Greed: The Source of All Sin

In the "Pardoner's Tale," the pardoner, begins by asking the host to provide him with food and drink before he begins his tale. Once full, he begins his introduction by talking about himself. Because of the food and wine, he began to tell about himself, and he probably told more then he would have wanted to had he been sober. He tells the people of his occupation and reveals his falsity and tricks, which he uses on the people of his hometown.

"By this gaude have I wonne, yeer by yeer,

An hundred mark sith I was pardoner.

I stonde lyk a clerk in my pulped...

And whan the lewed peple is doun yset

I preche so as ye han herd bifoore

And telle an hundred false japes moore." (lines 389-394 Canterbury Tales) This is how he makes a living and lives such a comfortable life. Before the pilgrims could show their outrage from such hypocrisy, the pardoner continues with his tale.

He starts by talking about sins. He categorizes and talks about the sins and which he believes are the worst, the most common, and the ones that have been made up by other people. He emphasizes greed as being the source of all evil. He tells the pilgrims that greed is the cause of most sins and is the sin with the worst consequences.

After he preached about greed and all of the other sins, he continued with his story. Because of his relation to alcohol, he begins his story with three rich men who sit and drink until the are drunk. While in this condition, they run into their servant who they see had been crying.

"Sire," quod this boy, "it nedeth never-a-deel;

It was me toold er ye cam heer two houres.

He was, pardee, an old felawe of youres,

And sodeynly he was yslayn to-nyght..

Ther cam a privee theef men clepeth Deeth,

That in this contree al the peple sleeth,

And with his spere he smoot his herte atwo,

And wente his wey withouten wordes mo.

He hath a thousand slayn this pestilence." (lines 670-679) With this, the servant left them.

The alcohol had impaired their judgement and had left them with crazy thoughts about the killing and the so called thief named "Death." The three brother set out to go and seek this thief, so that they could get revenge for the poor people back in the village. While on the road, the brother run into an old man. They ask him if he knew where we could find Death. He answered that it had been under the oak tree not too far from where they were standing. When the arrive at the tree, all they saw was eight bushels of gold coins gathered ontop of the roots. Was money the Death everyone had been referring too? Could this have another meaning? Had they simply not found Death yet?

The brothers knew that they could only carry the gold by night because otherwise they would be accused of being theives; therefore, they send the smallest of the brothers to the village to buy some bread and wine so they would not starve as they waited for night to come. While he was out, the two older brothers schemed to kill the younger brother when he arrived from the village. This would allow them to have more money which would soon become more land. Coincidentally, the younger brother was scheming the same plan but with a different process. He planned to poison the two older brothers and then take all of the money for himself.

Night came and the two older brothers killed the younger one before he could poison them, but in victory, the two brothers opened the poisoned wine bottles and drank the poisoned wine until they fell over dead. They had finally united with Death, but not in the way they had expected. Death had found a way to trick the boys and use their own greed against them until they killed each other on their own. The money was simply a symbol and example of greed. The brothers were the ones who finished the task, themselves.