Irony in The Pardoner's Tale
Irony is everywhere in the world today, which is kind of ironic. In The Pardoner's Tale, irony, along with greed, is the focus point. Examples of irony that will be pointed out include trying to kill death, being friendly by killing a friend, and the story teller saying how bad greed is when he is greedy himself.
"And we will kill this traitor Death, I say." Now does that sound ironic? Maybe because it is. How can death be killed? In The Pardoner's Tale, three friends set out to find and kill death. This leaves the reader wondering what is going through the heads of the three friends. Are they crazy? Have they had too much to drink? Well maybe they had, but irony is defiantly present from the very beginning of the story until the end.
The three friends find valuable coins under a tree. Their first thought was to split it up three ways. One of the friends goes back to town to gather some supplies. While he is gone, the other two think it would be a friendly act to each other to kill him so they will get more money. It is ironic that they think it is a friendly act to kill a friend. Little do the two know, he is planning to kill them and get the money all to himself. Greed is an overpowering factor in life, and people will sometimes do whatever they need to do to get whatever they want.
This story is all about how greed is bad and will catch up with everybody in the long run. The most ironic part in this story is that the person telling it is the greediest of them all. The Pardoner would scam anybody and everybody he could find. He would say he had a valuable item, but it was actually a pillow case. This story is about a greedy person telling the reader how bad being greedy is. This is irony at its finest.
Irony, whether people realize it or not, is everywhere. Sometimes it is easy to spot, and sometimes it is not. In The Pardoner's Tale, irony is almost always present. The Pardoner's Tale is based around irony and greed, and shows good examples of each.
This is really good. While I was reading this, it made me think about how I can be greedy at times.
ReplyDeleteOliver your blog explains how greed can corrupt anyone. I also like how you related to the story.
ReplyDeleteGreed is a good topic to talk about in this besides irony. Everybody can relate to greed in one way or another. Greed just gets to us all sometimes.
ReplyDeleteAt times when I look at your blog, I think about how greedy people can be and only think about themselves. Great job explaining this!!
ReplyDeleteI like how you explained it being ironic to kill a friend and it being a friendly act, because it is not. Great work!
ReplyDeleteGreed is always going to be around, no matter what you are doing. Somebody is always trying to get more than the other person.
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