The_Pardoners_Tale_and_a_Simple_Plan-_Transformation

“How has the text set for study transformed and developed into a new context'” The Pardoners Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer has been transformed and developed into a 20th century, contemporary context known as “A Simple Plan” by Sam Raimi. To support this, the similarities of the two texts will be discussed along with the roles of characters and their values. The quote “Greed of money is the root of all evil” will be discussed and will establish how the sins present in the texts can transform the lives and values of Individuals. Language and Textual forms will also be compared in addition to the transformation. Firstly to understand the transformation between the two texts, you first need to compare the similar plots. In the Pardoners tale we witness a Pardoner’s confession about his wrong doings in order to make money; the quote “My entire preaching is centered on avarice and wickedness with the sole objective of making money” shows this. He does this by sermonizing and giving false tales to hosts and pilgrims who are guilty of sins. In doing so, those who will offer him gifts and money will be pardoned for sins by the pardoner himself. But to do this the pardoner engages the hosts into believing what he says by showing his papal bulls and other items that he claims has powers. He goes on to tell a false tail about three gluttons’/rioters who go on a quest to find and kill “Death” who had claimed the life of their friend and other pilgrims in the country. On their journey they find an old man who is badly injured. He directs them to a tree where he claims they will find “Death”, but as luck would have it they find gold coins under the tree and forget about “Death”. They end up killing each other for the greed of money, the quote “O Lord, he said to himself, if it could only come about that I could have all this treasure” shows one of the rioter’s plan to keep the money for himself. This has been transformed and developed into a contemporary movie “A Simple Plan” where three similar characters are established (Hank, Jacob and Lou). Two of whom are brothers (Hank and Jacob) while the other is Jacobs friend Lou. The characters find four million dollars inside a plane crash and as the greed for money exceed the values of the characters change. They start committing heinous acts which results in death of two of the main characters. This is why the two texts are very similar and hence the Pardoners Tale has been transformed and developed into a contemporary version known as “A Simple Plan”. Secondly, both the two texts deal with the corruption of religion and the church itself. In the Pardoners Tale we witness the corruption of religion itself by examine the Pardoners confession. He claims that his main intention is only to make money but not to pardon for sins, the quote “I myself am a very wicked man, I can tell you a certain edifying story which I usually narrate to myself to make myself some money “emphasizes this. Ironically the pardoners is guilty of the sins that he claims the pilgrims should stay away from, mainly “gluttony and avarice”. This tells us that the people in the past weren’t educated about religion and hence their main routines were gambling, drinking and eating to excess like the rioters in one of his false tails. This is very similar in “A Simple Plan”. In this text we hardly ever witness a scene that represents religion itself. Instead we witness more scenes of Jacob and Lou drinking and gambling in the pubs. Both texts represent the “lost way of life” and the people do whatever they like. As a result of this, we are not just witnessing a transformation in the two texts but also in the real world where the uneducated and unemployed are gambling and eating to excess like the people in the urban American town in “A Simple Plan”. This is why the Pardoners tale has been transformed and developed into a new context as present in today’s society and in “A Simple Plan”. Thirdly, Death is all but common in both the texts. In “A Simple Plan”, Hank’s wife Sarah is thought to be Lady Macbeth who is the driving force for all the heinous acts in the movie. A quote from the movie “You’ve got to remember how people see you. You’re a sweet normal guy. No one will ever believe that you could do the things you have” shows Sarah’s support against the wrong doings of her husband. She was the one who always suggested things to Hank with saw deadly consequences such as the death of Lou and initially Jacob. Death is personified in the Pardoners tale but is thought to be the old injured man. He was the one who guides the rioters to the gold and initially they find death itself. The characters in the Pardoners tale has been transformed and developed into characters in “A Simple Plan”. Lastly, the values of characters change in both the two different texts after finding the money. Before finding the money, the protagonists (Hank) believed that having a “loving wife, a good job, good friends and neighbors is the key to happy man”. All these values change as his and wife’s (Sarah) greed for the money exceeds. They no longer believe in these values and think that money is essential in starting a family even though Hank had a well paid job- Accountant. This greed for money changes them from being the “good citizens of the town” into citizens committing the most heinous sins which saw the deaths of many characters. This is very similar in the Pardoners Tale, where the three rioters go on a quest to find death. This eventually changes when they find the money; it leads to the death of the characters. This reinforces the quote “Greed is the root of all evil” and establishes how the greed for money can change good citizens into committing the most evil acts. This is why the Pardoners Tale has been transformed and developed into a modern era context “A Simple Plan”. The transformation from the Pardoners Tale to A Simple Plan does not just involve similar plots, values, characters and events. It also involves a transformation in the language forms and the textual forms. The Pardoners Tale is written in old english where else A Simple Plan is in modern english. The difference between the two alters how the message can be portrayed. For example the quote from the Pardoners Tale “I wol have chese and whete” is in old English. The disadvantage of this is that it’s hard to get and understand, where else “Stop stealing the American dream” is in normal English and is able to portray its message. Another transformation between the two texts is the transformation in the textual form. The Pardoners Tale is an old english poem and A Simple Plan is a modern, contemporary movie. It is easier for the message to be portrayed using moving pictures and sounds than by writing. For example somber music is played at the beginning of the movie to represents sadness/bad luck, visuals of the fox and crows symbolize bad luck, alternately death. It overlooks what is happening and coming up next in the plot. As a result the technologies used such as a camera and musical instruments are able to transform the Pardoners Tale into a far complex, but easy to understand context known as “A Simple Plan”. To conclude, it can be said that the “Pardoners Tale” by Geoffrey Chaucer has been transformed into a contemporary text “A Simple Plan” by Sam Raimi because both the texts deal with similar concepts throughout the plots such as the two of the seven deadly sins and the values that the characters have after finding the money. The quote “Greed of money is the root of all evil” has been established in both the texts. The two texts deal with the corruption of the church and the religion as people are uneducated, unemployed and spend time gambling and drinking to excess. Both the texts show that greed and gluttony can change a good citizen into doing heinous acts. The transformation from the “Pardoners Tale” to “A Simple Plan” saw the change in language forms and textual forms; as a result of this change it was easier to portray the message than it is in the Pardoners Tale. This is why the Pardoners Tale has been transformed and developed into a contemporary context known as “A Simple Plan”. By: Safraaz Khan