Character Analysis
In our first meeting with the Three Rioters, the Pardoner characterizes them as
[…] a compaignye
Of yonge folke, that haunteden folye,
As riot, hazard, stywes, and taverns,
Wher as with harpes, lutes, and gyternes
They daunce and pleyen at dees, bithe day and nyght,
And eten also and drynken over hir might […] (177-183)
He's got nothing good to say about them. They're the epitome of wickedness. The mere fact that they gather frequently in the local tavern is enough for the Pardoner to link them to a host of sins, including lechery, gluttony, drunkenness, and blasphemous oath swearing.
OK, we're thinking, we get that the rioters are party boys, but couldn't it be just a passing stage, a result of their youthful impulsiveness? Well, no. In the Pardoner's Tale sin runs much deeper than that: it's the weakness in your armor that allows even worse sins to dig their way into your soul. So when the Rioters discover those eight bushels of gold, the manner of "lyvynge" in which they've already engaged allows the devil to easily convince them to kill each other rather than share their gold.
We've already had an inkling that these guys are pretty mean from how they treat the old man they meet on the road. But when they kill each other for no other reason than so that they can have the money all to themselves to gamble, drink, and buy prostitutes, we realize that they're 100% depraved. Their drunken carousing was just the first sign. But give them a break, they're symbolic figures. If they had any redeeming qualities, the tale would lose some of its moral punch.
In an allegorical reading of the Pardoner's Tale, where characters represent abstract concepts instead of real people, the Three Rioters represent greed. They salivate at the sight of the eight bushels of gold and abandon any other goals or consideration like that pact of sworn brotherhood to kill Death. Greed was able to overtake them only because other sins like gluttony and drunkenness had already taken root, weakening their defenses.
The Pardoner uses the Three Rioters to show how sins are interlinked and inseparable from one another. Instead of just Greed, the Three Rioters seem at the end to represent total wickedness that we might more accurately just call Sin. And (extra credit) the wages of Sin is________.
The Three Rioters' Timeline