dof what he does to innocent people. He says, I dont want toimitate any of the apostles; I want to have money, wool, cheese,and wheat, even if it is given by the poorest page, or thepoorest widow in a village, although her children die ofstarvation. No! I will drink liquor of the vine and have a jollywench in every town. (p.345, lines 119-126). The Pardoners tale is a very good example of his greed andselfishness. In the Pardoner's tale, three friends begin ajourney in order to murder Death. On their journey, though, anold man leads them to a great deal of treasure. At this point,all three of the friends in the tale display a greed similar tothe Pardoner's. The three friends decide that someone shouldbring bread and wine for a celebration. As the youngest of thefriends leaves to go buy wine, the other two greedily plot tokill him so they can split the treasure only two ways. Even theyoungest decides to "put it in his mind to buy poison with whichhe might kill his two companions". The greed, which is evident inthe character of the Pardoner, is also clearly seen in the tale.Another trait that is displayed by the Pardoner and acharacter in his tale is hypocrisy. Although the Pardoner isextremely greedy, he continues to try and teach that "Avarice isthe root of all evil". The characters in his tale display greathypocrisy as well. As the tale begins, the friends all act verytrustworthy and faithful towards all of their friends. They makea decision to risk their lives while trying to slay theirfriend's murderer. As they talk about their challenge, theypledge "to live and die each of them for the other, as if he werehis own blood brother". At the end of the tale, the "brothers"begin to reveal their true nature. They all turn on each other inan attempt to steal the treasure for themselves. All of theloyalty, which they had pledged, was simply a lie and nofaithfulness remained. While the two older "brothers" plotted tokill the younger brother, ...
