Chaucer Essay

Canterbury Tales Literary Criticism Essay

The purpose of this project is twofold: to practice writing literary criticism and to practice integrating scholarly articles into your writing on literature.

Here’s an overview of the project:

1. Choose either The Miller’s Tale or the Wife of Bath’s Prologue or Tale.
2. Search JSTOR or Gale INFOTRAC to research articles on
1. your chosen school of literary criticism, or
2. criticism aimed specifically at your chosen tale or prologue.
3. Save PDFs of a number of articles that speak to your interests and are comprehendible.
4. Scan through them and settle on one or two in which you are most interested.
5. Print and annotate them to help you understand their ideas and zero in on important passages.
6. Write an original 3 page literary analysis of your chosen tale or prologue that makes use of at least one critical source.
1. Apply an idea from a school of literary criticism to your chosen tale or prologue, or
2. Use criticism about your tale or prologue to enhance your own ideas.

At the heart of this essay are your own ideas about the literature! Do not simply restate what another critic has already said. Instead, add to the ongoing conversation about Chaucer in an original way. Think of criticism as an argument in defense of your own interpretation.

Here are some ways to use critical sources to enhance your writing:

1. Apply their philosophical ideas to your chosen text
2. Extend their ideas about the text
3. Argue against them
4. See their ideas in the light of new evidence
5. Use their ideas to support your own original analysis
6. Bring two or more different critical sources together with meaningful, original synthesis

Some suggestions for integrating critical sources:

1. Begin and end paragraphs and sections with your own ideas, not the critics’.
2. Do not quote more than four lines of text from your sources at a time. This is usually a clear indication that you are making too much of someone else’s thoughts.
3. Don’t treat your sources as if they are the authorities. (The Wife of Bath would hate that!) You are the authority! They are tools!

Integrating quotations:

The general format looks like this: As Dostoyevsky states, “Life is hell” (Dostoyevsky 45).

1. Introduce the writer.
2. Comma before the passage or paraphrase.
3. Capital letter if the passage is a complete sentence.
4. Quotation marks directly after the passage.
5. Parenthetical citation with author’s name and page number.
6. Period outside the parenthetical citation.

Some other guidelines for writing literary analysis:

1. Use the introduction to provide a brief overview of the text in terms of the critical school you are using or with a focus on the ideas that for which you will be arguing.
2. Include a thesis statement that offers a specific and original interpretation of the text.
3. Begin paragraphs with the relatively abstract ideas that they will be about.
4. Do not include too many examples or too many quotations at the expense of analysis.
1. Think MEAL -- Main idea, Examples, Analysis, Link -- where Analysis takes up the majority of the paragraph.
2. Movement between E and A is totally fine and suitable for in-depth criticism.
5. Make sure that the main ideas of each paragraph build on one another. If each paragraph a MEAL, then I want to be able to get the gist of your argument by reading the beginnings and ends of each paragraph -- MMMMM.
6. Conclude with an interesting discussion of the ideas you’ve addressed. Use your conclusion not to simply summarize but also to elaborate on the significance of your ideas.

Questions for the Nun's Priest's Tale

1. The tale presents a great opportunity to see the life of the peasantry, mostly obscured in the
Tales. The “povre wydwe” runs a marginal homestead farm that barely supports her and her
maid-servant, Malkyn. What other aspects of this household tell you things about the
economic realities of late 14th C. English peasant life? Why might the Nun's Priest pay such
close attention to this setting before moving into the beast fable?

2. With what kind of language does the narrator describe Chanticleer and Pertelote (p. 234)?
Compare it with the description of the Prioress in the General Prologue and the Nun’s Priest in
the Epilogue. Note that Chanticleer is the only rooster among hens and the priest is the only
male in a community of women (the three priests in the GP have been reduced to one). To
what extent does the tale offer an ironic commentary on (or wishful rethinking of) the Nun's
Priest's situation?

3. Medieval philosophers thought dreams might be of several kinds. The most important
difference was between the somnium naturale which arose from natural causes and the
somnium coeleste sent from heaven to warn and instruct. Which kind of dream does Pertelote
think Chanticleer has had? Which kind does Chanticleer think he had?
Pertelote's name translates from the French as “one who confuses someone's lot or fate.” Does
she deserve this name? Conversely, Chanticleer means “one who sings clearly.” By his name
and otherwise, what is the Nun's Priest saying about this rooster’s capacity to read the world, a
much prized characteristic in the Tales and one that is of particular importance in The Miller’s
Tale and the Wife of Bath’s Prologue? (Think back to Chanticleer’s ability to tell the time
better than even the clock.)

5. Mulier est hominis confusio means “Woman is man’s ruination,” not “Woman is man’s delight
and all his bliss”! Do you think that this is an intentional misreading on Chanticleer’s part? If
so, why? If not, how might this relate to other tales in which people misread situations and
texts? Especially compare his conclusion with his argument on the second indent on 244.

6. On 243 the narrator delves into the problem of fate and freewill with the Boethian question of
God’s foreknowledge and human choice. This was a perplexing question for Chaucer and his
contemporaries. Indeed, Chaucer translated Boethius extensively. What is the effect of this
question being reduced to a tale about a fox and a rooster?

7. What do you make of the heavily allusive style of this “mock epic?” How about the narrator’s
use of history, philosophy, and epic when describing the thoughts and actions of the tale’s
animal characters. The mock epic even compares Chanticleer’s situation to that of Priam, king
of Troy, and the hens’ clucking to the lamentations of the Trojan women (p. 246-7). Does this
elevate the rooster or deflate epic and history? How might this operate as satire?

8. The fox's quick and soothing voice plays on Chanticleer’s vanity with unerring skill. What
does he praise and how does it set up the trap he is about to spring? How does this complicate
the reading of Chanticleer as the ideal reader?

Questions for the Pardoner's Tale

Before discussing, look back at the General Prologue’s treatment of the Pardoner.

1. Why do you think the Pardoner chooses to be so honest with the rest of the Pilgrims about his corruption? What is his intent here?



2. After the Prologue, he goes on to tell a remarkably moral tale. If such an immoral pilgrim can tell such a moral tale, what are the implications of this contrast on the very art of storytelling and narration in which Chaucer is so invested?



3. The Pardoner introduces his main characters in the opening lines of the Tale, but then goes into a long discussion of what are usually called “tavern sins.” Like the Wife and Chaunticleer, he is interested in “authorities.” What do you notice about his examples? How does his initial preaching on these sins deepen his hypocrisy? What techniques does he employ to make his preaching against these vices effective?



4. Note carefully the speeches of the little boy and the old man. Are they similar in any way? Many people have taken the old man as symbolic. What do you think?
   


5. Does Chaucer attempt to individualize the revelers? How does the Pardoner distinguish between them? What is poetically just about their deaths? [Note: Poetic Justice is punishment of wrongdoers in proportion to and in a manner fitting their crime—called “poetic” because this kind of justice happens more often in fiction than in real life.]
   


6. Read the end of the Tale carefully. This section presents one of the most debated problems of all Chaucer’s work. What exactly happens? Notice that the Pardoner closes off his account of what he says to the country folk and turns to the pilgrims. How does he expect them to respond? Does he really think he can sell them fake relics after all that
   has been admitted? Why is the Host so furious? What are the people laughing at when the Knight intervenes? Why do you think the Knight’s intervenes the way he does?
   


7. What are the several layers of irony in this “masterpiece of irony,” The Pardoner’s Tale? [Remember to think about ‘dramatic irony.’]
   


8. We have met gold and treasure before, in Beowulf. How is this subject handled differently
   in Beowulf and in the Pardoner's Tale? Are there any similarities?



9. What other good discussion questions can you think of for the Pardoner?