Pardoner's tale : performance or actual confession?

<Tab/>Perhaps one of the most complex characters in Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, the Pardoner is a challenge to analyze as his multi- layered presentation in the text can lead to various interpretations. The pardoner is a manifestation of several themes that recur throughout the short story, most notable the hypocrisy of the Christian church. This paper will explore intentional and unintentional self-characterization as seen in his prologue and tale. It …

…amp;gt;Chaucer allows a number of possible interpretations of the Pardoner's self representation, two of them being: he is either abusive and corrupt, dismissing any salvation he provides to his audience as incidental and unintended; or he is a pragmatic man who understands that man is vulnerable to sin and feels remorse over his actions, desiring to spare others fate that befell him by warning them of the vices that led to his downfall.