LIT 231
Prof. G. Steinberg

Response Paper:  Chaucer, General Prologue and Knight's Tale

Choose one of the following areas as the focus of your response paper:

1. In the General Prologue (The Canterbury Tales, pp. 3-26), what is the organizing principle for the order of the portraits of the characters?  Some characters are grouped together (such as the Knight, his Squire, and the Knight's Yeoman).  What determines the order of these groups?  What happens as you get farther down the list of pilgrims in the General Prologue?  What does the trajectory of the General Prologue imply about Chaucer's view of human nature and the world?
2. Choose one portrait from the General Prologue.  How does Chaucer go about characterizing the individual featured in your chosen portrait?  Don't just summarize the portrait.  Think about the methods Chaucer uses to describe his characters.  What does he focus on?  How do his descriptions progress?  How does Chaucer get his own opinion of the character across?  What does Chaucer say?  What does he leave unsaid?  What does he say seriously?  What does he say with his tongue in his cheek?  How do you know?
3. How does the Knight's Tale characterize the Knight?  In what ways does it seem like the kind of story that would appeal to a member of the aristocracy?  How does it compare to other stories about love that we've read this term?  What is the world view implied in the tale?  Why might that world view appeal to or be fitting for a member of the aristocracy?  How does Chaucer want us to react to the Knight's Tale?  How do we actually react to it?

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