feotakahari

 I find The Pardoner's Tale interesting, because it seems to predate the idea of a twist ending. In any modern story, we'd find out that the wine is poisoned right after it is drunk. It would be a karmic ending in the vein of The Twilight Zone, murder unexpectedly punished with more murder. Instead, Chaucer tells us as the wine is poisoned, tells us as the other characters plot to kill the one who will poison them, and lets us watch as those dominoes fall. Rather than surprise ("Oh shit, the wine is poisoned!"), it functions on mounting tension and dramatic irony ("They don't know the wine is poisoned! Will they drink it?")