Canterbury Tales: Prologue

Warm-Up

What expectations are placed on you by your parents or your employer? What happens when you fail to meet those expectations? (at least 2 sentences)

What do you think when you see someone who is supposed to be doing something doing the opposite? Write about an instance in which that happened. (at least 3 sentences)

The Nun Ironic that a Nun would swear by St. Loy-saint known for refusal

to swear

Eglantyne-name of several romantic heroines (not appropriate for a nun)

Counterfeit-reveals attitude of Chaucer/Speaker. Though attractive, there is something fake about her.

Preoccupied with social status

Nuns were not allowed to keep pets. Do you know why?

Her French is not the real thing.

“Well-Taught” makes it seem like she is over-studied.

High Forehead-fashion statement, intelligence, good breeding

What is weird about the Brooch?

Flaw in Religious Life

Prioress-Flaw in the system

Values and Ideals are contaminated by the secular

Unclear if she is of a noble house

Monk

What is the odd thing that is said about the monk in lines 169-185?

Unreliable Narrator: A narrator who cannot be completely trusted. Naïve narrators and untruthful narrators.

Comprehension Question

What else is strange about the monk in lines 194-204?

Monk

Seen as flawed but not corrupt

Worldliness is Willful

Fatness showing a sign of wealth

Friar

What is dirty about the Friar? Look at lines 223-238.

Friar

Franciscan Orders- Meant to serve the poor and least fortunate.

How does the Friar feel about the poor?

Naïve Narrator

Lines 255-256

Example of the Speaker being naïve

What do you think his “gifts” were?

Merchant

How is the narrator being untrustworthy here?

Why might the merchant not share his name?

Oxford Clerk

What did you have for the Oxford Clerk?

Lawyer

A sergeant of law was a high-ranking judge who had practiced law with distinction for 16 years.

How the the lawyer seem less distinguished? (322-324)

Lawyer

Land safest thing to invest in

Lawyer would transfer ownership of land to himself though documents

What conclusion can you draw from the lawyer pretending to be busier than he is?

Franklin

Land owner not part of nobility

Medieval people usually only ate 2 meals a day; a midmorning dinner and an early evening supper. The Franklin also ears a breakfast of sop in wine, almond milk, ginger, sugar, and spices poured over good bread.

What is good about him? (363-4)

Franklin was a good citizen who held public office.

Capable of disinterested conduct.

Guildsman

Guilds were organizations of craftsman and tradesman who taught their skills to apprentices. Guilds controlled quality and price of goods they produced and sold. Upwards mobility here. The trim on their knives should have been brass; silver was for the nobility.

Reading Comprehension

Who is the speaker mocking in lines 381-390?

Cook

Here, he is a good cook with a strange physical feature.

Based on a real cook known by Chaucer.

Later, not seen in as great of a light. Host accuses him of selling warmed over and stale pastries, having lots of flies in his shop, and of serving stubble-fed geese.

Skipper

Dartmouth was a shipping port known for piracy/ brutality.

Excellent Fellow-unreliable narrator

The skipper siphons off wine from the barrels while the trader snored and stole wine from the merchant.

Magdelane- Christian saint who typifies the repentant sinner. Why is the name of his ship ironic?

Doctor

How is the doctor portrayed up until line 435?

How does the portrayal of the doctor change in lines 435-439?

Doctor

It was a widely believed view that doctors did not read the Bible. What might Chaucer’s readers think about this?

Pestilences referred to the bubonic plague. Doctors were unable to understand and stop the infection, but were willing to accept money for trying. Line 453 refers to the fact that many believed that gold had healing properties.

The Wife of Bath

What does the Wife of Bath’s insistence of being first at the alter to make an offering suggest about her character?

She has been to many pilgrimage locations.

Gap-toothed-boldness & love of travel

Kerchief

Wife of Bath

Freedom to travel on pilgrimages was a luxury not available to many women.

Medieval women were denounced because seen as offering opportunity for unfaithfulness.

Husbands were mocked as cuckolds.

Took full advantage of her freedom.

Colorful character.

The Parson

How is the parson portrayed in ideal terms up to lines 499?

Parson did not threaten to excommunicate parishioners who have not paid taxes (1/10 of income)

Line 507-He practiced what he preached.

How would you explain metaphor in lines 510-512?

Parson leads by example & is compassionate rather than disdainful towards sinners. When someone persists in wrong doing, he is not afraid to speak up, even if they are powerful.

Closing

Who is your favorite pilgrim out of those discussed today? Why? Do they live up to the expectations placed on them? If so, how? If not, why not?