Pardoner's Tale. A Close Look at the Frame and Tale Stucture

The Pardoner’s Frame and Tale The Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale is a self-contained story within The Canterbury Tales and is linked to the frame of the entire text by the narrator Geoffrey Chaucer. Ever word spoken by the Pardoner is no more than the account of the narrator “reporting all his (the Pardoner’s) language faithfully” (1915). To better understand the theme and the maze of frames surrounding the tale within his report; I …

…work so our preconceptions of the hypocritical minister has influenced our perception of the Pardoner’s tale. The tale of the Pardoner without the Chaucer’s account of what he had said before the tale began would lead the reader to an inaccurate conclusion. Chaucer almost satirizes his tale by distinguishing the real from the symbolic and allows the reader to see the Pardoner’s motives which hide behind papal seals, relics and presumed righteousness.