The Theme Of Greed In The Canterbury Tales

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Thinking that they could find Death underneath the oak tree, instead, the rioters found florins brimful with eight bushels of gold. At the sight of the wealth lying before their eyes, the rioters immediately abandon their initial plans of avenging their friend. The eldest rioter widely advised the younger ones to take the gold at night because if they were caught carrying the gold in broad daylight, they would be taken for as thieves. By drawing straws, the youngest rioter who drew the shortest lot was sent into town to fetch bread and wine while the remaining two rioters waited for dusk to arrive. As soon as the youngest was gone, the eldest divulges his plan of killing the youngest one when he returns from town and therefore receive greater wealth, to the second rioter who agreed. Back in town, the youngest was having similar thoughts, he realizes that he could be the richest man in town if he could have all the gold to himself which meant killing his comrades. He …show more content…
When the rioters immediately betray one another in order to get a larger part of the wealth even though a third of the gold would make them far wealthier than they originally represented the Pardoner’s theme of avarice. When the youngest rioter returns from his errand, he was ambushed and then the remaining two drank the poisoned drinks which allowed the Pardoner to once again remind the audience that indeed, greed is the root of all evil. Although the Pardoner’s tale has an obvious theme of greed, there also seem to be an aspect of religious corruption. The Pardoner’s tale has a feeling of perfection in it that was probably used to get money from his

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