Canterbury Tales Daily Plans

Daily lesson plans give teaching points and answers for the General Prologue and the tales.

By Rick Reed

Day 1

Assignment to have been completed: Students should have read the General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales. They should also have done the study questions in their Chaucer packets.

Activities:

A. Administer the quiz over the General Prologue.
B. Make the following points regarding GEOFFREY CHAUCER.
- 1. He was a versatile member of the middle class.
- 2. He held a number of government service posts, including diplomat. [Remember that Petrarch also served as a diplomat.]
- 3. He advanced his social position when he married a noblewoman.
- 4. He visited Florence - and may have met Boccaccio at that time.
- 5. He was elected to Parliament.
- 6. His body is buried in Westminster Abbey in Poet’s Corner.
- 7. Because he wrote his influential works in English (what we call Middle English), he is called the “Father of English.” [Dante shares a similar legacy in Italy for establishing the supremacy of the vernacular over Latin as does Francois Rabelais in France and Martin Luther in Germany.]
C. Go over the day’s study questions. The answers I have provided offer the basic information needed to respond to the question. Students’ answers may vary. You may ask the students to offer their answers first or you may simply present this information to them and then give them the balance of the period to work on the next assignment.

You are responsible for reporting the following information drawn from the General Prologue regarding the character printed before your name.

a. Give the character’s name if he/she has one.

b. Explain his/her occupation.

c. List all descriptive details given about the character.

d. Report any comments Chaucer makes about the character.

e. Identify the class - upper, middle, or lower - to which the character belongs.

KNIGHT

a. No name is given.
b. He is a soldier who sometimes fights for his liege but who has also fought for pay (as a mercenary).
c. He loves the virtues of chivalry: truth, honor, liberality (generosity), and courtesy. He is well traveled, having “ridden as far as any man,/both in Christendom and in heathen lands.” He is known for his valor (bravery) everywhere. He had fought his opponents to the death on fifteen separate occasions. Principally, he fights for Christian causes. He wears a stained fustian tunic (a simple garment made of a coarse combination of cotton and flax).
d. Chaucer observes that despite his reputation for bravery, the Knight is prudent (using practical good judgment), meek (both patient and humble), and polite. Chaucer sums up by saying, “He was a true, perfect, gentle knight.”
e. Knights belong to the nobility, that is the upper class.

SQUIRE

a. No name is given.
b. He is an attendant upon a knight and is himself in training to become a knight. [He is squire to his father.]
c. He is both passionate and carefree. He wears his hair fashionably long and curled. Chaucer judges him to be about twenty, of average height, agile, and strong. Like his father he has seen battle, but his motivation is to impress his lady, not to defend the faith (like his father). He wears fashionably colorful and decorative clothing, short with long, wide sleeves. He also loves passionately, further indicating his worldliness. In pace with the popular image he presents, he sings, plays the flute, and composes songs and poems. He also jousts, dances, rides beautifully, draws and writes.
d. Chaucer says, “He was as youthful as the month of May.” He adds that the young man is also “courteous, humble, and serviceable.” “He carved for his father at table.”
e. Like his father he belongs to the upper class.

PRIORESS

a. Her name is Madame Eglantine.
b. She is the head of a priory, that is a convent of nuns.
c. She has a “well-shaped” nose, bright eyes, a small, soft and red mouth, and a broad forehead (indicative of superior intelligence). Chaucer adds that “she was not undersized,” indicating that she was neither short nor skinny. She wears an attractive cloak, a coral rosary [very expensive], and a golden brooch (indicating an interest in worldly possessions). She has the appearance and manner appropriate to her calling. “[Her] smile was modest and sweet.” Chaucer says, “certainly she was very cheerful,/most pleasant, and amiable in bearing.” He adds that she is quite concerned about her image—that others see her as “stately” and “worthy of reverence” as befits her office. Her oath, “By Saint Loy!” demonstrates that she identifies herself with current fashion - as does the Squire. Because St. Loy was associated with courteous behavior, he was quite popular among those who placed great emphasis on appearances. She wears a wimple [a cloth wound around the head framing the face, and drawn into folds beneath the chin, worn by women in medieval times and as part of the habit of certain orders of nuns.] In addition, her table manners are “admirable,” even exaggerated. Chaucer says, “She took much pleasure in proper etiquette,” not exactly what one might expect a nun to concern herself with. She sings well with a nasal quality considered fashionable at the time. She speaks French well and properly; but rather than Parisian French, she speaks the French taught in England.
d. Chaucer says that she is so compassionate that “she would weep if she saw a mouse/caught in a trap and dead or bleeding.” She also weeps if anyone harms one of her pet dogs. She feeds those dogs on “roast meat, or milk and fine bread.” The inscription on her brooch, “Amor vincit omnia,” is a quote from Ovid - the Roman poet of erotic love, NOT from the Bible as one might expect of a nun.
e. Because she ranks high in the ecclesiastical world, she is of the upper class.

MONK

a. No name is given.
b. He is a member of a monastery charged with overseeing the brothers’ outlying properties.
c. Chaucer begins by saying the Monk loves venery. The word can mean “the art of deer hunting” or “the art of making love.” Neither pursuit is appropriate to a man under a vow of poverty. He keeps many fine horses, another irony in a monk. To plainly state his worldliness, Chaucer says that the Monk regards the rules of the founders of monastic orders as old fashioned, preferring “the ways of the modern world.” Indeed, he loves hunting, riding his horse hard in pursuit of his greyhounds. He wears fur cuffs on his habit, an intricate gold pin (like the Prioress’s brooch), and supple boots. He is fat (perhaps because of his fondness for roast goose) but handsome. His eyes protrude from a face that shines as brightly as his bald head.
d. When Chaucer claims to agree with the Monk’s worldly ways, he uses irony to expose the Monk’s irreligious behavior.
e. Like the Prioress, the Monk is a member of the ecclesiastical hierarchy. His ways are those of the upper class, but a monk properly belonged to the lower class.

FRIAR

a. His name is Hubert.
b. A friar is a member of a mendicant order (one that survived by begging). Friars wandered the countryside preaching rather than dwelling apart from the world in a monastery.
c. Chaucer says he is “wanton and merry.” In regard to the former, he “married off many a young woman at his own expense,” indicating that he had arranged marriages for women whom he had impregnated. The fact that he carries lovely trinkets to catch young wives’ attention when he gives them as gifts tells us that he is oblivious to any moral constraints. Further, when he hears confessions, he gives light penances to those who are willing to pay him well. Consequently, he is popular among the middle-class townswomen and landowners. That he is merry comes across clearly when Chaucer tells us that the Friar sings, plays the fiddle, and composes ballads. In addition, Chaucer tells us that he visits taverns and their denizens as frequently as he should visit the poor and sick. He found more profit in dealing with the rich. In fact, he gets a great deal more from his begging than he turns over to his brotherhood. He also got profitably involved in legal decisions. He wears a fine woolen habit on his fine fat figure. He affects a lisp, a fashionable trait of the upper class. He is fair skinned and strong.
d. Chaucer again sarcastically approves the behavior of this Friar who is, in fact, evil.
e. Technically, he belongs to the lower class.

CLERK OF OXFORD

a. Chaucer gives him no name here.
b. A clerk in this case is a scholar, a serious student.
c. He studies logic (indicating that he probably studies the works of Aristotle and the Scholastics). He is skinny - in contrast to the earlier ecclesiastics who were all full-figured. He wears worn out clothing and has no means of income from lands. He prefers learning and books to worldly possessions. He prays sincerely for those who give him money for books and classes. He is quiet, saying only what needs to be said. He loves to discuss morality, enjoying both learning and teaching.
d. Chaucer seems to be saying that this man lives a life more dedicated to higher things than do the ecclesiastics already described.
e. He clearly belongs to the lower class as his poverty attests.

FRANKLIN

a. Chaucer gives him no name here.
b. A franklin is a non-noble landowner, a country gentleman.
c. He has a white beard. He is cheerfully hospitable and generous, a connoisseur and a gourmet. He demands skill and originality from his cook. That he is “lord and master” at court, “often in Parliament,” and a former sheriff and county auditor indicates his stature as a pillar in the community.
d. Chaucer seems to be painting the portrait of a decent man of the secular world.
e. His very title—FRANKLIN—places him in the middle class.

COOK

a. Chaucer gives him no name here.
b. Surely a cook’s job is clear to all.
c. He is employed by the five guildsmen, the HABERDASHER (a dealer in sewing notions and small wares), the CARPENTER, the WEAVER, the DYER (one who dyes cloth for a living), and the TAPESTRY MAKER. He has a fine taste for ale. He is a master of all culinary skills. His specialty is a white sauce. He has an oozing ulcer on his shin.
d. Mentioning the ulcer and the white sauce almost in the same breath seems to be Chaucer’s way of suggesting a less savory origin for the sauce.
e. He belongs to the lower class by virtue of his servitude.

WIFE OF BATH

a. Chaucer gives her no name here.
b. She is exactly what Chaucer says she is, a wife.
c. She is somewhat deaf. She is a talented weaver. In the hierarchy of her community, she ranks at the top, a status she guards jealously. She wears abundant scarves decoratively on her head, red hose (indicative of her “free” life style), and supple new shoes. She has a handsome, ruddy, and bold face. She had gone on numerous pilgrimages, including three visits to Jerusalem. She is gap-toothed (an emblem of a lusty personality). On the pilgrimage she wears a fine wimple, a broad hat, a long overcoat, and sharp spurs. She rides her horse well. She loves company, laughing, and gossiping. She knows the art of love.
d. Chaucer paints a picture of an assertive and life-loving woman.
e. She belongs to the middle class.

PARDONER

a. Chaucer gives him no name here.
b. A pardoner was an ecclesiastical official who sold indulgences - documents signed by the Pope that authorized the forgiveness of sins.
c. He is the Summoner’s friend and companion, both having come straight from Rome. They sing “Come hither, love, to me,” in a loud duet. He has thin, straight blond hair, the locks spread over his shoulders—in the same fashionable manner worn by the Squire. Also fashionably, he does not wear a hood but a cap. He has a thin voice and a smooth face (since it is beardless and always would be). He sells fake relics. He uses flattery and trickery to make fools of the simple country folk. By using his talent for persuasive sermonizing he bilked such people of what little money they had.
d. When Chaucer says, “I expect he was a gelding or a mare,” he is saying that he believes the Pardoner was either a eunuch or a homosexual.
e. He is a high-ranking member of the clergy; he belongs, therefore, to the upper class.

HOST: His name is Harry Bailey, and it is his idea that the pilgrims tell stories to pass the time during their journey. He even proposes that they make a contest of it.

The General Prologue

1. Where and when does the story begin?

The story begins in April at the Tabard Inn in Southwark (a district of London).

What do all the travelers have in common?

Each of the travelers is a pilgrim headed for Canterbury, specifically the shrine there dedicated to St. Thomas a Becket, the martyr. Consequently, we may also infer that each pilgrim is in need of some sort of healing.

What is the “frame story” for The Canterbury Tales?

The “frame story” of The Canterbury Tales is essentially that some thirty pilgrims meet at a tavern, decide to travel to Canterbury together, and - to pass the time - agree to tell two tales each on the outward trip and two more on the return.

2. Make a list of all the pilgrims by occupation. Include names whenever possible.
KNIGHT
SQUIRE
YEOMAN
PRIORESS
NUN
PRIEST 1
PRIEST 2
PRIEST 3
MONK
FRIAR
MERCHANT
CLERK
SERGEANT OF THE LAW
FRANKLIN
HABERDASHER
CARPENTER
WEAVER
DYER
TAPESTRY MAKER
COOK
SHIPMAN
DOCTOR OF MEDICINE
WIFE
PARSON
PLOWMAN
MILLER
MANCIPLE
REEVE
SUMMONER
PARDONER
HOST
3. Define all occupations mentioned - at least those that are unfamiliar to you.
SQUIRE: a young man between 14 and 21 training to become a knight
YEOMAN: an attendant or servant to a nobleman
PRIORESS: the mother superior of a priory (a convent)
MONK: one who lives in a monastery, renouncing the world
FRIAR: a member of a preaching order who earns his living by begging
CLERK: a scholar
SERGEANT OF THE LAW: a lawyer
FRANKLIN: a landowner of the middle class
HABERDASHER: a dealer in sewing materials and small wares
SHIPMAN: the captain of a ship
PARSON: a parish priest
PLOWMAN: a peasant farmer
MILLER: one who grinds grain into meal and flour
MANCIPLE: a steward, a manager (in this case for a law school)
REEVE: an estate manager
SUMMONER: an officer for an ecclesiastical court
PARDONER: a seller of indulgences

Assignment for next class meeting: Read the Knight’s Prologue and the first part of his Tale, pp. 43-89. Prepare assigned questions.

Day 2

Assignment to have been completed: Students should have read the Knight’s Prologue and the first part of his Tale, pp. 43-89. They should also have prepared the assigned questions.

Activities:

A. Administer the quiz over the “Knight’s Tale.”
B. Go over the day’s study questions. The answers I have provided offer the basic information needed to respond to the question. Students’ answers may vary. You may ask the students to offer their answers first or you may simply present this information to them and then give them the balance of the period to work on the next assignment.

The Knight

1. Draw up a list of every detail concerning the Knight’s character: physical, moral, religious, intellectual, and so forth. Be especially careful to list the experiences he has had. You should get the information from the Knight’s description in the General Prologue.

He is a soldier who sometimes fights for his liege but who has also fought for pay (as a mercenary).

He loves the virtues of chivalry: truth, honor, liberality (generosity), and courtesy.

He is well traveled, having “ridden as far as any man,/both in Christendom and in heathen lands”

He is known for his valor (bravery) everywhere.

He had fought his opponents to the death on fifteen separate occasions.

He wears a stained fustian tunic (a simple garment made of a coarse combination of cotton and flax).

Principally, he fights for Christian causes.

Chaucer observes that despite his reputation for bravery, the Knight is prudent (using practical good judgment), meek (both patient and humble), and polite.

Knights belong to the nobility, that is the upper class.

What kind of person is he?

Chaucer sums up by saying, “He was a true, perfect, gentle knight.”

2. The “Knight’s Tale” is a medieval romance. The conventions of that genre include feats of knightly prowess, devotion to a lady, elements of the supernatural, and so forth. Does the Knight’s Tale include these conventions?

Yes, the “Knight’s Tale” meets the conventions of a medieval romance.

It is drawn from the Matter of Greece (the body of myth and history connected to ancient Greece and available to medieval romancers as sources for romances).

The opening war and the agreement by Palamon [PAL - uh - mahn] and Arcite [ARK - uh - teh] to joust for the hand of Emily offer examples of knightly prowess.

The latter also demonstrates devotion to a lady, as does Theseus’ [THEE - see - us] respect for the widows of Thebes and for his wife, Hippolyta [hip - PAHL - ih - tuh].

The responses to the prayers of Palamon, Arcite, and Emily in the separate chapels of their gods presents the supernatural - as does Saturn’s resolution of the plot.

3. The “Knight’s Tale” is filled with anachronisms. [Yes, look it up!] List as many of these anachronisms as you can. Why are they out of place in the setting?

The anachronisms include the titles and treatment of Theseus as a duke in feudal England. He, Palamon, and Arcite are presented as knights rather than as heroes of the mythological age. For example, they joust as do medieval knights.

Queen Hippolyta, though an Amazon warrior queen in Greek mythology, has become the ideal feudal queen, a giver of good advice but still submissive to her husband, a woman who values marriage and sees in it a woman’s traditional role.

The imprisonment of Palamon and Arcite in a dungeon is a medieval, not an ancient Greek, touch.

The temples of Mars, Diana, and Venus appear more like the private chapels of feudal nobility.

Do they mar the effectiveness of the story? Explain your answer.

This is, of course, an OPEN QUESTION.

4. Identify the love triangle in the story. Explain each member’s point of view.

The love triangle has Emily at the apex with Palamon at one point on the base and Arcite on the other. [Draw and label such a triangle on the board.]

Palamon claims Emily as his rightful love because he fell in love with her at first sight and saw her before his cousin Arcite.

Arcite claims Emily as his rightful love claiming that though Palamon was her first, he loved her first.

Emily would prefer to live her life as a virgin. However, if she must marry, she wished to marry the man who loves her most.

With whom do you side? Explain your answer.

This question is definitely OPEN. Encourage students to take sides. Hold a vote for each of the three. Select two people from each side to offer their explanations.

5. Do any of the characters suggest any values relevant to the concepts of love and/or marriage? What values do they express? Are these values similar to or different from those expressed by Petrarch or Boccaccio? Explain your answers.

The relationship between Theseus and Hippolyta begins when Theseus conquers the Amazons. Perhaps Chaucer is suggesting the view that marriage is a conquest, one in which the man overwhelms the woman.

Petrarch’s poetry, especially the Canzoniere, presents love as an elevating but troubling force. Love refines the lover, produces inward reflection, and often involves suffering. Similarly, in The Knight’s Tale, Palamon and Arcite experience love as a transformative and painful power. Upon seeing Emilye, both are immediately captivated and become servants of Love.

Both works therefore portray:

Love as a force beyond rational control.
The lover as suffering and emotionally divided.
Love as capable of ennobling character through endurance and sacrifice.

Like Petrarch, Chaucer presents love as something that tests the individual and reveals inner virtue.

The major difference lies in the goal of love.

For Petrarch:

Love remains largely interior and psychological.
Fulfillment is typically deferred or impossible.
The beloved functions as a spiritual and poetic ideal.
Marriage is not the culmination of the love story.

For Chaucer:

Love is eventually integrated into social order through marriage.
Emilye becomes a wife rather than merely an unattainable object of contemplation.
The narrative resolves itself through political and communal restoration.

Petrarch frequently values the lover’s inward experience more than any social outcome. Chaucer ultimately values social harmony and lawful union more than romantic longing itself.

One might say that Petrarch asks, “What does love do to the soul?” while Chaucer asks, “How can love be brought into harmony with society and providence?”

Like Boccaccio, Chaucer presents:

Love as a powerful earthly passion.
Rivalry between lovers.
Human desire as a major motive for action.
Beauty as a legitimate source of attraction.
Marriage as a realistic social institution.

Neither author condemns romantic love as inherently sinful.

Yet Chaucer alters Boccaccio substantially.

Boccaccio is generally more interested in:

Human passion.
Individual fortune.
Secular experience.
Psychological and romantic drama.

Chaucer elevates the story into a meditation on cosmic order.

For example:

The temples of Venus, Mars, and Diana receive greater emphasis.
Questions of fate and providence become more prominent.
Theseus emerges as a philosophical ruler.
The famous “First Mover” speech near the conclusion frames events within a divinely ordered universe.

In Boccaccio, love often appears as a human adventure. In Chaucer, love becomes one element in a larger moral and cosmic design.

6. Imagine that Chaucer is writing in the twentieth century. Describe the contemporary counterpart to the Knight that you imagine Chaucer would create. Defend your answer.

This is another OPEN QUESTION. However, you may direct the discussion by asking the students how their suggestions meet the following criteria.

Is the counterpart affiliated with military service?

Is he brave and committed but also humble and admirable?

Is he well-traveled?

Does he have a romantic touch?

Assignment for next class meeting: Read the final half of the Knight’s Tale, pp. 89-145.

Day 3

Assignment to have been completed: Students should have read the final half of the Knight’s Tale, pp. 89-145.

Activities:

A. Administer the quiz over the “Knight’s Tale.”
B. Go over the day’s study questions. The answers I have provided offer the basic information needed to respond to the question. Students’ answers may vary. You may ask the students to offer their answers first or you may simply present this information to them and then give them the balance of the period to work on the next assignment.
1. Trace the sequence of events that leads from the prison cell to the tournament.

Palamon and Arcite are imprisoned in Athens after Theseus defeats Creon and Thebes. They share a prison tower from which they can look out over the surrounding area.
From their prison window, both see Emilye (Emelye) walking in the garden below. Each falls instantly in love with her, and their friendship is transformed into a bitter rivalry.
Arcite is released from prison through the intervention of a friend, but he is banished from Athens. Though free, he laments because he cannot see Emilye.
After some time, Arcite returns to Athens in disguise, enters Theseus’s service under the name “Philostrate,” and gradually gains favor at court.
Meanwhile, Palamon escapes from prison with outside assistance and hides in a grove near Athens.
There, by chance, Palamon and Arcite meet in the woods. Each claims the right to pursue Emilye, and they agree to settle the matter through combat.
The next day they engage in a private duel. However, Theseus discovers them before the fight is concluded.
Initially enraged, Theseus condemns them, but after appeals from Emilye and the ladies present, he relents.
Instead of executing them, Theseus devises a formal tournament. Palamon and Arcite are each to return in one year with one hundred knights and compete for Emilye’s hand in a grand judicial combat.
The year passes, preparations are made, temples are built for Venus, Mars, and Diana, and the story culminates in the great tournament between Palamon and Arcite, which will determine who wins Emilye.

In short: shared imprisonment → love at first sight → Arcite’s release and return in disguise → Palamon’s escape → duel in the woods → intervention by Theseus → decree of a formal tournament.

Why does Theseus create a formal tournament rather than allowing the cousins to fight immediately?

In short, Theseus substitutes a regulated public contest for a private duel because a ruler’s duty is to transform disorder into order. The tournament is not merely a delay in the action; it is Chaucer’s way of showing Theseus functioning as the agent of law, civilization, and political authority.

2. In what ways are Palamon and Arcite similar? In what ways do they differ?

The greatest difference between them is actually quite small. Palamon chiefly wants Emilye herself, while Arcite chiefly wants victory and honor in winning her. Yet because the two men are otherwise so alike, this subtle distinction becomes crucial. Arcite wins the tournament but loses Emilye through death; Palamon loses the tournament but ultimately gains Emilye. Their similar circumstances make this ironic reversal all the more powerful.

In short, Palamon and Arcite are alike in birth, status, courage, suffering, love, and devotion to chivalry. Chaucer presents them as near doubles whose rivalry illustrates how love and fortune can turn even the closest companions into opponents.

Which cousin seems motivated more by idealized love? Which by earthly desire?

Palamon is generally understood to be the cousin more motivated by idealized courtly love, while Arcite is more concerned with knightly achievement and honor.

Are the cousins noble heroes, foolish lovers, or both?

Palamon and Arcite are both noble heroes and foolish lovers. Their courage and loyalty make them admirable knights, but their instant, obsessive love for Emilye leads them into irrational rivalry. Chaucer uses this tension to explore how even the noblest people can be driven by passion and blinded by desire.

3. What does Emilye herself want? Is Emilye treated as a person, a prize, or both?

For most of the story, Emilye is treated as the object of the cousins’ rivalry rather than as a person with desires of her own. While Palamon and Arcite fight over her, she would prefer not to be the prize at all.

Yet, as with the other characters, her wishes are only partly fulfilled. The gods do not grant her request to remain unmarried. Instead, after Arcite’s death, she eventually marries Palamon. The outcome reflects one of the tale’s recurring themes: human beings rarely receive exactly what they ask for because their lives are governed by larger forces, whether Fortune, Providence, or the cosmic order described by Theseus at the end of the tale.

4. What qualities make Theseus an effective leader? When does he use mercy, and when does he use force? Does Chaucer present Theseus as an ideal ruler?

Theseus is an effective leader because he combines strength, justice, mercy, and wisdom. More than any other character in The Knight’s Tale, he is able to transform private passions and conflicts into public order, making him the tale’s chief representative of good government and rational authority.

5. What definition of love seems to guide Palamon? What definition of love seems to guide Arcite?

Love is total devotion to a beloved person, a commitment so powerful that it outweighs freedom, comfort, success, and even life itself.

At the same time, Chaucer invites readers to question this ideal. Palamon’s love appears noble and self-sacrificing, but it is also impulsive and highly idealized. Because he falls in love at first sight and hardly knows Emilye, students can profitably debate whether his feelings represent genuine love or a romantic fantasy.

In that sense, Palamon embodies both the glory and the limitations of the courtly-love tradition.

What definition of love seems to guide Arcite?

Arcite wins the battle but loses Emilye through death; Palamon loses the battle but ultimately gains Emilye. Chaucer’s resolution suggests that Arcite’s understanding of love, though noble, is tied too closely to conquest and success, while Palamon’s is more centered on the beloved herself.

How does love resemble a form of imprisonment in the tale?

In The Knight’s Tale, love resembles imprisonment because it captivates the mind and will. Although Palamon and Arcite long for freedom, their passion for Emilye confines them more completely than the prison walls from which the story begins. Love becomes a form of bondage that neither knight can escape.

What evidence suggests that love can make people irrational?

Chaucer suggests that love can make people irrational because it overwhelms reason, distorts priorities, and drives individuals to sacrifice friendship, freedom, safety, and good judgment. Palamon and Arcite remain brave and noble men, but their passion for Emilye repeatedly causes them to act in ways that are impulsive, obsessive, and unreasonable.

This is one of the tale’s central paradoxes: love appears noble and elevating, yet it also has the power to blind otherwise intelligent and honorable people.

6. What role does Fortune play in Arcite’s rise and fall?

Arcite’s story illustrates a medieval view of Fortune as unstable and unpredictable. The “Wheel of Fortune” raises people up only to cast them down again. Human beings may strive for honor, love, and success, but they cannot control the larger forces governing their lives.

Arcite’s rise and fall also support one of the tale’s central themes: human desire is limited by powers greater than ourselves. Arcite possesses courage, skill, and noble qualities, but neither merit nor effort can guarantee happiness. His fate demonstrates the fragility of earthly success and prepares readers for Theseus’s later speech about the necessity of accepting the order of the universe.

How does the ending complicate the idea that virtue is always rewarded?

The ending of The Knight’s Tale complicates the idea that virtue is always rewarded because the characters do not receive outcomes that correspond neatly to their merits.

Arcite deserves success but dies. The ending shows that virtue may be admirable, but happiness and success are not always distributed according to virtue alone.

7. Why does Chaucer include pagan gods in a medieval Christian poem?

Christian medieval scholars generally did not regard the classical gods as real deities. Instead, they often treated them as poetic symbols, moral allegories, or literary conventions. A medieval reader could enjoy a story involving Venus and Mars without viewing it as a challenge to Christianity.

Chaucer uses pagan gods as literary representations of love, war, chastity, fate, and Fortune, but he frames their actions within a broader vision of cosmic order that reflects medieval Christian ideas about providence. The gods are both characters in the story and symbols of the forces that shape human life.

What values are associated with Venus?

Palamon, who sees himself as the true lover of Emelye, prays to Venus. His prayer reveals that Venus represents:

Romantic love
Emotional devotion
Sexual attraction
The longing to possess or be united with the beloved
The suffering that accompanies desire

Palamon does not ask for victory in battle. Instead, he asks simply to win Emelye’s love and marriage. This aligns him with Venus’s sphere, where the highest concern is not power but love itself.

From the medieval viewpoint represented by the Knight, Venus’s power is both natural and dangerous. Love is portrayed as a force capable of inspiring courage and nobility, but also irrationality, obsession, rivalry, and suffering. The cousins’ entire conflict originates in their subjection to Venus’s power when they first see Emelye.

Venus represents the power of love to attract, unite, and perpetuate life, while also subjecting human beings to desire, suffering, and forces beyond their rational control.

What values are associated with Mars?

The Temple of Mars is filled with disturbing images:

War
Bloodshed
Violence
Murder
Conquest
Destruction

Chaucer emphasizes that Mars is not merely the god of noble heroism. He is also the god of the chaos and suffering that war brings.

Within the chivalric world of the tale, Mars is linked to:

Fame
Reputation
Public achievement
Noble competition

A knight seeks glory through deeds of arms, and Mars embodies that aspect of the knightly ideal.

Mars represents courage, strength, martial honor, competition, and victory in battle, but also the violence, instability, and tragic consequences that accompany the pursuit of glory.

What values are associated with Diana?

The desire for chastity is Diana’s defining value.

Diana is also goddess of the hunt. Her temple contains images of:

Forests
Wild animals
Hunting scenes
Moonlit landscapes

These images associate Diana with the natural world and a life removed from the social and political concerns represented by marriage and warfare.

Diana also represents:

Self-discipline
Moderation
Control of desire
Purity of purpose

Her values require mastery over impulses that Venus celebrates.

Diana’s values provide an important corrective to the ideals of both Venus and Mars. Through Emelye’s prayer, Chaucer reminds readers that not everyone shares the lovers’ obsession with romantic fulfillment or the knights’ pursuit of martial glory. Diana represents a life of purity, freedom, and self-governed restraint, a life Emelye would choose if she were free to determine her own future.

Diana represents chastity, independence, self-discipline, purity, and freedom from the claims of both romantic passion and martial ambition.

How do the prayers to the three gods reveal the desires of the three characters?

The three prayers reveal the deepest desires of the characters. Palamon desires love and marriage, Arcite desires honor and victory, and Emelye desires freedom from marriage altogether. By having each character pray to a different deity, Chaucer dramatizes a conflict among the values of love, martial glory, and personal independence, all of which are ultimately subordinated to a higher providential order.

Why are all three prayers answered, yet not in the way each person expects?

The fact that all three prayers are answered, yet not exactly as the petitioners expect, is one of Chaucer’s most important ways of exploring the relationship between human desire and divine providence.

Chaucer is showing that people often misunderstand their own situations because they see only their immediate desires, while a higher wisdom sees the whole pattern.

Arcite thinks victory will bring happiness.

It does not.

Palamon thinks defeat means loss.

It does not.

Emelye thinks marriage will destroy her desired life.

Yet the eventual marriage becomes part of the restored social order.

The gods therefore answer the prayers, but they do so in a way that serves the larger order rather than the petitioners’ limited expectations.

8. What symbolic meaning might the prison have?

Symbolically, the prison represents human limitation, dependence on fate, and the captivity of desire. Although Palamon and Arcite are physically imprisoned, they later become prisoners of love, fortune, and their own ambitions. The prison therefore serves as a metaphor for the larger human condition in which people struggle within constraints they cannot fully escape or understand.

What symbolic meaning might the tournament have?

Symbolically, the tournament represents the struggle of human beings to achieve their desires within an ordered society and under the governance of providence. It transforms private passion into public competition, tests the values of love and martial honor, and demonstrates that while human effort is important, ultimate outcomes are determined by a larger cosmic order beyond human control.

How does Chaucer create sympathy for both Palamon and Arcite?

Chaucer creates sympathy for both Palamon and Arcite by presenting them as equally noble knights who suffer greatly and are overwhelmed by forces beyond their control. Both endure imprisonment, both genuinely love Emelye, and both possess reasonable claims and admirable qualities. By balancing their virtues and misfortunes, Chaucer turns their rivalry into a tragedy in which readers can pity both men rather than simply rooting for one against the other.

9. What is the relationship between order and chaos in the tale?

In The Knight’s Tale, social institutions such as government, law, chivalry, tournaments, and marriage help manage human conflict by transforming private passions into orderly public forms. Theseus prevents Palamon and Arcite’s rivalry from becoming lawless violence by establishing a regulated tournament. Chaucer suggests that civilization depends on institutions that channel human desires and ambitions, although those institutions remain subject to the larger forces of fate and providence.

How do social institutions help manage human conflict?

Is the tale ultimately optimistic or pessimistic about human life?

The Knight’s Tale is ultimately optimistic because it affirms that human suffering and loss exist within a larger providential order that gives life meaning. Although individuals experience disappointment, conflict, and death, Chaucer concludes that harmony, justice, and social stability can emerge from chaos, suggesting a fundamentally ordered and purposeful universe.

What does Chaucer suggest about the limits of human knowledge?

In The Knight’s Tale, Chaucer suggests that human knowledge is limited because people can see only their immediate desires and circumstances, not the larger pattern governing events. The characters repeatedly misunderstand what will bring them happiness, and Arcite’s unexpected death shows how little humans can foresee. Through Theseus’s final speech, Chaucer argues that while people possess some knowledge, they must remain humble before the greater wisdom of providence, which alone comprehends the full meaning of events.

Why do suffering and loss remain important even in a noble society?

Chaucer suggests that suffering and loss remain important even in a noble society because no social order can eliminate mortality, fate, or the limitations of human life. Through imprisonment, frustrated desires, and Arcite’s death, the tale shows that suffering is an unavoidable part of the human condition. At the same time, suffering can promote wisdom, reveal virtue, and contribute to a larger providential order that gives meaning to human experience.

What does the tale imply about justice?

The Knight’s Tale suggests that justice is not simply a matter of people getting what they want or deserve immediately. Human justice, represented by Theseus and the law, helps maintain social order, but ultimate justice belongs to a larger providential order that transcends human understanding. Although suffering and apparent unfairness remain, Chaucer implies that events ultimately contribute to a meaningful and harmonious design that human beings can only partially comprehend.

Is perfect happiness possible in this world?

The Knight’s Tale suggests that perfect happiness is not possible in this world because human beings are subject to change, conflicting desires, fortune, and death. Even noble and successful characters experience loss and disappointment. However, Chaucer is not pessimistic; he argues that while perfect happiness is unattainable, people can still find meaningful and honorable lives by accepting their limitations and participating in a larger providential order.

Assignment for next class meeting: Read the Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale. Prepare assigned study questions.

Day 4

Assignment to have been completed: Students should have read the Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale. Prepare assigned study questions.

Activities:

A. Administer the quiz over the “Wife’s Tale.”
B. Go over the day’s study questions. The answers I have provided offer the basic information needed to respond to the question. Students’ answers may vary. You may ask the students to offer their answers first or you may simply present this information to them and then give them the balance of the period to work on the next assignment.

The Wife of Bath

1. Draw up a list of every detail concerning the Wife’s character: physical, marital, moral, intellectual, social, and so forth.

From the “General Prologue” we learn the following. She is somewhat deaf. She is a talented weaver. In the hierarchy of her community, she ranks at the top, a status she guards jealously.

She has a handsome, ruddy, and bold face.

She had gone on numerous pilgrimages, including three visits to Jerusalem.

On the pilgrimage she wears a fine wimple, a broad hat, a long overcoat, and sharp spurs. She rides her horse well. She loves company, laughing, and gossiping.

From her own prologue, we learn that her name is Alice (197) or Alison (219).

She first married at twelve and has had five husbands since then (183).

What kind of person is she?

In short, the Wife is well educated as her knowledge of the Bible, other writings, and the arts of rhetoric and argument indicates. She is morally audacious as her use of Scripture to justify her multiple marriages, unorthodox attitudes toward the relationship between husbands and wives, and her admission to deceitfulness and infidelity all demonstrate.

She is both lecherous, hardy, and stubborn (211).

She hates any man who tells her faults (213).

The following details support these assertions.

She accurately observes that as a widow she has a right to remarry: “it is without any taint of bigamy.” She uses passages from the Bible to defend her marital history. First, in defense of marriage itself, she reminds us that “God bade/us expressly to increase and multiply.” She points to Solomon who had 700 wives and 300 concubines as well as to Abraham and Jacob who also had more than one wife. She refers to St. Paul when she says, “He says it’s no sin to be married;/it is better to marry than to burn.” She sums up her theological arguments by saying that Christ “spoke to them that wished to live perfectly:/and by your leave, my lords, that isn’t me.”

She next argues from nature, observing that the reproductive organs exist to be used.

She is sexually assertive. She says,

I’ll have a husband—I won’t make it difficult —
who shall be both my debtor and my slave,
and have his trouble
in the flesh while I’m his wife.
All through my life I have power
over his own body, and not he.

Her first three husbands were “good, and rich, and old” and “had given [her] their land and their treasure.” Yet, because they loved her despite her lustful appetites and abusive treatment, she “didn’t prize their love.” She states as a proverb, “A wise woman will concentrate on getting/that love which she doesn’t possess;/but since I had them wholly in my hand,/and since they had given me all their land,/why should I take pains to please them,/unless it should be for my own profit and pleasure?” [In these words, she reveals herself to be like too many husbands in history.] Indeed, she argued with and scolded them most of the time.

She declares that women lie more effectively than do men. Then she confesses that she kept her first three husbands under control by accusing them of such ill treatment as stinginess, coldness, infidelity, drunkenness, unfounded jealousy, and constant criticism of females in general. She explains that she insisted on her husbands’ wealth in exchange for sex. [Note, however, that this is not prostitution since she is married to these men.]

She confesses that she “could complain, though [she] was the guilty one;/else many time [she] would have been ruined./Whoever comes first to the mill, grinds first;/[she] complained first, and so [their] fight was ended.” (201) Still, she claims that when she accused one of the old men of infidelity, he would take it as a sign of her love for him.

She believes that God gave women’s nature “deceit, weeping,/and spinning, as long as they live.” (201) She, therefore, takes some pride in the fact “I got the better of them in every case,/by trick, or force, or by some kind of method.” (201)

Her motto seems to be “profit whoever may, for all is for sale.” (201) Such a view reflects not only her unorthodox feminism but also the views of rising capitalism.

When one of her husbands would chastise her, she would reply that he should practice the patience he preached and use the superior gift of reason that men claim over women.

When she was young, she was a beauty and a carouser [“full of wantonness” (203)].

Because her fourth husband cheated on her, she flirted with other men to make “him fry in his own grease/for anger and pure jealousy” (205).

She loved her fifth husband most because “he was so cool in his love” (205). She asserts that all women want what they are told they cannot have. “Forbid us a thing, and we desire it;/press it upon us, and then we will flee.” (205)

She learned her attitudes toward and treatment of men from her mother (209).

She fell in love with Jankin, her fifth husband, at her fourth husband’s funeral, attracted by his legs, despite the fact that he was twenty and she forty (209).

Her reference to her gapped teeth seems like a claim that her lustiness is her destiny.

She regrets that her infatuation with Jankin led her to give over all her property to him. Later, he hit her with a book he threw, causing her to go deaf in one ear (211). She then manipulates him into giving control back over to her when she pretends that he has nearly killed her (219). In all fairness, however, she thereafter treated him with all kindness (219).

Why is she going to the shrine at Canterbury?

She is going to Canterbury - perhaps - to have her hearing healed. (Remember that Jankin deafened her in one ear when he threw his book at her.) However, it is highly likely that she is actually going on vacation.

How does she compare to Durant’s description of the “Renaissance Woman”?

This is an OPEN QUESTION. Nevertheless, you should get students to note her intelligence as evidenced in her knowledge of both the Bible and classical history; her independence, evidenced by nearly everything she says, and her self-expression, evidenced by the fact that her prologue - about herself - is five times as long as the tale she tells.

2. The Wife’s “Prologue” is five times longer than her “Tale.” What does this fact reveal about her? Is this circumstance consistent with her personality as otherwise described?

She is long-winded and enjoys talking about herself.

Such behavior seems quite consistent with her bold and assertive nature.

3. The Wife’s “Tale” is a romance - specifically, an Arthurian romance. What are the conventions of that genre?

The conventions of a medieval (Arthurian) romance include an element of magic, a quest (either for adventure or truth), self-sacrificing acts of nobility, and an idealized regard for women.

Is this an appropriate genre to the Wife’s character?

Since the women in romances inspire absolute devotion from their men, this genre seems made for her.

4. What is the theme of the Wife’s “Tale”?

The theme is that what every woman wants is control over herself and her relationship with her man.

Why and how is it appropriate to her life?

Since this is also the theme of the Wife’s life, it is most appropriate.

Do you agree or disagree with her views?

The final question is OPEN. Encourage students to speak honestly, but require them to use concrete details from the story to support their views.

5. Imagine that Chaucer is writing in the twentieth century. Describe the contemporary counterpart to the Wife of Bath that you imagine Chaucer would create. Defend your answer.

This is another OPEN QUESTION. However, you may direct the discussion by asking the students how their suggestions meet the following criteria.

She must be of the upper middle class.

She must be assertive and morally audacious.

She must value marriage above infidelity.

Assignment for next class meeting: Read the Prioress’s Prologue and Tale as well as the Nun’s Priest’s Tale. Prepare assigned study questions.

Day 5

Assignment to have been completed: Students should have read the Prioress’s Prologue and Tale as well as the Nun’s Priest’s Tale. They should also have prepared assigned study questions.

Activities:

A. Administer the quiz over the “Prioress’s Tale” and the “Nun’s Priest’s Tale.”
B. Go over the day’s study questions.

The Prioress

1. Draw up a list of every detail concerning the Prioress’s character: physical, religious, intellectual, social, and so forth.

Her name is Madame Eglantine, the head of a priory, a convent of nuns.

She has a “well-shaped” nose, bright eyes, a small, soft and red mouth, and a broad forehead (indicative of superior intelligence). Chaucer adds that “she was not undersized,” indicating that she was neither short nor skinny. She wears an attractive cloak, a coral rosary [very expensive], and a golden brooch (indicating an interest in worldly possessions). She wears a wimple [a cloth wound around the head framing the face, and drawn into folds beneath the chin, worn by women in medieval times and as part of the habit of certain orders of nuns.]

She sings well with a nasal quality considered fashionable at the time. She speaks French well and properly; but rather than Parisian French, she speaks the French taught in England.

She has the appearance and manner appropriate to her calling. “[Her] smile was modest and sweet.” Chaucer says, “certainly she was very cheerful,/most pleasant, and amiable in bearing.” He adds that she is quite concerned about her image - that others see her as “stately” and “worthy of reverence” as befits her office.

Her oath, “By Saint Loy!” demonstrates that she identifies herself with current fashion - as does the Squire. Because St. Loy was associated with courteous behavior, he was quite popular among those who placed great emphasis on appearances. In addition, her table manners are “admirable,” even exaggerated. Chaucer says, “She took much pleasure in proper etiquette,” not exactly what one might expect a nun to concern herself with.

Chaucer says that she is so compassionate that “she would weep if she saw a mouse/caught in a trap and dead or bleeding.” She also weeps if anyone harms one of her pet dogs. She feeds those dogs on “roast meat, or milk and fine bread.”

The inscription on her brooch, “Amor vincit omnia,” is a quote from Ovid - the Roman poet of erotic love, NOT from the Bible as one might expect of a nun.

Because she ranks high in the ecclesiastical world, she is of the upper class.

What kind of person is she? How does she compare to Durant’s description of the “Renaissance Woman”?

She is well educated and well mannered. She also works hard on her public image. She especially emphasizes her refinement and sensitivity to suffering or pain. She also prizes worldly things.

Her independence, education, and image-consciousness all point favorably toward a favorable comparison with Durant’s Renaissance woman.

Why is she going to the shrine at Canterbury?

2. “The Prioress’s Tale” is a graphically violent saint’s tale. How does the tone of the tale contrast with the image the Prioress attempts to project?

The grisly details of the boy’s murder and the squalor of the Jewish ghetto run counter to the compassionate sensitivities she affects in comparison to her reaction to a mouse caught in a trap. Her treatment of her pet dogs contrasts with her description of the treatment of the “guilty” Jews. Her tale’s tone reveals the true personality behind the image through the use of irony.

3. How is contrast used to give this short story power?

1. The Innocent Child vs. the Murderous Adults

The central contrast is between the young schoolboy and his killers.

The boy is presented as innocent, devout, trusting, and cheerful.
His murderers are depicted as consumed by malice and influenced by Satan.

The gulf between the child’s purity and the brutality of his death intensifies the horror of the crime. Because the victim is so defenseless, readers experience both pity and outrage more strongly.

2. Physical Weakness vs. Spiritual Strength

The boy appears powerless:

He is young.
He is poor.
He is alone.

Yet spiritually he proves immensely powerful.

He faithfully sings the hymn Alma Redemptoris Mater.
Even after his throat is cut, he miraculously continues singing.
His witness ultimately exposes the crime and glorifies the Virgin Mary.

This contrast reinforces a recurring medieval Christian theme: God’s power is perfected through the weak.

3. Earthly Death vs. Heavenly Life

The tale constantly juxtaposes death and life.

The child suffers a violent earthly death.
Yet his soul is portrayed as entering eternal blessedness.
His corpse appears dead, but his miraculous singing signifies divine life transcending physical death.

This paradox shifts readers’ attention from temporal tragedy to eternal reward.

4. Human Cruelty vs. Divine Mercy

The murder reveals profound human wickedness.

At the same time:

The Virgin Mary protects the child.
The miracle preserves his voice.
Heaven ultimately reveals the truth.

The more extreme the cruelty becomes, the more dramatic God’s intervention appears. The contrast magnifies the tale’s devotional message.

5. Silence vs. Song

Song functions symbolically throughout the tale.

The murderers seek silence by killing the boy.
Instead, his singing becomes miraculously louder and more significant.
The attempt to suppress praise of Mary leads to its greater proclamation.

This irony is one of the tale’s most powerful structural contrasts: violence cannot silence divine truth.

6. The Prioress’s Gentleness vs. the Tale’s Violence

A particularly important contrast exists outside the story itself.

In the General Prologue, the Prioress is portrayed as:

refined,
sentimental,
courteous,
tender-hearted.

Readers therefore may expect a gentle, comforting tale. Instead they hear a story involving conspiracy, murder, and public execution.

This contrast between narrator and narrative creates a degree of tension and complexity. The apparent softness of the teller stands beside the harshness of the tale she chooses to tell.

7. Poverty vs. Spiritual Richness

The boy’s mother is poor and socially insignificant.

Yet she possesses:

deep faith,
devotion to Mary,
spiritual dignity.

Chaucer repeatedly contrasts worldly status with spiritual value, suggesting that God’s favor does not depend on social position.

4. What intolerant attitude of late medieval English Christianity does the character of the Prioress herself reveal?

As indicated in the previous question’s answer, the Prioress is intolerant of Jews.

Does Chaucer seem to approve or to disapprove of the Prioress? Of her attitudes as presented in the tale?

The question is OPEN. However, if the students begin to get the idea that Chaucer himself must have been anti-Semitic, remind them that he portrayed the Prioress through irony in the “General Prologue” creating a character whose preference for appearances over substance makes her a character of whom we should be suspicious. It is unlikely that Chaucer would put his truest feelings in the mouth of a basically corrupt character.

5. Imagine that Chaucer is writing in the twentieth century. Describe the contemporary counterpart to the Prioress that you imagine Chaucer would create. Defend your answer.

This is another OPEN QUESTION. However, you may direct the discussion by asking the students how their suggestions meet the following criteria.

She is well educated but not necessarily sophisticated.

She pursues an essentially traditional female occupation.

She is highly interested in appearances.

The Nun’s Priest

1. “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale” is a beast fable. In this genre animals are used to represent human types or personality traits. What personality type does Chanticleer represent?

CHANTICLEER is the self-important person in a role of minor authority, filled with half-baked learning and great vanity, subject to flattery and quite probably hen-pecked.

What personality type does Lady Pertelote (Partlet) represent?

LADY PERTELOTE is the argumentative wife who is also vulnerable to flattery dispensed by her husband - especially if she cannot understand it.

What personality type does Russel (the fox) represent?

DAN RUSSEL is the sly flatterer.

2. How does Chaucer achieve humor - if, indeed, he does - in this tale?

This is an OPEN QUESTION. However, you should draw the students’ attention to the following points if they do not mention them.

Despite the philosophical, theological, and historical references used by both Chanticleer and Pertelote, they are nonetheless chickens who also refer to feasting on worms and crowing.

The citations of classical literature are frequently confused or simply wrong.

The vain rooster’s easy susceptibility to the fox’s flattery.

The chase (somewhat like that in the story of the Gingerbread Boy).

3. What values does the tale seem to favor?

If the Nun’s Priest’s story is at least partially about marriage, then one of the values is affection that a husband should show for his wife even after an argument - perhaps, especially after an argument.

If the story is more general, it moralizes against the stupidity of vanity and the peril that lies in listening to flattery.

What is the theme?

The theme, then, is most like those of Aesop’s fables. In this case, we might say “Never listen to flattery” or “Beware of empty compliments.”

4. How does the situation in the life of the Nun’s Priest parallel that of Chanticleer?

Like Chanticleer, the nun’s priest finds himself in a minority, one of three males surrounded by a community of females. Perhaps he feels somewhat “hen-pecked” himself, especially in light of the Prioress’s strong personality.

Assignment for next class meeting: Read the Franklin’s Tale. Review the sketch of the Franklin in the General Prologue. Prepare assigned study questions.

Day 6

Assignment to have been completed: Students should have read the Franklin’s Tale. Review the sketch of the Franklin in the General Prologue. Prepare assigned study questions.

Activities:

A. Administer the quiz over the “Franklin’s Tale.”
B. Go over the day’s study questions. The answers I have provided offer the basic information needed to respond to the question. Students’ answers may vary. You may ask the students to offer their answers first or you may simply present this information to them and then give them the balance of the period to work on the next assignment.

The Franklin

1. Refer to the “General Prologue” to analyze the Franklin’s character.

A franklin is a non-noble landowner, a country gentleman.

He has a white beard.

He is cheerfully hospitable and generous, a connoisseur and a gourmet. He demands skill and originality from his cook.

That he is “lord and master” at court, “often in Parliament,” and a former sheriff and county auditor indicates his stature as a pillar in the community.

Chaucer seems to be painting the portrait of a decent man of the middle class in the secular world.

Is the romance genre appropriate to him? Why or why not?

The genre of romance does seem appropriate to the Franklin because such stories served quite frequently as entertainment in the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance periods. Such a convivial fellow as the Franklin would surely have heard such stories often.

Given the theme of equality in marriage, we may - however - see such a story as inappropriate to a man of the Franklin’s time.

2. Identify the love triangle in the story. What are the strengths and weaknesses in each member’s character?

The three members of the love triangle are ARVERAGUS, DORIGEN, and AURELIUS.

ARVERAGUS: He is a noble knight somewhat like the Knight among Chaucer’s pilgrims. He extends his code of honor to his marriage, a relationship based on mutual respect. He gives Dorigen the freedom to make her own decisions.

On the other hand, he leaves his new bride soon after the wedding (though it is to seek new wealth for both of them). Moreover, rather than speaking to Aurelius himself he places Dorigen in the unpleasant situation of honoring a promise that she never intended to be taken seriously.

DORIGEN: She is perfectly faithful to her husband. Her friends must coax her to even take a walk (in stark contrast to the behavior of the Wife of Bath). She feels sympathy for anyone who feels despondent.

On the other hand, in her efforts to raise Aurelius’ spirits, she makes a promise, one that a young man as infatuated as Aurelius would most surely take seriously. From his point of view, she offered herself to him if he would accept a challenging quest.

AURELIUS: He is a pleasant and handsome young man who sincerely loves Dorigen. He is willing to impoverish himself to gain her love (much as Federigo does for love of Monna Giovanna).

On the other hand, he resorts to an illusionist to accomplish his quest. He also knows that she is a married woman.

3. What late medieval English values relevant to love and marriage are demonstrated through the tale?

The agreement between Arveragus and Dorigen suggests an attitude of equality and respect. Arveragus defers to Dorigen in the question of dealing with Aurelius. However, he does seem to be motivated more by dedication to a code of honor than to marital love.

4. Who is the most generous of the three principal characters? The most honorable? The most noble?

This is most certainly an OPEN QUESTION. In fact, it has no final answer. However, try the following. Take a vote among the students. Record on the board the number who favor Arveragus, the number who favor Dorigen, and the number who favor Aurelius. (The illusionist is NOT an option.) Ask at least two students from each group to defend his/her answer by citing specific details from the story and by offering thorough explanations of the interpretation of those details.

Remind them, too, that this is one of the essay questions they may choose to write over our Chaucer readings.

Assignment for next class meeting: Read the Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale. Do assigned questions.

Day 7

Assignment to have been completed: Students should have read the Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale. They should also have done the assigned questions.

Activities:

A. Administer the quiz over the “Pardoner’s Tale.”
B. Go over the day’s study questions. The answers I have provided offer the basic information needed to respond to the question. Students’ answers may vary. You may ask the students to offer their answers first or you may simply present this information to them and then give them the balance of the period to work on the next assignment.

The Pardoner

1. Draw up a list of every detail concerning the Pardoner’s character: physical, moral, religious, intellectual, and so forth. (You should refer to both the “General Prologue” and the Pardoner’s “Prologue.”)

The Pardoner is a despicable abuser of the faith of simple people who have been raised to believe virtually anyone who has an education, especially those serving the Church. In his own way he presents another false front since Chaucer broadly hints that the man is probably homosexual.

He is the Summoner’s friend and companion, both having come straight from Rome. They sing “Come hither, love, to me,” in a loud duet. He has a thin voice and a smooth face (since it is beardless and always would be).

He has thin, straight blond hair, the locks spread over his shoulders in the same fashionable manner worn by the Squire. Also fashionably, he does not wear a hood but a cap.

He sells fake relics. He uses flattery and trickery to make fools of the simple country folk. By using his talent for sermonizing most persuasively, he bilks such people of what little money they have. When Chaucer says, “I expect he was a gelding or a mare,” he is saying that he believes the Pardoner was either a eunuch or a homosexual. He is a high-ranking member of the clergy; he belongs, therefore, to the upper class.

Why is he going to the shrine at Canterbury?

If the Pardoner is a eunuch, that may be his motivation for going to the shrine for healing.

How does he compare to Durant’s description of the “Renaissance Man”?

The Pardoner certainly possesses the moral audacity of Durant’s Renaissance Man, but he does not seem in any way admirable.

What kind of person is he?

He is foremost a conman. His religious hypocrisy, his eloquence, and his self-confidence all point to that label.

2. The “Pardoner’s Tale” is an exemplum, a short story used in a medieval sermon to demonstrate a moral. What is the moral?

A moral is a lesson or principle taught in a story. The moral of the “Pardoner’s Tale” is that the love of money is the root of all evil.

Is the moral appropriate or ironic in relation to the Pardoner’s character?

Since the Pardoner is himself motivated solely by his love of money, not by any concern for the spiritual welfare of his victim, the moral is clearly ironic.

3. Cite all examples of irony in the “Pardoner’s Tale,” including any that can be drawn by relating the tale to the Pardoner’s “Prologue.”

When the pilgrims ask for a moral tale, the Pardoner delivers a sermon that mocks morality.

Though the tale mocks morality, it is based on a valid moral principle.

The Pardoner takes Radix malorum est cupiditas (“The love of money is the root of all evil.”), though his sole motive is avarice.

While the Pardoner preaches against desire for money, he appeals to his listeners’ greed.

While the Pardoner preaches against the evils of money, his sermons serve to win him money.

While the Pardoner sins through the hypocrisy of his sermon, he brings others to genuine repentance.

The Pardoner’s tale is a candid admission of his own guilt.

Though the Pardoner’s peroration condemns gluttony, drink, and gambling, he enjoys all these vices himself.

The three ruffians in his exemplum seek to kill Death but are indeed led by Death to their own demise.

The immoral Pardoner tells a truly moral tale. [This fact may be used to recall the story of Giannotto and Abraham in Boccaccio’s Decameron. Like Boccaccio, Chaucer seems to indicate that the institution of the Church does good despite the corruption of its officers.]

How effective is Chaucer’s use of irony in developing the Pardoner’s character and in telling his tale?

The effectiveness of Chaucer’s use of irony is a matter of taste. It is an OPEN QUESTION.

4. What is the significance of the mysterious old man the three rogues encounter?

The Old Man is probably Death. His directions lead the three to their deaths. The irony works only from the perspective of the three rogues who are led by the one whom they seek.

However, he could also be the Wandering Jew. According to a medieval legend, on His way to be crucified Christ stumbled into the doorway of a Jewish merchant. When Christ asked the man for a drink of water, he replied by saying, “No. Move on.” Christ then said to the merchant, “Yea, I shall move on, but ye shall tarry until I return.” Since the Second Coming has not yet occurred, logic dictates that the merchant still remains, undying but getting older. Chaucer may be using the version of that legend in which the Jew has the power to exchange his age for another’s youth.

What ironies are implicit in his character?

At any rate, the irony in the character of the Wandering Jew is that while Christians seek the return of Christ so that their eternal lives may begin, the Wandering Jew seeks the return of Christ so that he may be released from life.

5. What is Chaucer’s attitude toward high officials of the Church as reflected in “The Pardoner’s Tale”?

As did Boccaccio in the story of Abraham and Giannotto, Chaucer exposes the corruption of high officials of the Church without condemning the essential moral principles of the Church.

6. Imagine that Chaucer is writing in the twentieth century. Describe the contemporary counterpart to the Pardoner that you imagine Chaucer would create. Defend your answer.

This is another OPEN QUESTION. However, you may direct the discussion by asking the students how their suggestions meet the following criteria.

He must be a clergyman or pursue some other profession that generally inspires trust in the common man.

He must be a hypocrite.

Assignment for class meeting: Work on your Chaucer essay, due AT THE BEGINNING OF THE PERIOD on Monday, February 10.

Day 11

Assignment to have been completed: Students should have completed work on their Chaucer essays.

Activities:

A. Collect Chaucer essays AT THE BEGINNING OF THE PERIOD.
B. Distribute the Chaucer tests and answer sheets.
C. Arrange the art prints you will find in the fourth closet from the door in alphabetical order according to the tags on them.
D. Call two or three students at a time to come with their answer sheets to observe the pictures. Space them far enough apart that they cannot see each other’s answer sheets. They do not have to begin with picture A. Keep them moving so that everyone in the class may have a turn. [Five minutes should be plenty of time for any one student.]
E. Allow the students the entire period to take the test.
F. Paper-clip the answer sheets and place them with the essays you collected earlier. Organize the tests into numerical order and put them away.

Assignment for next class meeting: Read Act I of Antony and Cleopatra. Prepare the assigned study questions.