Canterbury Tales commentary

Emiliano Morales

Ms. Peifer

English 10 IB

1/13/11

The Pardoner’s Tale

            The Pardoner is a frank person who preaches against greed but is a victim of greed himself. He is undaunted by his hypocrisy and instead aims at making others better than himself. His story relates to his common theme that money is the root of all evil and is a fanciful story on morals.

            The Pardoner is a more intense character than the others in the fact that he admits to sins of gluttony and greed. “All my preaching is about avarice and such cursed sins, in order to make them give freely of their pennies—namely to me; for my intention is to win money, not at all to cast out sins.” (72-76). He is a very hypocritical person and is perversely proud of what he does, and how he cares only for money and not peoples souls. His sermons are to teach people the right way in life, but his true intention is to have personal gain.

            The theme of his story is Radix malorum est cupiditas, which is that money is the root of all evil. The symbolism of the tale is very straight forward to the meaning. When the men see the gold, they each plot a way to kill the others and take the gold for themselves. They each carry out their plan and in the end, they die. Greed made them turn on each other and commit murder, and also killed them so that no one could have the gold. The Pardoner uses this tale to point flaws in people but, as he told the rest of the pilgrims, he is as guilty of these crimes as the characters in the story.

            Each of Chaucer’s tales tells a moral of some kind, and the Pardoner’s Tale is no different. The clear moral is evident, but he added the personality of the Pardoner to the narration. Where the Pardoner speaks well, he isn’t truthful to his words and this use of a supposedly “pious” man is Chaucer’s way of questioning society. This story begs the question of how people lie for their own gain, and if people stay true to their morals and do as they preach.

Beowulf Commentary.

Emiliano Morales

    "In off the moors, down through the mist bands God-cursed Grendel came greedily loping. The bane of the race of men roamed forth, hunting for prey in the high hall. Under the cloud-murk he moved towards it until it shone above him. A sheer keep of fortified gold. Nor was that the first time he had scouted the grounds of Hrothgar's dwelling--although never in his life, before or since, did he find harder fortune or hall-defenders. Spurned and joyless, he journeyed on ahead and arrived at the bawn. The iron-braced door turned on its hinge when his hands touched it. Then his rage boiled over, he ripped open the mouth of the building, maddening for blood, pacing the length of the patterned floor with his loathsome tread, while a baleful light, flame more than light, flared from his eyes. He saw many men in the mansion, sleeping, a ranked company of kinsman and warriors quartered together. And his glee was demonic." (Battle with Grendel, 710-730).
    This passage details the beginning of the fight with Grendel. Grendel is introduced and characterized through the use of imagery and allusions to biblical stories. The images are used to create a dark, foreboding tone for when Grendel attacks and to describe his demonic appearance.
    Grendel is characterized by several phrases, "God-cursed Brute." (711). and, "Bane of the race of men." (712). These short phrases strongly create a sense of evil and antagonism around Grendel. Grendel is God-cursed because the writer, being a christian, made a biblical allusion to Cain who killed his brother Abel. Cain was banished and cursed and so were his descendants including Grendel. Because of Grendel's seeming immortality and thirst for human blood he is the "bane of the race of men," and until Beowulf it seemed no man could kill him.
    The imagery used in this passage set an eerie tone with the phrase, "cloud-murk." This image makes one think of darkness, as if the sky was a dark lake. Other images describe Grendel's strength and fury. "He ripped open the mouth of the building." (723-724). Grendel is so strong that he not only can batter down a door, he can rip open the massive doors, the "mouth," of Heorot. Grendel's anger is terrible as described by his eyes, "While a baleful light, flame more than light, flared from his eyes." (726-727). His fury is shown in his eyes as beyond human anger, deepening the fear one should feel if they faced this terrible monster.
    This passage has a great description of Grendel, showing his to be a furious evil beast. The images and characterizations of Grendel give a great picture of the antagonist and Beowulfs first enemy. From this passage onto the end of the epic tale of Beowulf, Grendel is remembered as he was described; a bloodthirsty beast only stoppable by Beowulf.

The True First Blog________

I am a Minnesota student at Central Highschool. I live in both Minneapolis and Saint Paul. I have Cats, and I enjoy writing. I find it odd that so many people have negative feelings about winter. I love snowboarding and playing Irish music. I play the fiddle as well as the Uilleannn Pipes. My father is a stone sculpter with works at Franconia Sculpture Park, and elsewhere throughout the Twin Cities.