Assignments

Final Essay

Due Date: December 15, 2009 by 5:00 pm. You may turn your essay in by slipping it under my door (Sierra Tower 803).

Answer only one of the following questions:

  1. Do the Friar and the Summoner manage to tell tales that demonstrate anything more than their professional rivalry?
  2. ‘[In the Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale], Chaucer is accepting the notion that a woman is to be understood in her relationship to a man, thus ignoring the possibility of an independent selfhood’. Discuss this assessment of the Wife of Bath.
  3. ‘Yet while Chaucer presents [the Wife of Bath’s] rebellion as real, he simultaneously discloses the complexities involved in opposing dominant social and ideological forms. Discuss Chaucer’s attitude to ‘the complexities involved in opposing dominant social and ideological forms’ in any two of the tales listed above.
  4. ‘The Franklin’s final question is a misleading and comic trivialization which abandons the [themes of the] poem.’ Discuss this assessment of the Franlkin’s tale.
  5. ‘It was the regular theory of the Middle Ages that the highest type of chivalric love was incompatible with marriage, since marriage brings in mastery, and mastery and love cannot abide together. This view the Franklin boldly challenges.’ Discuss this assessment of the Franklin’s Tale.
  6. Where does the meaning or morality lie in the Nun’s Priest’s Tale?
  7. Discuss Chaucer’s use of rhetoric and its significance in the Squires’s Tale and/or the Nun’s Priest’s Tale.
  8. Does the Pardoner's sexuality matter in interpreting his tale?
  9. Using the Squire's Tale, the Pardoner's Tale, and/or the Nun's Priest's Tale, discuss how Chaucer reveals problems in the ways that we express ideas through literature.

Your essay should include reference to at least two works of history or criticism (as appropriate to your discussion). These works MUST have been published in print form. If they are also published in electronic form, you may use them, but if they have no print equivalent, you may not.*

Essays should be typed and approximately 1500-3000 words. Essays will be graded substantially on your ability to write and format clear and effective scholarly prose, and you should take your editing practices VERY seriously. Essays should conform to the expectation of good, university-level writing style and the conventions of literary criticism following MLA or other style guidelines. Be especially careful to quote poetry according to the proper format. For more information, see my Essay Writing Guide. Note: Some style guides recommend a "Works Cited" list or bibliography on a separate sheet of paper. For environmental reasons, I request that you simply include your bibliographical references at the end of your essay. Every little bit helps!

* If you didn't already know this, serious and substantial literary criticism is not yet readily available on the internet. Although there are rare exceptions, most of the material you will find is fairly superficial. Citing it will naturally reflect this superficiality. That said, if you find references to scholarly books or articles on the internet, take down the references and find them in the library. The rule of thumb is that the internet is a good place to start your research, not to end it.

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Essay 1

Due Date: I will be leaving town on a business trip on 6 November, but this is too soon to ask you to get your essays in, given the problems we have had with the midterm (and the fact that it sounded like some people had not started their essays). I will be back on 14 November, which means that the official due date should be 17 November. However, I will already have assigned the next essay by then, so you may want to turn in your essay earlier to get started on the next one. If you wish to do this, please slip your essay under my door (Sierra Tower 803).

Answer only one of the following questions:

  1. In what forms does courtly love and/or courtly behaviour appear in the Knight’s Tale, the Miller’s Tale, or the Merchant's Tale? How does it relate to the tale's theme(s).
  2. To what extent does the tales we have read reflect the personality of their tellers? Concentrate on any two tales which we have read so far.
  3. Is the Knight’s Tale a cynical commentary on the order of the universe, or does it leave us with a feeling of hope in the face of adversity?
  4. How is justice conceived in the Miller's Tale and the Reeve's Tale?

Your essay should include reference to at least two works of history or criticism (as appropriate to your discussion). These works MUST have been published in print form. If they are also published in electronic form, you may use them, but if they have no print equivalent, you may not.*

Essays should be typed and approximately 1500-3000 words. Essays will be graded substantially on your ability to write and format clear and effective scholarly prose, and you should take your editing practices VERY seriously. Essays should conform to the expectation of good, university-level writing style and the conventions of literary criticism following MLA or other style guidelines. Be especially careful to quote poetry according to the proper format. For more information, see my Essay Writing Guide. Note: Some style guides recommend a "Works Cited" list or bibliography on a separate sheet of paper. For environmental reasons, I request that you simply include your bibliographical references at the end of your essay. Every little bit helps!

* If you didn't already know this, serious and substantial literary criticism is not yet readily available on the internet. Although there are rare exceptions, most of the material you will find is fairly superficial. Citing it will naturally reflect this superficiality. That said, if you find references to scholarly books or articles on the internet, take down the references and find them in the library. The rule of thumb is that the internet is a good place to start your research, not to end it.

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