The Friar and Pardoner: Irony and Satire in Chaucer

Introduction: Two Faces of Church Corruption

The Friar and the Pardoner represent two deeply ironic figures in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. They are meant to be examples of faith and virtue to secular society: the Friar is a monk without a monastery — a priest who administers the sacraments of the Church to the faithful; and the Pardoner is an agent of the Church, offering indulgences to sinners who repent and wish to receive absolution in exchange for a donation, which the Pardoner is supposed to convey to the Church. Both should be symbols of goodness — yet Chaucer uses them to expose the depth of corruption and complacency that had entered the Church by the late medieval period. The Pardoner sells indulgences and turns the Church, which should be a spiritual institution reflecting the Word of God and the purity of Christ, into a cheap pawn shop. The Friar accepts bribes ("a good pittance") from those he "gently" shrives — in other words, he gives easy penances to those who confess to him in exchange for a donation ("General Prologue" 222–224). Like the Pardoner, the Friar is one who places money before the good of God. This paper argues that Chaucer's heavy reliance on irony and satire in his portrayal of the Friar and the Pardoner encourages readers to explore how evil can be found in all walks of life and how the Church was being degraded by materialistic men within its ranks.

The Pardoner: Huckster in Holy Disguise

As Marie Hamilton points out, Chaucer's Pardoner is "an illiterate layman, asking leave of no one, rendering account to no one, but trafficking in pardons as spurious as his relics" (Hamilton 48). He is a disreputable man who has worked his way into a position connected to the Hospital of St. Mary Rouncival — Chaucer describes him as an agent for Rouncival ("General Prologue" 671) — and uses that connection to pad his own lifestyle by counterfeiting relics and pawning off indulgences. He represents none of the honor, dignity, or sacredness of Church institutions, religious faith, or spirituality. He is not exactly a "hypocrite," as Robert Rabiee (83) notes, for there is no sign that he actually believes in the salvation he is peddling. He is a huckster bringing up the rear of the pilgrimage in the hope of making a profit off any naïve persons he may meet along the way.

The Pardoner is, moreover, unrepentant — which is the real irony at the heart of his character. He makes no apologies for his actions and, on the contrary, revels in his ability to dupe unsuspecting clients. His boast of having in his sack a relic of "Our True Lady's veil," as well as a piece of St. Peter's sail and a bottle of pig's bones that he sells to "some simple parson" ("General Prologue" 698–704) for a sum that took the buyer months to accumulate — all of this speaks to his impervious nature: a man determined to hoodwink and trick the pious and the simple. The man who should represent what it means to make a good confession displays none of the requisite contrition within himself required for such a confession.

Yet Chaucer concludes his introduction of the Pardoner by stating that "he was, in church, a fine ecclesiast" ("General Prologue" 710) — a balance to the way in which Chaucer opens by calling him a "gentle pardoner" ("General Prologue" 670). In between these two bookending compliments, Chaucer crams his description of the Pardoner with so many jokes and satirical barbs that the irony cannot but strike the reader squarely. This "gentle" soul "bleats like a goat" ("General Prologue" 691), views himself as stylish even though he is really just disheveled ("General Prologue" 685), and has a face so smooth and hairless that Chaucer sees fit to compare him to a gelding — a castrated horse ("General Prologue" 694). In short, there is nothing manly or masculine about the Pardoner; and as a representative of the Church who "sang an offertory" as well as anyone ("General Prologue" 713), he cuts a well-satirized figure. The Church, after all, is supposed to be the source of virtue, a word that stems from the Latin virtus — manliness. The Pardoner is the exact opposite: a comic inversion of that ideal.

Chaucer's Ironic Structure and the Role of Foils

Ruth Nevo asserts that "Chaucer's irony" works because "it has the whole structure of the work to support it" (Nevo 1) — meaning that what ultimately makes some of Chaucer's characters resonate so ironically is the fact that their antitheses can also be found within the same work. The Pardoner, for instance, would not seem nearly as terrible were there not a man of noble character (the Knight) and a man of true humility and devotion (the Parson) among the cast. By providing foils and representatives of both extremes — the admirable and the corrupt — Chaucer allows a rich texture to develop between the lines. The Pardoner stands out as an even worse figure by the sheer fact that he is in the company of others who shine so brightly. Their light makes his all the dimmer.

Conclusion: Satire as Restoration

Chaucer uses both the Pardoner and the Friar in the "General Prologue" to ironically convey why the supposed "good" representatives of the Church should really be viewed as bad characters who are robbing the Church of its dignity, duty, and prestige. Through these two ignoble figures, Chaucer shows that evil can creep into the souls, hearts, and minds of even the most insignificant persons — insignificant in terms of social status, neither one approaching the standing of the Knight, who is among the leaders of the pilgrims. Yet it is not their status that allows them to wreak havoc in the Church and in society; it is their selfishness, which they mistake for virtue.

Fortunately, Chaucer is not one of their dupes, and he gets the last word. His use of irony and satire to criticize these characters is what gives The Canterbury Tales its enduring charm, beauty, and literary appeal. If these characters rob the Middle Ages of its prestige, Chaucer aims to restore it.

Works Cited

Cavill, Paul, and Heather Ward. The Christian Tradition in Literature. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2007. Print.

"General Prologue." Web. 21 Apr. 2016. <http://pages.towson.edu/duncan/chaucer/index.htm>

Hamilton, Marie. "The Credentials of Chaucer's Pardoner." The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, vol. 40, no. 1 (Jan. 1941): 48–72. Print.

McAlpine, Monica. "The Pardoner's Homosexuality and How It Matters." PMLA, vol. 95, no. 1 (Jan. 1980): 8–22. Print.

Nevo, Ruth. "Chaucer: Motive and Mask in the 'General Prologue.'" The Modern Language Review, vol. 58, no. 1 (Jan. 1963): 1–9. Print.

Rabiee, Robert. "Rhetoric of Hypocrisy: The Pardoner's Reproduction in His Critics." Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval & Renaissance Studies, vol. 43 (2012): 79–94.

Tupper, Frederick. "Chaucer and the Seven Deadly Sins." PMLA, vol. 29, no. 1 (1914): 93–128. Print.