Geoffrey Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales"

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that "The Pardoner's Tale" and "The Parson's Tale", from Geoffrey Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales", both make sin the focus of their tales but in vastly different ways. The author points out that the Pardoner appears to revel in the baser qualities of both himself and others, enjoying the discomfort he causes his audience, in no small measure due to the qualities of sterility and death without the hope of life that he represents. The paper relates that "The Parson", which contrasts with "The Pardoner" in the personality of the character, the story content and the structure, is a much simpler a man than the Pardoner, in that there are no contradictions in his personality; furthermore there are no contradictions between the Parson's actions and his words because he believes in the Christian principles in his sermon to the point of Puritanism.

Table of Contents
The Pardoner: Decadence
The Pardoner's Tale
The Parson
The Parson's Sermon
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"The Parson thus abandons all attempts at narrative, and puritanically focuses only on purely Christian principles. His is then the only tale that lacks any narrative element. The Parson thus expects his morality to be sufficient food for thought offered to his audience. Of course, the contrasts of this tale with that of the Pardoner are more than the points of comparison. The length and content are the most obvious differences. The Parson tells a lengthy moral tale in the form of a sermon, while the Pardoner brings across his moral by means of an entertaining story. The Parson's moral is concretely told by means of his sermon. In comparison, the Parson, like the Pardoner, offers forgiveness of sins. The Parson's forgiveness however is driven by the penitent him- or herself, and not by the clergyman."

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