Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- Why does the Pardoner choose to reveal his trade secrets to the pilgrims?
- Find a modern advertisement that replicates one or a few of the same techniques the Pardoner uses in his sales pitch. What are the techniques? Where do you see them in the Pardoner's Tale?
- In the "moral tale" the Pardoner tells, who is the Old Man? What is he meant to represent?
- How does the Pardoner's "confession" compare to the Wife of Bath's? What motivates these confessions? Is there any similarity in the "tricks of the trade" they employ?
- Why does Chaucer make the Pardoner sexually different? Does that have any psychological meaning? Religious significance?
- Why do you think Chaucer, an observant Catholic, wrote stories like this one that ridiculed the excesses and frauds in the Church?
- Which is the more convincing "sermon" against greed, the Prologue or the Tale itself?
- Do you think a fraud can preach a convincing sermon?
- Would you buy a used car from this man?