Which Lines Reveal The Pardoner In Canterbury Tales Hypocrisy?

2025-09-05 12:13:33 153

4 Answers

Ryder
Ryder
2025-09-06 08:48:48
I'm always a sucker for that deliciously wicked self-exposure in 'The Canterbury Tales', and the Pardoner gives it to us straight. The clearest lines are in his Prologue where he openly admits his motive: "For myn entente is nat but for to wynne, / And nothing for correccioun of synne." That confession is the keystone — he preaches against greed while admitting he profits from it. He even boasts, "Thus kan I preche against the same vice which that I use," which is practically a wink to the reader that his sermon is theatrical theatre for his pocket.

Beyond those confessions, the Pardoner lists his fake relics and the tricks he plays on gullible folk; the whole catalogue of staged piety makes the hypocrisy visual. Then in the Tale he uses the famous line 'Radix malorum est cupiditas' — "the love of money is the root of all evils" — to denounce avarice, while his prologue shows that he embodies that very vice. Putting the public moralizing and the private admission side by side is what makes Chaucer so sly and brilliant, and why those specific lines sting so much.
Willow
Willow
2025-09-07 10:37:17
When I first dug into the Pardoner’s pages for a paper, I was struck by how deliberately Chaucer lets him confess. The Prologue is almost a performance of self-accusation: that famous declaration, "For myn entente is nat but for to wynne, / And nothing for correccioun of synne," alone exposes the motive. It’s not just an aside; it’s an admission that everything he does — his relics, his sermons — are revenue-generating acts. He follows that with, "Thus kan I preche against the same vice which that I use," which layers the irony: he preaches against greed while actively trafficking in it.

Reading it in context, the Pardoner’s catalogue of relics (the crude humour and fake objects he parades) gives material proof to his words. Then he uses the Latin motto 'Radix malorum est cupiditas' as his sermonic lever: he quotes Scripture to moralize, but the Prologue shows he wields the scripture as a tool, not a truth. That structural contrast — private confession versus public sermon — is what I point to when I show students the purest examples of hypocrisy in the poem: the specific admissions in the Prologue plus the Tale’s moralizing lines form a one-two punch that leaves you grinning and a little disgusted.
Ben
Ben
2025-09-08 17:58:37
Whenever friends ask which lines scream hypocrisy, I point them straight to the Pardoner’s Prologue and those blunt confessions. "For myn entente is nat but for to wynne" is the line I always quote aloud because it’s shameless: he admits profit, not pastoral care, is his goal. He actually says "Thus kan I preche against the same vice which that I use," which makes the whole sermon into a con. Then there's the Tale’s repeated emphasis on 'Radix malorum est cupiditas' — preaching that greed is the root of evil while he hawks pardons and fake relics is the textbook version of preaching one thing and doing another. It’s like watching a modern televangelist selling salvation on a late-night infomercial; the text hands you the evidence in neat, hilarious lines, and you can’t help but laugh and wince at the same time.
Lila
Lila
2025-09-09 19:00:23
I get a kick out of the Pardoner because Chaucer basically gives him a mic-drop moment: he confesses his scam in plain speech. The big one is "For myn entente is nat but for to wynne, / And nothing for correccioun of synne." That line tears off any pretense — he’s not trying to correct sin, he’s trying to make money. He even admits, "Thus kan I preche against the same vice which that I use," so he knows he’s guilty while preaching against the guilt.

Then there’s the ironic use of 'Radix malorum est cupiditas' in the Tale he tells: he uses Scripture to condemn avarice while selling indulgences and fake relics. If you want a quick checklist of hypocrisy, look at his prologue confessions, his catalogue of counterfeit relics, and then the way he concludes by asking for more cash. It’s blunt, theatrical, and painfully honest — almost like he’s proud of the con.
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