The Pardoners Tale: Trying to Gain Clarity amongst the Confusion

I really enjoyed the complexity of the Pardoners story. This is definitely one story that we need to examine with a closer lens. The pardoner boasts about his insensitivity and greed, then delivers a sermon about the evils of greed then tries to take money from those who know about his fault. The old man reminds me of the old wise sage of a village (or perhaps even one's inner conscience saying, "well if you want to die just follow all the glitter and gold, otherwise stick with me I know how to help remain alive - true to yourself and your moral values". )

The three rioters are searching for death and the old man leads them to it. I think Chaucer is trying to explain how enticing and unforgiving greed is. It literally overtakes and kills the true person. People become unrecognizable by the "disease of greed." I think the pardoner wants to explain to us how absurd greed looks to an outsider and how devastating and addictive it is to the greedy person. The three different sections to the Pardoner's story help us understand the above point. The pardoner is conscious of his fault and what greed did to him, warns anyone thinking of chasing money to avoid it at all costs, and then proves how vulnerable he has become by asking the bartender for money.