As I was reading the Pardoner’s section, I was reminded of a scene in George Bernard Shaw’s play, Major Barbara. In the scene, a powerful war industrialist offers a donation to the Salvation Army.  Before handing his check to the Salvation Army Commissioner, he gives an overly theatrical speech that draws attention to the violence behind the money. He thus makes it impossible for the Commissioner to close her eyes to the fact that she is accepting blood money. Via this act, the arms industrialist illustrates that the Salvation Army on some level becomes complicit in his creation of destructive weapons. I feel like the relationship between the arms industrialist and the Salvation Army Commissioner is somewhat similar to that between the Pardoner and the pilgrims. Before he tells his tale, the Pardoner openly admits to the fake nature of his relics. He uses them to make money, he says. But upon the completion of his story, he claims that the relics are real and asks the pilgrims for contributions: “I have relikes and pardoun in my male/ As faire as any man in Engelond/ Whiche were me yeven by the popes hond/ If any of yow wole, of devocion/ Offren and han myn absolucion/ Com forth anon, and kneleth here adoun” (920-925). The offer, which invites the pilgrims to buy absolution and participate in the Pardoner’s hypocrisy, places them in a similar position to that of the Salvation Army Commissioner of Shaw’s play. But while the character in Major Barbara accepts the offer, becoming complicit in the unchristian acts, The Host rejects the Pardoner’s offer.