to portray—the corruption of the sacraments of pardon by unscrupulous clerics. His sexual immorality is just a correlate to that.

It's Complicated

Are you totally confused by now? If so, you're on the right track. The Pardoner is a puzzling and extremely complex guy. He's abhorrent but fascinating, shameless but honest about it. We really don't know what to make of him, and as you've seen, even the experts have hugely varying opinions about him. But he's a smart guy, a great salesman, and a killer storyteller. He knows how to wow an audience.