Choose a tale from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales that is similar to one of the works we’ve read in class.  How has reading the work we’ve read in class aided your understanding of Chaucer’s tale?  Focus on one aspect of Chaucer’s tale that seems clearer now in comparison/contrast with the work you’ve chosen.  In what ways do you understand better what Chaucer was about in the tale as a result of reading the other work in this class?  What do you learn about Chaucer’s tale by putting it into the context of the other work?

Some recommendations:

1. the Prioress’s Tale and The Play of the Sacrament,
2. the Prioress’s Tale and Pearl,
3. the Franklin’s Tale and Sir Orfeo,
4. the Monk’s Tale and The Parliament of Three Ages,
5. the Knight’s Tale and King Horn,
6. the Knight’s Tale and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,
7. the Wife of Bath’s Tale and the Digby Mary Magdalene,
8. the Wife of Bath’s Tale and The Book of Margery Kempe,
9. the Nun’s Priest’s Tale and The Owl and the Nightingale,
10. the Nun’s Priest’s Tale and The Fox and the Wolf,
11. the Pardoner’s Tale and Piers Plowman, or
12. the Miller’s Tale and Dame Sirith.

I really prefer that you not do research for this paper.  I'd rather hear your thoughts and your interpretations of the works you’ve chosen.  If you do use sources, however, document them appropriately.

Focus is very important.  Argue a very narrowly focused thesis.  Don’t simply list all the similarities and differences between the works you’re discussing in your paper.  Focus on one point that you’d like to make about the two works you’re discussing and then argue that point.

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