Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Question for September 16: The Prologue to the Pardoner's Tale (2:00 Class)
Both the Wife of Bath and the Pardoner reveal a great deal about themselves and their ethical standards in the prologues to their tales. Briefly compare the shortcomings of the two. (The Wife of Bath's Prologue is on pages 257-275. The Pardoner's Prologue, our reading for today, is on pages 284-88.) Which of the two characters does Chaucer portray less favorably than the other? Defend your answer with at least one reference to the text.
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In the The Prologue to the Pardoners tale it introduces the Pardoner. At first he speaks of how, "My theme is alwey oon, and evere was --Radix malorum est Cupiditas." (333-334) This means that greed is the root of all evil. He then shows his true self. The Pardoner goes into details of how he did not know Latin ( the main language of the Church) he treats his sermons of that of tales. He judges the sinners of his Church although he is one. He shows this by saying that he always wins his tricks by telling hundreds of false sermons and, "For myn entente is nat but for to wynne, And nothyng for correccioun of synne. (403-404) In this quote the Pardoner is saying that his only intention is to make a profit and not at all for the corrections of sins. I feel as if Chaucer makes the Pardoner less favorable then The Wife of Bath. While The Wife of Bath was known for her multiple husbands and tricking them to do what she wants the Pardoner is tricking an entire Church to make him think he's something he's not and to gain riches. The Wife of Bath while sneaky, would never preform such acts as the Pardoner. The Wife of Bath just wanted attention from her husbands and the Pardoner wants to fool the world and take their own weaknesses and use it against them for his profit.
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to determine which of the two is less favorable because they both have many unattractive qualities. On one hand there is the seductive Wife of Bath who is widow several times over that simply wants to dominate men’s lives. On the other hand there is the Pardoner who is a greedy fraud that wants nothing more than to scam people for a few coins. I agree with Crayola in that the Pardoner does want to take people’s own weaknesses and use it against them for his profit. This is why the Pardoner is shown to be the worse of the two. The pardoner by no means tries to shy away from his evil deeds, but he does attempt to justify them when he says, “Thus can I preche again that same vice which that I use, and that is avarice. But though myself be gilty in that sinne, yit can I make other folk to twinne from avarice, and sore to repente- but that is nat my principal entente: I preche nothing but for coveitise” (139-145). The Wife of Bath never tried to justify any of her acts to her audience she simply was a materialistic person. The Pardoner cared nothing for God or the people he was “helping”, he would lie to masses for money, and that is a far more heinous act than manipulating a husband for favors. Some of things that the Pardoner was doing like selling bones for the people’s drinking water could potentially cause health risks, while the only crime the Wife committed was she had an insatiable sexual appetite. It is clear the Pardoner is no better a person than the worst sinners he describes in his prologue.
ReplyDeleteBoth of Pardoner tale and The Wife of Bath's is very difficult to compare because they both have bad personalities overall. The Wife of Bath's she betray people and does what she wants because she can. I believe the Pardoner is worse than the wife of bath due to the fact that he says one thing and does the other. He admits he abuses his authority and sales things to get money. Comparing the two the wife of bath has to do more with her personal life. She uses her husbands to get what she wants. for example Page 260 lines 160-169 One line stood out to me. "Upon his flessh whil that I am hi wif. I have the power during al my lif." There's an example that the Wife of Bath is a strong uses her men to take control of what she wants. While the Pardoner is more public and doesn't hide away from his evilness. With the Pardoner I do agree with Crayola says in there blog. They said "Chaucer makes the Pardoner less favorable then the Wife of Bath. I do agree with that. He 's worse to use a church to gain money than the Wife of Bath to use her spouse into gaining power. Overall my view is I think the Pardoner is a lot worse of a character than the Wife of Bath.
ReplyDeleteI do not agree with LaMeuriena when they say that the Pardoner and the Wife of Bath both have "Bad" personalities at all. Yes, there are many things wrong with the Pardoner and how he thinks it is okay to cheat people out of their money and use God in the way that he does but I do not think so ill towards the Wife of Bath.Her situation is entirely different.
ReplyDeleteAs a women in the middle ages she has little to almost no control over what happens in her life. By acting the way she does she is using the only "power" she has to create the life that SHE wants for herself which is hardly an option for many women in this time period.
In the text lines 3-4 it says " To speke of wo that is in mariage;For, lordynges, sith I twelve yeer was of age" The Wife of Bath says that she has been married since she was twelve years old. She has been under the authority of men her whole life and uses the only power that she has over them. She is kind to everyone else and loves God, whereas the Pardoner is the opposite of that. The Pardoner admits to cheating people and lying about his sermons and his "relics".
In my opinion, Chaucer makes the Wife of Bath out to be a nicer character than the Pardoner. The Wife of bath has good reason and explanations for the way she acts while the Pardoner does not.
If the Wife of Bathe was using the only “power” she knows, I believe that her sexual experience wouldn't be so advanced. What I mean by this is that the power she has over men, is what they do not have. I think if anything, this is a sign of weakness instead of power. It seems as though she has relations with almost every man that crosses her path, even in her youth days. In line 51-58 sums up the position in which the Wife of Bath stands in life: She waits for men to marry her. Specifically, in line 51 &52 which reads, “Welcome the sixte whan that evere he shal! For sith I owl nat keep me chast in al..” Chast meaning that she will not be without sex for too long. Almost as if she can’t live without it. And lusting is also a sin.
ReplyDeleteAll in all, I agree with the previous comments, that it is hard to detect which one Chaucer favors more because he displays their wrong-doings from two different scenarios: Pardoner’s false preachings and profit; and Wife of Bath’s multiple partners (husbands).The Pardoner is definitely wrong for taking people’s weaknesses for his own profit but so is the Wife of Bath for having so many partners. Wrong will always be wrong, no matter how wrong it is. I do however, believe that Chaucer puts a little more emphasis on the wrong doings of Pardoner, since his acts affect more people and involves the Church.
In both the Wife of Bath’s prologue and the Pardoner’s prologue they both are portrayed as people who use God – given gifts in order to get the things in life that they most desire. Each of them also has the proper self – justifications of their actions.
ReplyDeleteIn agreement with Icy_Me, The Wife of Bath uses her sexuality to get the worldly possessions that she desires out of her husbands. She doesn’t feel that anything she does is wrong. She feels that God has set it in his laws for human beings to “wexe and multiplye” (line 28). She also says that God specified no particular number to limit the number of marriages that were acceptable, “But of no nobre mencion mede he/ of bigamy, or of octogamye/ Why sholde men thane speke of it vileynye?” (lines 31-34). Her self – justification of her actions are that men in the bible had more than one wife at a time, and if it is okay for a man to do it, it is okay for a woman to do it as well.
In comparison, The Pardoner will take from anybody to accumulate his riches. He says, “ I wol have moneie, wolle, chese, and where/ Al were it yeven of the povereste page/ Or of the poorest widow in a village” (lines 160-162). The pardoner will get in front of a church and preach a sermon with the theme of “Radix malorum est Cupiditas” or “Greed is the root of all evil” (line 46). Then he tells the congregation that in order to be corrected of all of your sins, you must pay me a pentance. In the prologue he says that correcting sins was not his purpose at all, the money was his only objective. This is the character that I think Chaucer has portrayed in the more dislikeable manner. The Pardoner makes The Wife of Bath seem like a saint compared to him and the evil, greed – filled things he does.