1. The Canterbury Tales: Prologue
Written between
by Geoffrey Chaucer

2. Background Information
Poetic style:
Written in Middle English in iambic pentameter (abandons alliterative verse)
rhymed couplets, later called heroic couplets
Uses rime royal or Chaucerian stanza: 7 line iambic pentameter stanza rhyming ababbcc.
The speaker of the poem (often thought to be Chaucer himself) is in a London tavern.
He meets “some nine and twenty in a company of sundry folks” who plan on making the pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint Thomas a Becket (60 miles; 3 days of travel).
Saint Thomas a Becket, an archbishop, opposed Henry II’s rule to grant immunity to bishops from the law. He wanted to try bishops who committed crimes, and, as a result, was murdered. King Henry is said to have exclaimed, “Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?”
The speaker decides he will join them and suggests that everyone tell one story there and one on the way back. The one with the best story will win a meal at the tavern paid for by the other pilgrims upon return.

3. Types of Story Frame Narrative
a story told within a story often to set the scene or tone for the main narrative
Examples:
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
“The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Turn of the Screw Henry James

4. Types of Stories
Within the Canterbury Tales, there are 24 stories (22 of which are complete). Most of them fall within one of these types:
Allegory: Just as Pilgrim’s progress is an allegory of a spiritual journey, Canterbury tales is one as well-- illustrating the journey that all lives take (different paths) and how one is not always right
Exemplum: a moral anecdote, brief or extended, real or fictitious, used to illustrate a point (often a sermon)
Courtly Romance: you tell ME!
Beast Fable: short story with animals, often includes a moral
Fabliaux: The fabliaux is defined as a short narrative in verse, between 300 and 400 lines long, its content is often comic, satiric and bawdy in nature

5. Literary Terms: Chaucer is known for his artful characterization
Direct Characterization
When the narrator reveals information about a character by telling the reader about this character (appearance, personality etc.)
Indirect Characterization
When the narrator shows the reader something about the character through the character's actions, things the character says, or things other characters say.

6. Literary Terms (cont.) Satire
The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize vice.
What makes this video clip an example of satire?

7. Dominant Themes
Courtly love
Corruption of the Catholic Church

8. Symbols Springtime: rebirth, renewal, erotic love, fresh beginnings
Physiognomy: characterizing and determining one’s temperament based on physical appearance
Clothing: what lies beneath the surface