"The Pardoner's Tale"- Questions

b. According to The Pardoners Tale, why are the three rioters looking for Death?
The three rioters are sitting in a tavern, and they see a coffin containing a corpse. This causes them
inquire about the person in the coffin, and they find out it is their former friend. They then start to think
of all the other times in which Death "has made away with all [their] friends" (94). The rioters believe
that Death is the cause of all of their friends deaths, and they therefore seek to get revenge and kill
Death.
c. Where does the old man tell the three rioters to look for Death? How do they treat him?
The old man tells the rioters that Death is "under a tree", and that Death will be easy to find and kill
(157). In the end, the rioters find gold under the tree, and this ultimately leads to the rioter's death. The
rioters treat Death in a very forceful, negative way, as they force information about Death out of him by
threatening that he will "pay for it" {150). The rioters also believe that the old man is Death's spy.
d. Describe the rioters plan for the gold and how it proves fatal to all three men.
Once the rioters find gold, they plan to stay with it overnight so that they can bring it back to their
homes in the morning. They appoint a man to fetch food and wine, and while the man does that the
other two men plan to kill the other man. The other single man, meanwhile, plans to put poison into the
wine so that he can kill the other two men. Once the man arrives back, he gets stabbed. The other two
men drink the poisoned wine, and they die themselves. All three men are dead. This proves that being
too greedy can ultimately lead to death.
e. Why do the Pardoner and the Host quarrel at the end of the tale? Who patches up their quarrel?
The Pardoner believes that he deserves money, so he asks the Host to pay his due. The Host declines to
pay when he says, "of Christ descend upon me if I do" pay (319). The Knight then breaks up the quarrel
and gets the Pardoner and the Host to kiss and resolve the fight.