Chaucer’s Pardoner is a morally reprehensible character. In the “Pardoner’s Prologue” we get numerous examples of his self serving hypocrisy. The Pardoner mentions that the major theme in all of his preaching is that “The love of money is the root of all evil” (6). Later he informs us that the goal of all of his preaching is to make his parishioners “give freely of their pennies-namely, to me; for my intention is to win money” (73-78) In addition to his two-facedness, the Pardoner seems to have distain for the worshippers that attended his sermons and on two separate occasions he refers to them as ignorant people.

            This would lead one to speculate that Chaucer wants the reader to have scorn for the Pardoner. While that may be partly the case since the Pardoner may be Chaucer’s embodiment of the corruption of the Catholic Church during his time, I believe that Chaucer also wants us to like the Pardoner. If we heard about the Pardoner’s misdeeds from another character in the tales, then we might just look at the Pardoner as someone to deride. However, it the Pardoner himself that gives us a detailed description of his schemes to trick people out of their money for his own wealth even if it causes a widow’s child  to die of starvation (123-124) The fact that the Pardoner informs the others people who are going to Canterbury and thus the reader of his misdeeds makes him fit into the archetype of the “honest liar.” The Pardoner may be vicious liar, but he is honest with himself and to others about who he is which I believe is a trait that the reader is supposed to look at with some regard and in a positive light.

            I also want to hit upon a couple of side points. One is that before the Pardoner speaks he is described by The Host as a “Pretty Boy.” In addition he is given other feminine characteristics in the general prologue which one may speculate to mean that the Pardoner is homosexual or been castrated. The last side note that I want to touch upon is that I see the archetype of a character that the Pardoner represents in both works of fiction and actual people throughout history. The two most recent examples that I can think of is the character Eli Sunday in the Oscar nominated movie “There Will Be Blood.” The other person that the Pardoner reminds me of might give away where I lay on the political spectrum, but while reading it I kept thinking of presidential candidate and preacher  Mike Huckabee.