Pardoner

General Prologue
The Pardoner was a very talented and cunning man as he knew how to read and sing, along with his talent in his trade. He is someone who travels the countryside selling church pardons and artifacts/relics to others. He has blonde hair like wax and doesn’t wear a hood to give a more attractive look. He has sharp eyes, but is quiet. He is, ultimately, a cunning and elegant man.

Profession
A Pardoner is someone who travels about the countryside selling official church pardons. Pardoner also does a secondary trade in relics, or pieces of clothing, bones, and other objects once belonging to old saints. There was no other pardoner like him. A pardoner is in middle class and their everyday life would be selling pardons.

As of modern times, a person selling anything could be a pardoner. Someone who cons you into buying something that could ‘help you’ would be a pardoner.

Character Description
This Pardoner had hair as yellow as wax, but to make an attractive appearance, he wore no hood. He rode in the very latest style. He had glaring eyes such as a hare and he had a voice as small as a goat. He had no beard, nor never would have. I believe he was a eunuch or a homosexual. He made fools of the parson and the people.

“This Pardoner hadde heer as yelow as wex,

This Pardoner had hair as yellow as wax,

But smooth it hung as does a clump of flax;

By small strands hung such locks as he had,

And he spread them over his shoulders;

But thin it lay, by strands one by one.

But to make an attractive appearance, he wore no hood,

For it was trussed up in his knapsack.

It seemed to him that he rode in the very latest style;”

Analysis
The Pardoner is someone who travels the countryside selling church pardons and artifacts/relics to others (costing more than what others should pay for). He was assumed to be homosexual and was overall a very talented and cunning man (as he knew how to read and sing, along with conning people into buying his artifacts).

Chaucer
It’s apparent that Chaucer thinks either very highly of the Pardoner or very lowly as he says, “There was no other pardoner like him”. There are lines that both identify the Pardoner as a cunning and elegant man but at the same time, his methods occupation is questionable.

“And thus, with feigned flattery and tricks,

he made fools of the parson and the people.”