Assignment:
Choose one of the following prompts. Your paper should be a minimum of 800 words and a maximum of 1800 (these are approximate limits, 50 words more or less is not a problem).
1. Analyze two of Chaucer's women characters to examine how he shows women competing with men for power and influence. Don't forget that there are only two women described in the General Prologue. This already tells you that the pilgrimage and the tale-telling competition are dominated by men precisely because far fewer women had either the freedom or the resources for such kinds of travel. Given the disadvantages women faced in the Middle Ages (very little access to education or jobs, frequently prevented from owning or inheriting property, not having a choice in whom they marry), how do Chaucer's female characters manage to get ahead in the world? How do they use techniques that can be associated with successful business practices even if their modes of competing with men are not the norm today? Why do you think Chaucer does not condemn his women characters even when they are unscrupulous? Be sure to quote specific passages from two tales to support your ideas (this can include the Wife of Bath's Prologue).
The Wife of Bath can be part of your essay, but keep in mind you need to distinguish between her role as a pilgrim and the roles of women in the stories many of the pilgrims tell. It's also helpful to think about class status. The Wife of Bath, Griselda, and May are all commoners. Their lower class status seems to contribute to their lack of "mastery" in their relationships, and they do not truly choose their husbands though they agree to marry them (the Wife of Bath is an exception here). Similarly, the merchant's wife in the Shipman's Tale, may not be aristocratic, but notice how important it is for her to dress in a way that emphasizes her husband's wealth and status as a successful merchant. Whichever characters you choose to focus on, be sure to pay close attention to details and use quotations to back up your ideas about them.
2. According to any moral standard of judgment, the Pardoner is hypocritical, corrupt, and totally sleazy. However, Chaucer's depiction of him does not explicitly ask us to condemn him. His sermon and tale are among the best-told stories on the pilgrimage and he is clearly every good at what he does, namely, cheat people out of their money by making them fear damnation for greed and other assorted sins. In this respect, the Pardoner portrays himself as a successful businessman with an almost foolproof pitch based on provoking guilt and shame in his audience which then moves them to give him money in order to avoid damnation. Yet the Pardoner also acknowledges two things: first, that greed is his own personal sin and second, that some people actually feel true repentance for their sins when they hear him preach. Yet, the Pardoner is also religious. As he finishes his story he tells the pilgrims "And this, my fellow pilgrims, is how I preach./ And Jesus Christ, who has our souls in keeping,/ I trust will offer the pardon your souls are seeking,/ For that would be best, and I mean no more deceiving" (451-454).
For a moment here the Pardoner acknowledges the possibility of true forgiveness and redemption. He gestures to an ethical universe ruled by Christ and from which he himself seems to be excluded because he remains committed to his own sin of greed. Following these lines, the Pardoner then asks the pilgrims to give him money in exchange for pardons. He even picks the Host as the one who should go first "for he, of us all, is most enveloped in sin" (478). Yet since the Pardoner has already exposed his own corruption and greed to the pilgrims, he can hardly expect them to give him money now. If he isn't expecting money, then what is he really asking for? Analyze this ending scene (starting at line 451 "And this, my fellow pilgrims is how I preach.") and explain how it functions to connect the Pardoner's own dishonest practices with a larger social world that allows such dishonesty to thrive and multiply not only in the Pardoner but in other pilgrims and even the institution of the medieval Church.
Another way to put this would be to look at how this last section story is the place where the Pardoner's monetizing of salvation forces us to consider how he is part of a larger world in the Canterbury Tales where everything seems for sale. How much should we blame him for trying to sell salvation? How much does Chaucer blame him? Again, your points should be linked to detailed analysis of the Pardoner's language-this means you should plan to quote from him frequently and then to explain what those quotations add to your ideas about him. You may also want to consult his portrait in the General Prologue as part of your analysis.
3. Pick one or two tales which feature the circulation of a non-monetary form of currency. This can mean a bargain struck between two characters or a vow made by one character and enforced by a second. Such currency could be in the form of honor, or sex, or status, or even the act of story-telling and these things are also accompanied by the circulation of actual money in some tales. You can write about the 100 francs in the Shipman's Tale since it is linked to non-monetary forms of exchange. Women also circulate as a kind of currency in some of the tales and it isn't always through sex (think of Emilia in the Knight's Tale and her role in Theseus' desire to control Arcite and Palamon, or Griselda as the means through which Walter demonstrates his absolute power).
Explain what we learn from such forms of circulation. If the circulation of money is the model for these other forms of currency, what is being bought and sold? What is Chaucer telling us about his own society if both people and abstract values are exchanged like money? Does he suggest any remedies for this? These are big questions and please resist the temptation to generalize. A statement saying that Chaucer's stories show 14th century English society is totally corrupt, is both inaccurate and much too vague. Stay focused on the one or two stories you choose and the specific messages they have about currency and exchange in a non-monetary arena.
And if you write on more than one story, you have to connect them logically. It cannot be some random choice-you should be developing an idea that applies to both tales. Some examples that might work for this topic: The 100 francs and the Merchant's wife circulating between the Merchant and Don John; The hag's bargain for mastery in the Wife of Bath's tale in contrast with Griselda's bargain to give up all autonomy. The stolen grain in the Steward's Tale could also work in relation to the clerics' desire to get revenge and Symkin's rage at how they have dishonored him (and the Steward's desire to get back at the Miller through a story that trashes a miller). Feel free to email me with other possible combinations that interest you.
4. Look at the Wife of Bath in her prologue and tale. She defines herself as a professional wife and seems to take pride in how well she is able to shake down her first three husbands. But by husband #5 she sounds very different on the topic of marriage. This topic asks you to consider how the Wife moves from a business model based on maximum profits without regard for the happiness of her "workers" (husbands 1-3) to a different, more ethical business model based on shared resources along with mutual cooperation and respect. Keep in mind that husband #5 also needs to learn some lessons in respect for his partner and that ignoring the Wife's generosity to him may well be a mistake with financial consequences.
The book he constantly reads to her promotes a view of all women as evil and dangerous, and he uses this book as a way of controlling her. By doing so, he ignores the fact that she has given him all her land and money (not perhaps her best business decision). It is only after their fight over his book that he, too, changes. Once they negotiate an agreement that allows for mutual respect and autonomy (along with burning his book), all seems different.
Is there an ethical lesson for Business majors in this? Be sure to use frequent quotations in your essay response to this prompt.
5. A topic that you develop yourself and describe in an email to me. If the prompts above are not quite what you want to write about, come up with a short paragraph explaining what pilgrim/tale you want to focus on. You can also adapt some of the ideas I've suggested above to other tales and pilgrims. Or, you could look at how one of the pilgrims projects their own identity and values into their tale. If you'd like to work on this kind of topic, I want you to email me with a description of whom you plan to focus on and what your main point is going to be.
SOME ADVICE ON WRITING PAPERS FOR THIS CLASS
Do not waste time with a general introduction, instead start with your argument or main idea. For example, you could say something like this: "In this paper I will discuss how the Wife of Bath's conception of marriage is based on mutual respect." Then analyze her description of her 5 marriages focusing on details that seem significant for the points you want to make. Keep in mind that your paper should present an interpretation of a tale or cluster of tales. This means you'll be making an assertion about a specific tale or character in a tale using the prompt you've chosen as a guide for arriving at your interpretation. Assertions are statements which present a hypothesis about the meaning behind a particular tale or character. Because it's a hypothesis you'll need evidence to back up your assertion. In a paper like this, your data is the story itself so you'll need to use brief quotations to back up your ideas in every single paragraph you write.
You also want to make sure that parts of the story do not contradict the point you're making. One strategy that can be useful in dealing with stories that present more than one point of view is to present an interpretation that seems convincing but turns out not to be on further investigation.
For example, you could say that the Wife of Bath's description of her first 3 marriages leads us to think that she sees marriage only in terms of fighting with her husbands so that she can squeeze more money out of them. However, her description of her fifth marriage suggests a very different idea of marriage. Though it also involves a fight, the Wife's description of her marriage to Jannkin eventually presents a marriage grounded in compromise, love, and respect. This philosophy is also backed up by the ending of her actual tale. This idea is your thesis or main hypothesis and you'll need to look over her prologue and the ending of her tale in order to come up with evidence for your ideas.
Remember that a thesis cannot be just a description of something that all readers would agree about. It needs to be a statement that has the potential for debate or disagreement. The key element here is that you have to be confident that the evidence for your thesis is strong enough to overcome the disagreement. So it's always a good idea to subject your thesis to some testing. Try to think of counter-arguments for your idea and look for evidence for them. If you find passages that contradict your thesis, then it may be time to do some rethinking.
Finally, you should not summarize or retell the tales you are writing about. You can assume your reader has read these stories. Only summarize when it is necessary for the point you are making.
Readings:
The Prologue from the Canterbury Tales
By Geoffrey Chaucer