Analysis
The relationship between tellers and tale is distinctly significant in "The Pardoner's Tale". The Pardoner is an enigmatic character, portrayed as grotesque in the General Prologue. He is seemingly aware of his sin – it is not clear why he tells the pilgrims about his sin in the prologue before his tale commences. His preaching is correct and the results of his methods, despite their corruption, are good. The Pardoner's confession is similar to that of the Wife of Bath in that there is a revelation of details buried within the prologue.
Chaucer describes the Pardoner as an excellent speaker in his portrait of the character in the General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales, which inherently reflects the quality of the narrative attributed to him.
The old man who appears before the rioters has been the subject of considerable debate. Many people and scholars reference him as "death in person", "the Wandering Jew", "Old Age itself", and "Death's messenger". W. J. B. Owen points out that "He is seeking Death; and that Death or his agent should find death is contrary to all the logic of allegory." Owen argues that the character is merely an old man and not a symbol of mortality.
The Old Man in "The Pardoner's Tale" is often written off as one who does not provide any sort of substance to the play. However, critic Alfred David denies such claims and asserts the possibility that the Old Man in "The Pardoner's Tale" is meant to symbolise more than unambiguous death, "the old man's identity does not admit a simple, unambiguous, and definitive answer such as Death or Death's Messenger". David goes on to assert that the Old Man may actually symbolise the "Wandering Jew" as defined to be a symbol of death that will supposedly roam the Earth until the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. One may compare this notion to the symbol and character of the Old Man in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
"The Pardoner's Tale" finds itself widely debated among those in the literary world. The question of Chaucer's motivation in writing the tale, as well as potential social comments made within it, have been the subject of controversy. Gregory W. Gross in Modern Language Studies concludes that The Pardoner finds himself publicly shamed by the Host's reprimand at the end of the tale. There is an "undertone" of exclusion at this point in the work that, perhaps, leads to the question of the sexuality of The Pardoner and the social boundaries at hand. To reaffirm his claim, Gross points out the ridicule and "laughter" on behalf of the other pilgrims. Perhaps Chaucer is looking upon the Pardoner with a "compassionate eye", as the Host offers a kiss at the end of the tale. According to Gross, this could simply be the poet's way of easing the tension in the room, thus a sign of "compassion" towards the embarrassment of the Pardoner on behalf of the poet. Ultimately, it is plausible that Chaucer makes a societal statement long before his time that serves as a literary teaching moment in modern time.
In further analysis, psychological patterns of the character of the Pardoner are frequently analysed by readers and critics alike. In 1961, critic Eric W. Stockton defined the psychology-based research of the character, "The psychology of the Pardoner has perhaps gotten in the way of the task of interpreting the stories' meaning. This is indeed an age of psychology." As Stockton states, the character has largely been overanalysed, especially amidst mid-century advances in psychoanalysis in the 1960s and 1970s.
