Canterbury tales/Chaucer
About this set
Created by:
katemarxkors on January 5, 2012
Subjects:
Description:
WoB = wife of bath's tale
PT = pardoner's tale
characters from sparknotes
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62 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 True or False: Chaucer was young when he wrote Canterbury tales | false |
| squire | Chaucer's place in society |
| background of the tales | never completed; bold, but settle |
| Military group | knight, squire and yeoman. they are all trained in fighting, fulfill their duties and are professionals |
| Religious group 1 | Nun, second nun and nun's priest. superficial, hypocritical, materialistic frauds |
| religious group 2 | monk and friar. greedy, try to appear rich, corrupt, contradictions (have philosophies that contradict the church, religion ex. they creep on girls and get drunk) |
| pair 1 | merchant and clerk. they are dishonest about intentions, professionals in their work, in debt, good at pretending to be rich |
| pair 2 | man of law and Franklin. honest, wealthy without much effort, successful, spare no expense, Franklin shares his money with everyone |
| group: Guildmen | haberdasher, carpenter, weaver, dyer, tapestry maker, and cook. hard workers, poor |
| pair 3 | ship man and physician. skipper "left no prisoners," the doctor was deceiving, intelligent, never worked for free, in control of life and death and had no sympathy. |
| single | wife of bath. manipulated men (5 husbands), more conifden thatn other women of her time, promiscuous, all her husbands died, hypocrite! |
| pair 4 :the brothers | parson and plowman. both true of men of god, honest, hardworking, generous, never stole, never complained, had high morals |
| group | miller, manciple and reeve. unkind, scammed people, big (physically and in importance), people feared them, evil. |
| religious 3: pair | summoner and pardoner. all around bad men, supposed to be religious, but cared more about money |
| not placed socially | chaucer. unbias, honest |
| What is the wife of bath's impression of marriage as suggested in the Prologue to her tale? | husbands should be debtors and slaves (inferior) |
| What is the knight's crime? Eplain the circumstances of his punishments. (WoB) | He raped a maiden and they were going to behead him. His alternative is to discover what women truly desire in 1 year. |
| What final choice does the old woman offer the knight at the end of the tale? What is the knight's response?(WoB) | He can have a beautiful, unfaithful wife, or an ugly, loyal one. He lets her decide which gives her the choice that all women desire. |
| What is ironic about the knight's punishment?(WoB) | He was being punished because he had taken away a woman's choice (rape), but the punishment taught he to give them that choice. |
| How does the knight's response to the choice given him by the old woman show that he learned his lesson about what women want?(WoB) | He gave the woman the choice to be beautiful or loyal and in giving the choice, he shows that he has learned his lesson. |
| Explain 2 examples of the conclusion that the Wife of Bath is a mass of contradictions. Does she represent a progressive woman for Chaucer's time? Why or why not?(WoB) | She consider herself an expert on marriage, yet she has 5 failed marriages. The story she tells is about how you should give men chances, but she never gave chances to her husbands (they all died... she might have killed them). She is progressive because she presented new ideas on a woman's place in society. |
| How does the Pardoner describe his own character and morals in the Prologue to his tale? PT | He admits to being a greedy fraud. He tells the audience that his relics are fakes, yet he stills sells them to people. H |
| Who is the "privy thief"? Who describes him as such? PT | Death is the privy thief according to the tavern knave |
| what do the 3 rioters intend to do when they leave the tavern? PT | They are going to find and killed death. |
| What might the old symbolize or represent? What are his lines (113-143) about? PT | The old man symbolizes death itself and also the mindset people had in the middle ages, waiting for Heaven, but won't kill themselves because that would send them to Hell |
| Who is the old man's "Mother"? What does the old man want from her? PT | Death, he wants his "mother" to let him in, to let him die. |
| What do the 3 rioters want from the old man? What does he tell them? PT | They want directions to Death and he tells them to go under the tree and they'll find him. |
| What causes the rioters to abandon their search for Death? PT | They find a pile of gold, and their plan to take it home takes priority over their search for death. |
| What happens to the rioters? What do they plan? PT | They need food and drink so the youngest of them is sent to get some. The 2 left to guard the money plan to kill him when he returns and the youngest plans to poison the others. |
| In lines 295-317, what is the Pardoner talking about? Why does he become angry? Which pilgrim diffuses the situation? How? PT | The Pardoner is selling indulgences and he becomes angry when the host doesn't want to buy one. The knight tells them to cool down and enjoy the day. |
| Explain the irony in the fact that the Pardoner preaches a story with this particular moral. PT | The Pardoner tells a story about how greed will ruin you when he is extremely greedy himself. He finishes the story by selling them indulgences! |
| Is the Pardoner truly evil, simply drunk or so used to cheating that he does it automatically? PT | Open ended... *my answer- I think he does it automatically because that's all he's ever done to make a living and he thinks less of it now. |
| Chaucer's birth year | 1345 |
| Chaucer's wife | Phillipa |
| Chaucer's death year | 1400 |
| Tales written (time) | 1387- 1400 |
| the narrator | A character called Geoffrey Chaucer. We should be wary of accepting his words and opinions as Chaucer's own. In the General Prologue, the narrator presents himself as a gregarious and naïve character. Later on, the Host accuses him of being silent and sullen. The narrator writes down his impressions of the pilgrims from memory. What he chooses to remember about the characters tells us as much about the narrator's own prejudices as it does about the characters themselves. |
| the knight | The first pilgrim Chaucer describes in the General Prologue and the teller of the first tale. The Knight represents the ideal of a medieval Christian man-at-arms. He has participated in no less than 15 of the great crusades of his era. Brave, experienced, and prudent, the narrator greatly admires him. |
| wife of bath | A seamstress by occupation and an "expert on marriage." The Wife of Bath has been married five times and had many other affairs in her youth, making her well practiced in the art of love. She presents herself as someone who loves marriage and sex, but, from what we see of her, she also takes pleasure in rich attire, talking, and arguing. She is deaf in one ear and has a gap between her front teeth, which was considered attractive in Chaucer's time. She has traveled on pilgrimages to Jerusalem three times and elsewhere in Europe as well. Bath is an English town on the Avon River, not the name of this woman's husband. |
| the pardoner | A charlatan, who "officially" forgives people's sins for a price. Pardoners granted papal indulgences—reprieves from penance in exchange for charitable donations to the Church. Many pardoners, including this one, collected profits for themselves. Chaucer's Pardoner excels in fraud, carrying a bag full of fake relics. For example, he claims to have the veil of the Virgin Mary. The Pardoner has long, greasy, yellow hair and is beardless. These characteristics were associated with shiftiness and gender ambiguity in Chaucer's time. The Pardoner also has a gift for singing and preaching whenever he finds himself inside a church. |
| miller | Stout and brawny, with a wart on his nose and a big mouth, both literally and figuratively. He threatens the Host's notion of propriety when he drunkenly insists on telling the second tale. Indeed, the Miller seems to enjoy overturning all conventions: He ruins the Host's carefully planned storytelling order, he rips doors off hinges, and he tells a tale that is somewhat blasphemous, ridiculing religious and scholarly clerks, carpenters, and women. |
| Nun | A nun who heads a convent. Described as modest and quiet, this Prioress aspires to have exquisite taste. Her table manners are dainty, she knows French (though not the French of the court), she dresses well, and she is charitable and compassionate. |
| monk | A monk given to corporeal pleasures. Most monks of the Middle Ages lived in monasteries according to the Rule of Saint Benedict, which demanded that they devote their lives to "work and prayer." This Monk cares little for the Rule; his devotion is to hunting and eating. He is large, loud, and well clad in hunting boots and furs. |
| friar | An example of the unscrupulous friars of Chaucer's time. Roaming priests with no ties to a monastery, friars were great objects of criticism in Chaucer's time. Always ready to befriend young women or rich men who might need his services, the friar actively administers the sacraments in his town, especially those of marriage and confession. However, Chaucer's worldly Friar has taken to accepting bribes. |
| summoner | An official who brings persons accused of violating Church law to ecclesiastical court. This Summoner is a lecherous man whose face is scarred by leprosy. He gets drunk frequently, is irritable, and is not particularly qualified for his position. He spouts the few words of Latin he knows in an attempt to sound educated. |
| host | The leader of the group. The Host is large, loud, and merry, though he possesses a quick temper. He mediates and facilitates the flow of the pilgrims' tales. His title of "host" may be a pun, suggesting both an innkeeper and the Eucharist, or Holy Host. |
| parson | The only devout churchman in the company. The Parson lives in poverty but is rich in holy thoughts and deeds. The pastor of a sizable town, he preaches the Gospel and makes sure to practice what he preaches. He's everything that the Monk, Friar, and Pardoner aren't. |
| squire | The Knight's son and apprentice. The Squire is curly-haired, youthfully handsome, and loves dancing and courting. |
| clerk | A poor student of philosophy. Having spent his money on books and learning rather than on fine clothes, the clerk is threadbare and wan. He speaks little, but when he does, his words are wise and full of moral virtue. |
| man of law | A successful lawyer commissioned by the king. He upholds justice in matters large and small and knows every statute of England's law by heart. |
| manciple | A clever fellow. A manciple was in charge of getting provisions for a college or court. Despite his lack of education, the Manciple is smarter than the 30 lawyers he feeds. |
| merchant | A trader in furs and cloth, mostly from Flanders. The merchant is part of a powerful and wealthy class in Chaucer's society. |
| skipper | A well-traveled and well-tanned veteran sailor. The Shipman has seen every bay and river in England, as well as exotic ports in Spain and Carthage. He is a bit of a rascal, known for stealing wine while the ship's captain sleeps. |
| doctor | A talented doctor with expertise in diagnosing the causes and finding cures for most maladies. Though the Physician keeps himself in perfect physical health, the narrator calls into question the Physician's spiritual health: He rarely consults the Bible and has an unhealthy love of financial gain. |
| Franklin | A man of leisure. The word franklin means "free man." In Chaucer's society, a franklin was neither a vassal serving a lord nor a member of the nobility. This particular franklin is a connoisseur of food and wine—so much so that his table remains laid and ready for food all day. |
| Reeve | A shrewd steward of a manor. This reeve's lord never loses so much as a ram to the other employees, and the vassals under his command are kept in line. However, he steals from his master. |
| plowman | The Parson's brother and an equally good-hearted man. A member of the peasant class, he pays his tithes to the Church and leads a good Christian life. |
| guildsman | A hatmaker, carpenter, weaver, clothing dyer, and a tapestry maker. The Guildsmen appear as a unit. English guilds were a combination of labor unions and social fraternities: Craftsmen of similar occupations joined together to increase their bargaining power and live communally. All five Guildsmen are clad in the livery of their brotherhood. |
| cook | The Guildsmen's cook. The Narrator gives little detail about him, but he does mention a crusty sore on the Cook's leg. |
| yeoman | The servant who accompanies the Knight and the Squire. The Narrator mentions that the Yoeman's dress and weapons suggest he may be a forester. |
| 3 rioters | The three protagonists of the Pardoner's Tale. All three indulge in and represent the vices against which the Pardoner has railed in his Prologue: Gluttony, Drunkeness, Gambling, and Swearing. These traits define the three and eventually lead to their downfall. The Rioters at first appear like personified vices, but it is their belief that a personified concept—in this case, Death—is a real person that becomes the root cause of their undoing. |
| old man | A very old man whom the Three Rioters encounter. The old man's body is completely covered except for his face. Before the old man tells the Rioters where they can find Death, one of the Rioters rashly demands to know why the old man is still alive. The old man answers that he is doomed to walk the earth for eternity. He has been interpreted as Death itself; as Cain, punished for fratricide by walking the earth forever; and as the Wandering Jew, a man doomed to roam the world, through the ages, without rest because he refused to let Jesus rest at his house when Jesus proceeded to his crucifixion. |
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