21; his audience with his “sharp tongue/ In preaching” (VI, C, 413-414). He misuses his God-given talent to nurture the Cupiditas against which he preaches (Hallissy, 216):The probable reason that the Pardoner is not identical with his tale is that the pardoner does not believe what he preaches.This, according to the Pardoner, is how he preaches. He appears to be ready to end his sermon to the Canterbury pilgrims when he assures them that he knows that Jesus Christ is the “soul’s leech” (VI, C, 916), the only true Physician of the spirit, the only real Pardoner. This Pardoner is a sinner but he is not a unbeliever: Johann Cabe Page Sevenhe believes in the power of Christ to do in fact what he himself only pretends to do (Hallissy, 221).How can individuals be a contradiction of themselves? The Pardoner is such a person. The pardoner is a contradiction of himself, and a manipulator. How can such a person be connected to a tale that he tells that is composed of morals, a quality that the pardoner does not carry.The tale is not related to the character that tells the tale. There is one quote that can best sum up the Pardoner. “The Pardoner’s hypocritical behavior is comparable to that of a corrupt evangelist today who, not even believing what he preaches, takes money from the poor to live in wealth (Hallissy, 216).” The Pardoner is a man out only for himself. Preaching a vice that he himself practices does not show example to others. The Pardoner is in a sense one of those bad apples in a bunch. A tale of morals by a man of unknown morals. ...
