Literature 5: The Canterbury Tales (Masterlanguage)

Literature 5: 
The Canterbury Tales
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EngelsMiddelbare schoolvwoLeerjaar 5

This lesson contains 27 slides, with interactive quizzes and text slides.

time-iconLesson duration is: 30 min

Items in this lesson

Literature 5: 
The Canterbury Tales

Slide 1 - Slide

1. Take a guess: The travellers in The Canterbury Tales travel to Canterbury, but where do they come from?
A
Sheffield
B
Glasgow
C
Leicester
D
London

Slide 2 - Quiz

2. Take a guess: The Canterbury Tales was written in what language?
A
Old English
B
Middle English
C
Old French
D
Middle French

Slide 3 - Quiz

3. Take a guess: How many stories are there in The Canterbury Tales?
A
10
B
14
C
21
D
24

Slide 4 - Quiz

4. Take a guess: The Canterbury Tales is one big story that connects to series of other stories. What is this called?
A
Frame narrative
B
Web narrative
C
Box narrative
D
Casing narrative

Slide 5 - Quiz

5. Take a guess: True or False "Geoffrey Chaucer never finished The Canterbury Tales because he died."
A
True
B
False

Slide 6 - Quiz

Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400)
- first poet writing in English
- The Canterbury Tales
- first record: 1357 as a page (serves a knight)
- 1359-1360 in France (Hundred Years' War)
- 1366 diplomatic mission to Spain
- marries wife Philippa
- 1368 from page to squire

Slide 7 - Slide

Last part of his life
- 1386 Chaucer moves to Kent
- Member of the Parliament
- 1389 Clerkship of the Royal Works
- 1391 Resigns
- Becomes a forester (boswachter)
- Dies around 1400

Slide 8 - Slide

The Canterbury Tales

- One of the few well preserved works in Middle English
- Group of pilgrims from London to Canterbury
- Innkeeper: each pilgrim tells 2 stories to pass the time
- Best story: free supper 
- Chaucer as a narrator introduces each pilgrim
- Various types: rude, moral, humorous, etc. 

Slide 9 - Slide

Importance
1. Written in English instead of French
            - French was the language of those in power
            - English meant a larger audience
2. The work says a lot about the English medieval society
            - Description of the pilgrims
            - Customs and practices at the time 

Slide 10 - Slide

Creation of The Canterbury Tales
- Started in 1387 until his death in 1400
- Original work doesn't exist anymore
- More than 80 copies survive
- Must have been very popular
- For many other texts only a couple of texts survive
- Story wasn't complete: only one group of pilgrims
- 29 travellers and tales

Slide 11 - Slide

Marriage
Dutiful wife and subserviant wife
 A wife that knows her own mind and owns property

Challenging or maintaining stereotypes
 

Slide 12 - Slide

Friar Quote
He hadde maad ful many a mariage
Of yonge wommen at his owene cost.

Positive Yes or no?
What is a Friar?

Slide 13 - Slide

Wife of Bath
Experience, though noon auctoritee
Were in this world, is right ynough for me
To speke of wo that is in mariage;
For, lordynges, sith I twelve yeer was of age,
Thonked be God that is eterne on lyve,
Housbondes at chirche dore I have had fyve.

Slide 14 - Slide

Hierarchy
Functional system (categorising people into their uses)
Moral righteousness (worthy or not)
Rank based on birth (King, Servant, Knight, Clergymen)

Slide 15 - Slide

Prologue (about the Nun)
And Frenssh she spak ful faire and fetisly, 
After the scole of Stratford atte Bowe, 
For Frenssh of Parys was to hire unknowe.

Positive Yes or no?

Slide 16 - Slide

The miller
The Miller, that for dronken was al pale, 
So that unnethe upon his hors he sat, 
He nolde avalen neither hood ne hat, 
Ne abyde no man for his curteisie, 
But in Pilates voys he gan to crie, 
And swoor, ‘By armes, and by blood and bones, I can a noble tale for the nones, With which I wol now quite the Knyghtes tale.’

Slide 17 - Slide

Storytelling
Human comedy (daily life for the times)
The stories are connected through commentaries on each other's tales

Slide 18 - Slide

6. True or False: "Chaucer is both the author as well as a character in The Canterbury Tales."
A
True
B
False

Slide 19 - Quiz

7. What does the pilgrim with the best story get?
A
A new sword
B
A valuable book
C
A free supper
D
A loaf of bread

Slide 20 - Quiz

8. Which of the following is not a reason for why the Canterbury Tales is so important?
A
It was written in English instead of French
B
It was written during the Hundred Years' War
C
The work says a lot about medieval society

Slide 21 - Quiz

9. The Canterbury Tales contains stories about how many travellers?
A
24
B
29
C
32
D
36

Slide 22 - Quiz

10. How many copies of the Canterbury Tales have survived?
A
50
B
70
C
80
D
100

Slide 23 - Quiz

11. The finished version of The Canterbury Tales has stories from how many groups of pilgrims?
A
1
B
2
C
3
D
4

Slide 24 - Quiz

12. True or False: "Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales very early on in his life."
A
True
B
False

Slide 25 - Quiz

13. True or False: "Geoffrey Chaucer was the first poet writing in English."
A
True
B
False

Slide 26 - Quiz

Check the reader:

Literature 6: The Canterbury Tales
- Read the background information
- Answer the questions (using the internet)
- Check your answers (see Its Learning)

Slide 27 - Slide