Lit201 - Lect 1 - Week 5

The pardoners tale is divided into (1) introduction/transition (2) a prologue [41-174] and a (3) tale.

the tale is divded into 3 parts.

i) 175-373
ii) 374-630 (he tells the story of a fate of 3 young men who encounter a personified death)
iii) 631-680 (epilogue) (in part 3 we are brought out of the story into the present where the pardoner has a run in with the host - and a reconciliation full of irony)

the cake he wants to eat is 'flat bread' more than a hint here of an illusion to the mass. a most disturbing one on the part of the pardoner. it is also worth noting the irony that the pardoner himself is playfully aware, that the pardoner calls for a beer before launching into a diatribe about drunkenness.

The pardoner takes the role of the physician.

The boy personifies death - he confuses his mother's wisdom - she said be prepared for death - and now he thinks that he should always be prepared for a man called death - it's actually just a disease but he's taking it personally thinking that somebody is going around killing everyone. And now these three drunken idiots have made an oath and they are going to go out and find this person called death and kill him - it's humorous and also profound that there is only one conqueror of death and that is Christ. These men and the boy are too literal minded. These three are almost like a mock version of the trinity - but of course they are the opposite they are divided as we will see.