The Pardoner's Tale is one of The Canterbury Tales. It is regarded by many as one of the finest of Chaucer's works and indeed one of the finest short stories in literature.
In the Introduction, the host invites the Pardoner to tell the next tale. The Pardoner's Prologue is a sermon against greed, gluttony and gambling, linking into the main tale. After the tale, the Pardoner invites the other pilgrims to pay him for pardons.
The tale is based on a folk-tale of Oriental origin, although many variations exist. Three revellers set out to kill Death. An old man directs them towards a tree, underneath which they find gold coins; they forget about their quest to kill Death, and one of them leaves to fetch wine and food while the other two wait under the tree. They secretly plot to kill the other one when he returns, and the one who leaves for the town poisons some of the wine. When he returns with the food and drink, the other two kill him and drink the poisoned wine.
The relationship between teller and tale is particularly significant in the Pardoner's Tale. The Pardoner is an enigmatic character, portrayed as grotesque in the General Prologue and apparently aware of his own sin - it is not clear why he tells the pilgrims about his own sin in the sermon prior to his tale - and yet his preaching is correct and the result of his methods, despite their corruption, are good. The Pardoner is also described as a good speaker in his portrait in the General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. The quality of the narrative reflects this. The critic A. C. Spearing has written that "much of the individual colouring of the actual tale ... is drawn from its teller."
Many features of the narrative contribute to the mystery and interest of the tale, such as the description (e.g. we are told that the tree is up a "crooked way"), the central irony that the revellers set out to find Death and die, and the fact that the names of all characters except for Death are not specified. These attributes make the tale seem 'dreamlike', possibly demonstrating the drunken state of the protagonists, the three revellers. Despite the simplicity of the plot, the tale is told with great intensity and pace, and is certainly one of the most interesting of The Canterbury Tales.
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