Medieval Poetry

illustration of Chaucer in an early copy of the textessay iconIn "The Prologue" to Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, you were introduced to all the pilgrims making their journey to Canterbury Cathedral. In addition, you had the chance to get to know three of these pilgrims more intimately as they told their tales: the Knight, the Pardoner, and the Wife of Bath. Which one of these three characters would you rather take with you on a long journey?

Take a moment to reflect on the physical appearances, personalities, and points of view of the three pilgrims. Then, in a brief essay, explain which of the characters would be closest to your ideal traveling companion. Your reasons for your favorite character will be personal to you, but you must nevertheless justify your opinions of them using support from the text that you read. Your brief essay should also include a discussion of the following literary techniques used by Chaucer:

  1. Characterization (both direct and indirect)
  2. Use of allusions (explain their meanings and effectiveness)

You may need to use resources outside of this course to complete this assignment. If so, please submit a Works Cited document. If you need assistance, visit the Developmental Module for information on citing resources. Before you begin, review The Canterbury Tales Essay Checklist to make sure that you include all of the items required for full credit.


This assignment might be a work sample that you want to include in your digital portfolio.

 

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Once you have completed your essay, please submit your work to the dropbox.