No Tale to Tell

The pardoner’s tale is a type of story to emphasize the moral point of trust. The Pardoner shows the effects of greed as he believes that greed is the root of all evil. In this story three young men go out to kill death and are told that he is located under a certain tree. To their surprise, when they arrive they find a sac of gold. They decide that it would be too suspicious and people would think badly of them if they just show up in the town with all the money. They created a plan that two would stay under the tree while the other would go buy some wine. One of the two who stayed under the tree convinced the other to plot the third person’s death. This way the two would get more money when split instead of three people splitting the gold. Meanwhile, the one who went to go buy wine secretly placed poison in the wine, so the other two would die and he would take possession of all the gold. The two men who waited under the tree did follow through with their plan and killed the third man. They decided to celebrate their new riches with the poisoned wine. The two then died as well.

I found it ironic when one rioter told another rioter, "Trust me, you needn't doubt my word. I won't betray you. I'll be true."The rioter is telling another rioter to trust him and that he wouldn't betray his friends, yet he is plotting the death of the third rioter who he pledged to treat as a brother. Another part of this story that shows irony is when the third rioter tells the apothecary that he has some rats to kill. Literally, rats are creature that humans despise and don’t want but he is referring to other two rioters waiting for him under the tree. All the rioters trusted one another but ultimately they were provoked by the gold. They all got their consequences for their actions of greed. I think the whole tale is ironic as well. In the prologue the pardoner says that greed is the root of all evil. However, he only preaches to convince people to buy his pardons for his personal needs.

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