How Chaucer uses The Pardoner to decive the reader

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Created by: Becca
Created on: 11-03-10 18:54

How the Pardoner is deceptive.

Chaucer describes the Pardoner with an odd description and notes his 'small voice' and hairless chin. Chaucer could therefore be suggesting that he is a ******.

Some critics have suggested that maybe he is a man dressed as a woman.

James Winny doesnt believe he is a woman but he does lack male virality. He refers to the Pardoner as emasculated and attempting an imposture of being a virile and attractively wild young man.

It is possible that from the very moment we meet him he attempts to decieve the pilgrims about his sexual identity.

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Comments

Amy

Report Sat 28th May, 2011 @ 13:09

I isagree with this. The Pardoner is definitely a man. The lines: 'A voys he hadde as small as hath a goot. No berd hadde he, ne nevere sholde have; As smothe it was as it were late shave. I trowe he were a geldyng or a mare' could be hinting at homosexuality, but it is most likely that Chaucer is casting aspersions on The Pardoner as being a ******. And it has been said that his apparent physical impotence is intended to reflect his spiritual impotence. Also, someone who had been castrated would be considered sinful, and be shunned by society, reflecting the Pardoner's true nature.