Canterbury Tales

Introduction

The Canterbury Tales: A Look at Life in the Medieval Period

The Canterbury Tales examines life during the Middle Ages through three social classes. You will examine the author, the time period, and the three social classes to help you to understand the material we are about to read in class.

Task

You will create a Google Doc and turn it in Google Classroom (you should have received an email from me about your new assignment). Answer the following questions completely and in sentence and/or paragraph format, depending on what is required. You may NOT copy and paste information. You MUST reword the information to make it your own understanding.

Now go on to the "Process" tab to see the provided websites where you will search for these answers.

1. Who is the author of The Canterbury Tales? List five facts about this author’s early life (biographical information).

 2. What time period is The Canterbury Tales depicting?

 3. What conclusions can you make about Chaucer based upon the many job titles he held during his lifetime? 

 4. What is a pilgrimage?
 
5. The Canterbury Tales begins with a prologue and then follows a format where each character tells stories as they travel on a pilgrimage— how many stories does each character tell?

 6. The Canterbury Tales is a story about a journey. Where does the journey start? Where is it supposed to end?

 7. What is the significance of Canterbury? Why would they go there?

 8. What is one example of why religion may have been so important in the Middle Ages? Explain.

 9. Who is St. Thomas á Becket? Why is he famous?

 10. In what language was The Canterbury Tales first written? List one reason why Chaucer may have chosen to write this piece in that language.

 11. Explain the religion of the Medieval period. List at least two issues with it you find.

12. Describe the social pyramid of the Middle Ages starting with the top and working your way down.

Process

The information may be on the first page after clicking the links below, or you may have to do some exploring to find this info. Be thorough in your reading.

Evaluation

You will be graded on the grammatical structure, correctness, and effort of your answers. This is a two-day assignment. Be sure to show that you have worked for two days, rather than slopping something down for your answers.

Conclusion

To wrap up, you have now learned about the author of the Canterbury Tales, the time period in which it was written, and some of the social structure of the Medieval Period. We will begin reading the Prologue of the Canterbury Tales, and we will write a class essay over the social structure developed by the author once we all return to class together.