Pardoner and His Relics

The Pardoner and his Relics As by some strange perversion of metonymy, characters in literature are often characterized by their possessions, along with or rather than their words and deeds. In other words, those things which are closely related to a character show many of the same traits as the character himself; and, describing said objects may begin to substitute for a description of the actual character. This method of characterization is used by Geoffrey …

…falsely comport patrons and both assume heavenly authority that neither truly has. So, the Pardoner and his relics become almost interchangeable in their descriptions and Chaucer is able to describe those things with closely relate to the Pardoner, and assume that their descriptions and false and forged will transfer to the Pardoner himself. I think this extension of metonymy is particularly effective in this case where the Pardoner must use the relics to further himself.