Red Flags, but Make It Medieval
These three characters spend their time drinking, gambling, and swearing.
Who are the three rioters?
At the beginning of the tale, the rioters are drinking in this type of establishment.
What is a tavern?
Put these events in order: the rioters meet the old man, hear the funeral bell, and discover the gold.
What is funeral bell, old man, gold?
This character tells the story of the three rioters.
Who is the Pardoner?
In the Prologue, the Pardoner uses “I” to describe his own actions.
What is first-person point of view?
When the rioters hear that Death has killed their friend, this motivates them to begin their quest.
What is anger or a desire for revenge?
The sound of this passing through the street interrupts the rioters’ drinking.
What is a funeral bell?
This event causes the rioters to abandon their plan to hunt down Death.
What is discovering the gold?
Before telling his tale, the Pardoner admits that he preaches primarily for this reason.
What is to make money?
In the tale, the narrator describes the three rioters’ actions from outside the story.
What is third-person point of view?
After discovering the gold, the youngest rioter volunteers to perform this task.
What is going into town to buy food and wine?
The old man tells the rioters that they will find Death beneath this natural landmark.
What is an oak tree?
After finding the gold, the rioters draw straws to determine this.
What is who will go into town for food and wine?
This Latin phrase expresses the moral the Pardoner repeatedly uses in his sermons.
What is Radix malorum est cupiditas. “Greed is the root of evil”?
Hearing the Pardoner confess his dishonesty causes readers to approach his sermon with this attitude.
What is suspicion, skepticism, or distrust?
The youngest rioter purchases poison because he secretly wants this.
What is to kill the other two rioters and keep all the gold?
The tavern setting helps characterize the rioters by associating them with these behaviors.
What are drinking, gambling, excess, and sinful behavior?
Why does Chaucer reveal both murder plots before either one is carried out?
What is to create suspense and show that greed has corrupted all three rioters?
The Pardoner admits that he uses fake relics and rehearsed speeches to manipulate these people.
Who are members of his audience or congregation?
Why is it important that the audience knows about both murder plots while the rioters do not?
What is to create dramatic irony and suspense?
The rioters call one another “brothers” before plotting murder. What does this contrast reveal about them?
What is that their loyalty is shallow and easily destroyed by greed?
How does the isolated setting beneath the tree contribute to the rioters’ downfall?
What is that it gives them an opportunity to betray one another without witnesses or social restraints?
Explain how the sequence of stabbing followed by poisoning reinforces the tale’s moral.
What is that every attempt to gain the gold contributes to the rioters’ deaths, showing that greed destroys those controlled by it?
The Pardoner condemns greed while practicing it himself. What does this contradiction reveal about him as a speaker?
What is that he is hypocritical and morally compromised?
Explain how the Pardoner’s perspective complicates the moral of his tale.
What is that his greed makes him a hypocrite, but his own corruption also proves that his warning about greed is true?