The Canterbury Tales Study Guide PDF

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This is a study guide for The Canterbury Tales, a required reading for ENGL 230 with Prof. Allen...

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1. Characters a. Chaucer i. Narrator ii. Tells tales on the road iii. Considered separate from Author iv. Keen observer v. Uses verbal Irony for comedic purposes vi. Characterizes the pilgrims in unflattering ways, while maintaining an ernest and admiring tone b. Harry Bailey i. Host of inn ii. Suggests the storytelling contest iii. Sets the rules for the contest iv. Peacemaker among the pilgrims and offers the prize for the best story v. Steers stories away from being too sad c. Knight (Most traveled) i. Chivalrous and wise ii. Courteous, heroic and polite iii. No flaws (not even arrogant) d. The Miller (Best Wrestler) i. Dicks down devon on the daily ii. Strong, brawny man iii. Loves telling filthy stories and playing his bagpipe iv. He hijacks the host’s role (master of ceremonies) to tell a rude story e. The Reeve i. Old-frightening looking man ii. Manages people’s estates and he does it so well that no one doubts him iii. Miller’s rude story was about a carpenter, and it pisses off the Reeve cause he is a carpenter himself f. The Wife of Bath i. Middle aged woman with a tooth gap ii. She’s been on many pilgrimages and has had five husbands iii. Many of her husbands were from pilgrimages and she basically just hoes around on them iv. Has an interesting view on relationships v. She’s also a successful seamstress and has a business doing that g. The Pardoner i. Dishonest man ii. Sells fake relics iii. Admits his only motive is profit 2. Worksheet Notes a. Parson i. Clergy Member ii. Most moral… practices what he preaches, unlike other clergymen

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iii. Poor preacher, but rich of thought iv. Doesn’t value finances v. Line 499 - Something about sheep Squire i. Most attractive ii. 2nd Estate iii. A bunch of laws that just make him seem flawless iv. Bachelor v. Son of a night Summoner i. Biggest bully ii. 1st estate iii. Feared by children iv. Accuse people of sin v. Author uses verbal sarcasm to make him seem like a good guy, but shows how corrupt he is vi. Let’s people get away with sin if they give him stuff or sex lul Franklin i. Biggest foodie ii. Always had some food iii. 3rd estate -- pussy ass bitch hes a commoner and hes prolly fat af bc all he does is eat Monk i. Wealthiest ii. 1st estate iii. Clergyman Knight i. Most traveled ii. Traveled across Europe and a fukk ton of other places iii. Line 65 shows how the knight has worked for christians and muslims and whoever the hell would hire him iv. Basically a mercenary Reeve i. Scary af ii. Most Choleric iii. 3rd Estate iv. Would intimidate people into working on his masters farm The Wife of Bath i. Hoe af ii. Has 5 husbands iii. Talks with super feminist talks iv. Super contradictory to anti-feminist language especially for her time v. Frequent pilgrim vi. 3rd Estate

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Prioress i. 1st estate ii. Hot af iii. Most attractive female iv. Super weird that she likes animals (which have no souls), table manners and her appearance (which would be more of the second estate shit) Friar i. 1st Estate ii. Biggest flirt iii. So many suspicious relationships with women iv. His job is to beg for alms for the church v. Granted exclusive begging rights vi. He marries off women and pays them off 1. Sus af bc he was fucking the women, got them prego and just pays some dudes off to marry them 2. Knew hella people in bars and shit 3. Didn’t help the people he was supposed to help Pardoner i. 1st estate ii. Never gets pussy iii. Even tho he’s supposed to be hardening people for his sins, he just spends all his time selling fake religious/holy relics Miller i. Boss af, runs a mill, strong af ii. Best wrestler iii. 3rd estate iv. Very hefty v. He would win a wrestling match every time vi. Could rip doors off their hinges Clerk i. Most book smart ii. 3rd estate iii. Introduced line 287 iv. Student at oxford v. Can become a member of the clergy, but rn he’s a student Manciple i. 3rd estate ii. Most street smart iii. He would buy shit for people and he was so smart and what to buy and stuff Doctor of Physics i. 3rd Estate ii. Smart af iii. Loves astrology

3. Core concepts a. Three Estates i. 1st Clergy ii. 2nd Nobility iii. 3rd Commoners b. 4 Humors i. Blood - liver (sanguine, hot & moist, air) ii. Black bile - gal bladder ( melancholic, cold & dry, earth) iii. Yellow bile - spleen (chloeric, warm & dry, fire) iv. Phlegm - lungs (phlegmatic, cold & wet, water) 1. Humors came from four characteristics of hot, cold; moist and dry. 2. Corresponded to four elements c. Certain colors could only be worn by certain classes i. Purple was bomb af and noble (s/o pigma si) d. Began writing 1387-1389, died 1400 e. Celtic dialects f. Latin g. Anglo Saxon: old english h. Anglo Norman: Old french i. 1170 Murder of Thomas a Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury (starts their expedition to canterbury) j. 1422-1485 The War of the Roses (Symbols of Lanchaster and York were roses) k. Henry VII (Tudor) l. Defeating House of York’s Richard IV 4. Plot (according to coursehero) a. Prologue i. Chaucer’s prologue is the first one and he begins with a description of spring time. It’s in super weird language but basically know that he digs spring and he talks about plants and birds singing and shit. Also, I guess the springtime is the best time to go on a pilgrimage and Chaucer is like yeet I’m bout to go stay at the Tabard Inn and go on a journey to Canterbury cause the Archbishop Thomas Becket just got murked and his relics are at the Canterbury Cathedral. ii. There’s 29 pilgrims in all and Chaucer decides to describe each and every one of them cause he’s “observant”. Basically tho he just describes their professions, social status, clothing and personality (refer to the character notes for all that shieet) iii. The owner of the inn, Harry Bailey, likes all of the company and all of the pilgrims and he’s like fuck it I’m gunna go to canterbury too. He suggests that everyone will tell two stories, one on the way there and another on the way back. He will judge the stories and the person who tells the best story will win a free meal when they return to the inn. iv. The knight draws the shortest stick so he has to tell a story first. v. General Prologue Analysis

a. The spring description contrasts the symbols of “pagan sexual energy and Christian spiritual rebirth” These themes are later shown in lots of the pilgrims tales. b. All of the characters are representative of the three estates. The first estate, clergy; second estate, nobility and the third estate, peasants. Women also had three estates, virgins, wives and widows. b. The Wife of Bath’s Prologue 5. Context a. The time this was written was when there was great change in Europe. The church was under fire and the middle class began to challenge old social class structure b. The Church during Chaucer’s time i. So there Church was doing some fucked up shit. They were corrupt as fuck and killed anyone who didn’t agree with them. This could be shown through the sketch af first estate characters, like the Friar and Pardoner ii. Because the Church was such a controversial topic, historians think that Chaucer was somewhat anti-clergy iii. Though the church was under some scrutiny, many people still made pilgrimages and the Canterbury Cathedral was actually a super popular spot c. Social structure was changing because the lower class people were making more money and felt like they could propel into higher social status. The Black Plague also played a factor into this because it caused a labor shortage which increased wages for skilled workers d. The Church still dictated a lot of how the world viewed women. i. Virgins were put on a pedestal and sinful women were looked down upon ii. Men were expected to control their wives, but wives were expected to influence their husbands in different ways. iii. This plays a large role into The Wife of Bath’s character because she thinks that a wife’s influence can turn into complete control over a man e. Anti-Semitism i. Christians at the time were super anti-semitic and it’s shown through the Prioress because she believes in anti-Semitic themes such as blood libel (a false belief that Jews kill their babies and drink their blood) f. Audience i. Coursehero says that it’s crazy that The Canterbury Tales even exists because at the time there wasn’t a lot of people who would want to read a work like this. Not many people accepted English as a written language and printing was not widespread yet ii. One thing that made The Canterbury Tales live on was the use of Middle English. As more people became literate in England, the more people used Middle English, so Chaucer was ahead of his time. iii. Since written English was growing, Chaucer's manuscript was able to be

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reproduced and about 100 copies of his Tales were created, which was a lot for the time Chaucer died before all of the Tales were compiled into one volume and modern scholars still debate over it’s order....