general, the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales contains all of the background information Chaucer needs in order to tell the rest of his stories. No book should contain just facts, and this is why Chaucer incorporates humor and satire into his story. This technique adds to Chaucer’s mastery of prose, and the combination of the two help make a vivid introduction to Chaucer’s magical literary world (Rossignol 81).The next story that contains a lot of humor and satire is The Pardoner’s Tale. As we find out in The Prologue, the Pardoner a fraudulent person who shows no regrets about selling false relics to people for money. The Pardoner shifts from moments of direct honesty to shameless deceit, openly admitting the tricks of his trade to the travelers but nevertheless attempting to use these various methods on these travelers who are aware of his schemes. The Pardoner is in many senses a warped character, unable to hold to any consistent code of moral behavior. The Pardoner is not a moral man, but he does have a moral system which he rarely follows (Gaylord 105).The Pardoner’s Tale starts off with three men are in a inn drinking beer. They find out that their friend has died, and they want to find out who killed him. When they ask a boy that works at the inn who has killed their friend, he tells them the same one who has been killing everyone lately: death. Thinking that death is a physical being, the three men make a pact. They 6vow that they will chase death and they won’t stop until they find and kill him. With one last toast, the men set off on their journey. Not long after the start, the three travelers come across an old man who says that he cannot die. He tells them that he knows where death is, and, excited about the news, the three men ask the man where he is. The old man tells them that death is beneath a tree in a nearby ally way. The three men find the tree, but they don’t find de...
