Study Guide for Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
The
Harvard Chaucer Page
geoffreychaucer.org:
An Annotated Guide to Online Resources
Discussion Questions
General Prologue:
-
Where are Chaucer's pilgrims going, and why? How would you describe
them as a group of people? Can you identify broad categories into
which various pilgrims might be grouped?
-
In the General Prologue, how do Chaucer's descriptions of particular
pilgrims suggest approval or disapproval? Do any of Chaucer's pilgrims
deserve a place in Dante's Inferno, and if so, where should they
be put? What is Chaucer's attitude toward the church?
-
In what ways is Chaucer's English different from modern English? Read the
section on medieval English in the Norton Anthology (pp. 14-18) and try
to read the opening 18 lines of the poem out loud.
-
Where does the narrator of the poem refer to himself? What does he say
about his task?
The Miller's Tale:
-
The Miller's Tale is sometimes described as an example of medieval
pornography. Do you agree? How else might you characterize
(or categorize) this story?
-
In what ways does the story parody the
conventions of courtly love?
The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale:
- What kind of argument does the Wife of Bath make about marriage in the
opening lines of her prologue? What does she say about sex?
- How many husbands has the Wife of Bath had? What kinds of men has
she been married to? How have they treated her? How has she
treated them?
- What kind of tale does the Wife of Bath recite? In what ways is this
an appropriate tale for the Wife to recite?
The Pardoner's Tale:
-
In terms of ethics and morality, is the Pardoner a better or worse person
than his fellow pilgrims?
-
In terms of narrative form, how is the
Pardoner's tale different from the Miller's Tale?
-
What does the Pardoner
say about a storyteller's responsibility to his audience?