Canterbury Tales - Alquin

English Literature
PTA exam in VWO 6
This year: The Middle Ages (period 4)

  • Beowulf
  • Anglo-Saxon Chronicles
  • Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
  • Robin Hood: SKIP
  • Canterbury Tales




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Slide 1: Slide
EngelsMiddelbare schoolvwoLeerjaar 4

This lesson contains 15 slides, with interactive quizzes, text slides and 2 videos.

time-iconLesson duration is: 45 min

Items in this lesson

English Literature
PTA exam in VWO 6
This year: The Middle Ages (period 4)

  • Beowulf
  • Anglo-Saxon Chronicles
  • Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
  • Robin Hood: SKIP
  • Canterbury Tales




Slide 1 - Slide

Canterbury Cathedral
Pilgrims' destination from London

Slide 2 - Slide

What's a pilgrimage?

Slide 3 - Open question

Canterbury Tales
revision
- Who wrote The Canterbury Tales?
- Define 'frame story' and how Chaucer used it.
- Where do the characters meet in the General Prologue? Why do they agree to tell each other stories?

Slide 4 - Slide

Who wrote The Canterbury Tales?

Slide 5 - Open question

Define 'frame story' and explain how Chaucer used it in this work.

Slide 6 - Open question

In the ' General Prologue', the characters meet each other. Where do they meet and why do they agree to tell each other stories?

Slide 7 - Open question

Slide 8 - Video

The Knight
Alquin 44
The Miller
Alquin 45-46

Slide 9 - Slide

Slide 10 - Video

The Knight: let's read out loud
QUESTION: The Knight is one of the few pilgrims who provide no personal Prologue. Why do you suppose that is?
  • The tale of the Knight follows straight on from the General Prologue. Many of the pilgrims use their personal Prologues to pass comment on the tales that precede their own, but there is no tale before the Knight’s. Furthermore, the Knight is presented as an intelligent, but calm and reserved man. He is not the type to talk at length about himself, as some of the others do in their Prologues.

Slide 11 - Slide

The Miller:
  • fabliau
  •  let's read out loud: p. 45 (description of the miller) & 46 (story by the miller)
  • Answer the questions on page 46 (1-4): 10 minutes, then we will discuss in class.

Slide 12 - Slide

What's a fabliau?

Slide 13 - Open question

Homework check!
The Knight
The Miller
+ Questions

Slide 14 - Slide

The Miller: answers
  1. With an ugly warty nose, a big mount and a short, fat body, he cannot be said to be good looking, and his character is therefore likely to be as blemished as his appearance.
  2. Yes. The Miller is not well behaved: he likes to fight, is argumentative and tells dirty stories. He also swindles his customers 
  3. a. When her husband is away, he grabs her and tries to kiss her. When she resists, he says he will die if he can’t have her and promises her all kinds of nice things. b. Alison is married to a dozy old man and was interested in Nicholas from the start; there was little conviction in her initial resistance to his advances. She threatens to scream, but doesn’t actually do so.
  4. In the Prologue we are told that the Miller likes to tell dirty tales (‘tavern stories, filthy in the main’). Furthermore, he has red hair, which in the Middle Ages was often seen as a sign of a lecherous character.

Slide 15 - Slide