The Rich Diversity of Meanings of the Pardoners Tale Essay

The Rich Diversity of Meanings of the Pardoners Tale Chaucer’s innovation in the Pardoner’s performance tests our concept of dramatic irony by suggesting information regarding the Pardoner’s sexuality, gender identity, and spirituality, major categories in the politics of identity, without confirming that information. Our presumed understanding of the Pardoner as a character lacks substantiation. As we learn about the Pardoner through the narrator’s eyes and ears, we look to fit the noble ecclesiaste (l. 708) into the figure shaped by our own prejudices and perceptions, as any active reader must do. But the Pardoner, ever aware of his audience, does not offer clear clues to his personality. This break between what the other†¦show more content†¦What exactly do we now about the Pardoner? Much of our understanding of him as a literary human being rests on several key descriptive statements in the text, most about his appearance. They fail, however, to paint as full a portrait as we would like, but the se descriptions amount to a generally negative picture. The General Prologue offers a first impression of the Pardoner which has affected his interpreted characterization to this day. The narrator, having met with each of the pilgrims and learned something of their characters, offers a portrait of each of them before the tales begin. In his description of the Pardoner, the narrator notes his traveling companion, his most prominent physical features (including his questionable sexuality), his newe jet fashion (l. 682), his relics, and his professional status. One focus of much criticism of the past fifty years has been the Pardoner’s sexuality/gender identity. The narrator explicitly uses animal imagery in his portrait of the Pardoner, comparing him to a hare (l. 684), a goot (l. 688), and a geldying or a mare (l. 691), suggesting that the Pardoner is something subhuman (Faulkner 4). These animals were also figuratively indicative of sexual abnormality in medieval times.