Question

Explain how the allusion to Chaucer’s “The Pardoner’s Tale” is an appropriate one for the article from The Economist.

Answer 1

Without having read the article from The Economist, I would have to guess that there is an implied analogy between Chaucer's "The Pardoner's Tale" and the activities of two or more competing.

Answer 2

The religious climate at the time that Chaucer wrote this piece was pre-Reformation. Therefore, the Sacraments were still largely considered, as explained by St. [ Augustine, ?outward and visible signs of an inward and invisible grace.? The suggestion that outward appearances are reliable indicators of internal character was not considered radical or improper among contemporary audiences. Indeed, the vivid depiction of the Pardoner?s hair, those locks ?yellow as wax But smoothe as a strike (hank) of flex (flax),? does little to improve the reader?s opinion of his moral character. Chaucer develops his description and analysis of the Pardoner throughout the Pardoner?s Tale using suggestive analogies that provide the reader with the perception of a man of extreme sexual and spiritual poverty, willingly admitting that he abuses his authority and sells fake relics. Eugene Vance illustrates one parallel effectively fostered by Chaucer?s sexual innuendoes. He writes: ?The kneeling posture to which the Pardoner summons the pilgrims would place their noses right before his deficient crotch.?[ In addition, Vance expands upon this comparison, identifying a sexual innuendo implicit in the Pardoner?s many relics. ?The pardoner conspires to set himself up as a moveable shrine endowed with relics unsurpassed by those of anyone else in England.? Yet, of course, the relics are all fakes, creating a suggestion of both the Pardoner's impotence and his spiritual ill-worth. ]