Canterbury Tales

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Canterbury Tales

• By Goeffrey Chaucer

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Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343 1400)

• Born to a middle class family
• Thought of as the father of English poetry.
• Wrote in the vernacular (language of the people)
  which was middle English.
• Worked for a time as a diplomat for England.

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The Canterbury Tales is

• A collection of related poems and some prose
  bound together by a frame.
• Unfinished. 22 out of 60 stories completed.
• A snapshot of an age
• An important insight into Medieval Life

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The Frame

• Frame Story a tale that has other smaller tales
  embedded within it.
• 30 people set out on a pilgrimage
• A pilgrimage is a spiritual journey
• Each person will tell 2 stories on their way to
  Canterbury (their spiritual destination).

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General Themes

• The insubstantial nature of class structure
• Stereotypes vs. reality
• Metafiction

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Literary Terms

• Dramatic Irony the reader knows something a
  character in the story doesnt know
• Characterization literary means of establishing
  a character
• Symbolism

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The Prologue

• Introduces the frame
• Introduces and briefly describes the people going
  on the pilgrimage.
• Introduces the caste system structure

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The Aristocracy

• The knight
• The squire
• The yeoman
• Prioress
• Second Nun
• Monk
• Friar

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Middle Class

• The merchant
• The clerk
• The sergeant of law
• The franklin
• The guildsmen
• The cook
• The shipman
• The physician
• The wife of Bath

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The Lower Class and Ruffians

• The parson
• The plowman
• The miller
• Maniciple
• Reeve
• The summoner
• The pardoner

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The Pardoners Tale Themes

• Greed can kill you
• Ironic because the Pardoner is extremely greedy

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The Wife of Baths Tale

• Experience vs. Authority
• Antifeminism and the role of women
• Books vs. life

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Assignments

• Create your own pilgrim to join the others.
  http//www.eduref.org/cgi-bin/printlessons.cgi/Vir
  tual/Lessons/Language_Arts/Literature/LIT0200.html
  
• Describe him or her much as the others were
  described
• Should be in poetic form, not prose.