There are several themes that appear in both "The Pardoner's Tale" and "The Wife of Bath's Tale" but one stands out above the rest. In both tales, respecting one's elders seems to be the main theme. The reason why that stands out the most is because whenever the elders in the story were disrespected something bad happened but when they were respected something good happened. In "The Pardoner's Tale," the group approaches an old man and make fun of him. He shows them where "death" is. In "The Wife of Bath's Tale" the knight asks old woman what women in order to save his life, want but in return he had to marry her. A theme of respecting one's elders is portrayed differently in both stories, however, both stories point towards the importance of respecting one's elders.
"The Pardoner's Tale" is about three young men, brothers, who set out in search for death. Their plan was to find death and kill it. On their way to finding death, they come across a very old man, and the first thing they do when they see him is disrespect him. "What, old fool?"(133). By calling him a fool, it disregards any respect for the man. An elderly person should be considered wise and treated highly. However, the men even go on and ask him "Isn't it time to die?"(134). After several insults the old man tells them where he left death. Little did they know what really awaited them under that tree. They set out for the tree and when they arrived "there they found a pile of golden florins on the ground."(135). They were so avaricious that the gold took their minds off of their true mission, to find death. Soon they had another mission, how to get the money back to the town without looking like robbers. The men drew sticks to see who got the longest one, the one who picked the longest stick would go down to the town and get food. The other two would stay and guard the money. While the two men were left alone they began to think that they would have a lot more money if there weren't three of them to split it all with.
