Name______Per._____ Date______
The Pardoner’s Tale: “Money is the Root of All Evil”
Please read The Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale on pp. 142-151 of your text book. Answer the questions below in complete sentences. For the open-ended question below, please construct your answer on the back of this handout. Be sure to use specific evidence from the story to support your short answers, as well as the open-ended question.
1. Consider the Prologue of the Pardoner; how does he admit that he is a hypocrite?
2. In the beginning of the tale, who are the rioters so angry at? Why?
3. What sort of quest do the rioters choose to go on?
4. Describe the relationship that the rioters have with one another before they set out on their quest?
5. Describe the old man that the rioters come across. What makes this character peculiar and/or mysterious?
6. According to the old man, where will the young men find Death?
7. What do the men find under the oak tree?
8. When one rioter goes back to town for food and wine, what do the other two men plan to do when he returns?
9. Who ends up getting the gold at the end of the story? Why?
10. Who do you think the old man really is? How do you know?
Open-Ended Question
The main theme of the Pardoner’s Tale is hypocrisy and deceit motivated by greed. In the prologue to his tale, the Pardoner mentions the phrase “raxis malorum est cupiditas” (the love of money is the root of all evil), and admits that he does not practice what he preaches.
· How is the Pardoner’s deceitfulness in his own life reflected in the story that he tells?
· How would the story be different if it was told by the Parson, the devout holy man who is seemingly the only truly good pilgrim in Chaucer’s narrative?