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The Pardoner's Invitation: Quaestor's Bag or Becket's Shrine?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2020

Melvin Storm
Melvin Storm*
Affiliation:
Emporia state University, Emporia, Kansas
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Abstract

Chaucer's Pardoner functions pivotally in The Canterbury Tales, for he personifies illusory goals that can divert or halt the pilgrimage. A walking shrine, carrying spurious relics and questionable indulgences, he offers the pilgrims a meretricious equivalent of what they seek in Canterbury. His diversionary malfeasance gives thematic significance to his unsavory relationship with the Summoner and establishes a close parallel between Chaucer s pilgrimage framework and the rioters' quest in the tale itself. It is fitting that the Pardoner addresses his crucial invitation, at the end of the tale, to the Host, because the Host is responsible for guiding the pilgrims to Canterbury. The violence with which the Host responds is thus particularly appropriate, for he is confronting the man who threatens the impetus of the pilgrimage as a whole. (MS)

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 97 , Issue 5 , October 1982 , pp. 810 - 818
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1952

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