Time to Prove Your Knowledge! :)

Next week is going to be a busy week. You have a test on Wednesday, and the second rough draft of your research paper  is due on Thursday; therefore, this weeks blog is going to be the test review. Enjoy and soon we'll be starting Macbeth. Yea!

Canterbury Tales Test Review

Characters: be able to identify the character by the quote

ü  Nun (Prioress)

ü  Monk

ü  Pardoner

ü  Parson

ü  Friar

ü  Guildsman

ü  Merchant

ü  Miller

ü  Cook

ü  Doctor

ü  Manciple

ü  Reeve

ü  Serjeant at Law

ü  Summoner

ü  Franklin

Be familiar with the following aspects of each story. Reread them.

The Prologue

ü  Purpose

ü  His views on the church

ü  Setting

ü  What the Host proposes for the trip

ü  His methods of characterization

The Pardoner’s Tale

ü  The characterization of the Pardoner within his prologue.

ü  The literary devices within the story.

ü  Type of tale.

The Wife of Bath’s Tale

ü  The literary devices used within the story.

ü  The theme of the piece.

ü  The old woman’s argument about gentility, age, and poverty.

ü  Examples of chivalry within the piece.

ü  Type of tale.

Literary devices. You will be asked to both define and pick out examples of all of the following.

ü  Bathos

ü  Mockery

ü  Satire

ü  Parody

ü  Mock heroic

ü  Personification

ü  Irony

ü  Theme

ü  Characterization

ü  Understatement

ü  Sarcasm

The Middle Ages: Review the power point notes you took in class.

The Next Stage in Literary History: The Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is such an interesting time in our history, and Geoffrey Chaucer managed to capture it with his fantastic writing style. This time period was full of turmoil and tension in England and Europe. Here's an interesting fact for you; once William the Conqueror invades England and defeats the Earl of Wessex, the ruling class of England becomes French not British. William takes all of the land away from the English Barrons that fought against him and gave it to his French Allies. Years later the Crusades begin, and the Plantagenet empire starts to loose it's foothold in France. During this whole time the church in England and the government are at odds. Henry II felt that everyone should be held to the same laws. The church disagreed. If you committed a crime as a church official you went to a court run by the church and the punishment was much less severe than that of the regular churches. Henry fought hard to change this, but with the murder of Thomas a Beckett this becomes impossible. The church just becomes more corrupt. This is where Chaucer steps in. He creates caricatures of the typical corrupt church officials for all to see. His stories by these characters further highlight their hypocrisy. I can't wait for you to start reading and see the message that Chaucer portrays for his audience, and how we could easily connect it to many people in our society today.

Research Paper Time

We have begun the paper dreaded by every student in the United States of America. the research paper. I know , I know. I've done it on purpose to torture you and make your life miserable. Well.......maybe. Just kidding. The research paper is an essential skill that every human being should know. You are learning to formulate your own idea, research both your idea and the ideas of others, and formulate them into a cohesive paper that shows your brilliance in literary analysis. You also get to a fun section on the author of your piece. While where they attended school is always important, find something off the wall. Have fun with this section of your paper. See what dirt you can dig up on your author. For instance: did you know that Geoffery Chaucer was ransomed after he was captured in the Hundreds Year War, and was granted a gallon pitcher of wine by Edward III, but the reason was kept a secret. Happy Hunting!