“It Is Pride, Not Covetousness, Which Is the Pardoner’s Greatest Sin.” How Far Do You Agree?

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“It is pride, not covetousness, which is the Pardoner’s greatest sin.” How far do you agree? Pride has been traditionally considered the chief of sins due to it incorporating all aspects of the others as it involves false beliefs in a person’s own importance, is the sin through which Lucifer fell and became Satan and is the was the downfall of Adam and Eve due to them believing they could be gods themselves. In The Pardoner’s Tale the Pardoner is presented as ‘a ful vicious man’ implying that he has no morals and is engulfed by the sins that he preaches. Using the word ‘vicious’ is intriguing because of the sibilance and the snake-like onomatopoeic nature to the word. It represents him as almost inhuman as he has more serpent-like qualities. What is also interesting about this, is that he admits to the fact he is ‘a ful vicious man’ yet ‘A moral tale yet [he] you telle kan’. There are alternative responses to his confession, on one hand it shows the awareness of his wickedness and yet in spite of his character can achieve goodness but on the other hand it could be showing pride in the fact he is as sinful as he states. He is shown to be proud of his contradictions which in turn create irony because he is a man that is proud of his deception. This pride is carried throughout the tale due to him being confident enough to preach false vows and sermons to the people of the towns he visits. ‘Thus kan I preche’. He is able to freely confess that there are no specific boundaries to his desire of money and possessions showing his pride in himself. However, the boundaries between covetousness and pride are almost blurred – one cannot be apparent without the other. The Pardoner’s pride has been created from his avariciousness and this desire of wealth has been heightened because he is aware of the fact he can deceive people/is proud of this. Chaucer uses iambic pentameter

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