from The Canterbury Tales
The Prologue
"In
all literature there is nothing that touches or resembles The Prologue. It
is the concise portrait of an entire nation, high and low, old and young, male
and female, lay and clerical, learned and ignorant, rogue and righteous, land
and sea, town and country, but without extremes...the most noticeable thing
about them (Chaucer's characters) is their normality. They are the perennial progeny
of men and women. Sharply individual, together they make a party." (Elements
of Literature, sixth course, 2000, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston)
Tasks:
- Spend
a few minutes describing a real or imaginary person's appearance, from tip
to toe. Try to show how certain details of the person's appearance suggest
particular character traits (that she is vain, that he wants to be a rock star,
etc). Enter this assignment under the heading Prologue Quickwrite in your
journal.
- Read
The Prologue on pages 105-125 using the Guided
Reading Questions. Be sure to keep these in your Middle Ages journal.
- After
we discuss The Prologue as a class,
your Middle Ages group should pretend that you and four others are going on a
pilgrimage. Model Chaucer's style in The Prologue, and create a
description for yourselves and the four others. Be sure to check out
the table analyzing Chaucer's imagery on page 128 before beginning your
descriptions. Also, the descriptions you wrote for the first task could
prove helpful. Hand these typed descriptions in to your teacher.
- Proceed
to Pilgrims' Tales for your next
assignment.
