Monday, February 17, 2025

(Reschedule) For Friday: Chaucer, "The Nun's Priests' Tale"



NOTE: Since ECU is closed on Wednesday, I'll move everything on the syllabus back. That means we WILL have class on Friday and your Paper #1 will be due the following Monday. BUT we will have class on Monday...but there won't be any work. I'll just introduce some background on Shakespeare so you won't have extra work to compete with finishing your paper by around 5pm. I'll remind you of this in class on Friday, but remember, we DO have class on Friday, so take the weekend to finish your Paper #1. 

For Friday, read the next-to-last tale in our book, "The Nun's Priest's Tale," which is an animal fable about a rooster named Chanticleer and his wife, Pertelote. It is a very odd tale, since we don't know much about the narrator, except that he is a priest traveling with the Prioress from the Prologue (Madame Eglantyne). And like all animal fables (think Animal Farm), this is a satire of human life and behavior, as is evident from all the books Chanticleer and his wife read and throw at each other as they argue about the proper interpretation of dreams! Keep this in mind as you read, and look for moments of satire in the story--especially toward people in the audience. 

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: Why do you think Chaucer gave this story--one of his most elaborate, and fantastical--to a relatively anonymous narrator? In many ways, I would expect the Prioress herself to recite this one, or even the Wife of Bath. Why might his anonymity aid the reader (and the teller) more than someone we know much better from the Prologue? Does Chaucer use this to his advantage in the tale itself?

Q2: The quarrel between Chanticleer and his wife, Pertelote, is one of the few snapshots we get in medieval literature of a 'typical' husband and wife. How do their dialogue contrast with that of the Wife of Bath with her own husbands? Does Chanticleer offer his wife "sovereignty" over their household? Or does he seem to hold sway? Despite their animal natures, do you think this is a more realistic depiction of marriage than we see in, say, The Wife of Bath's Tale? 

Q3: The term "Bathos" (or "bathetic") means a rhetorical anticlimax, or in other words, something that tries to be pathetic (deeply emotional) and fails. Ironically, what we call "pathetic" today is really "bathetic." Most authors use bathos for ironic effect, to play up emotions that really fall short of reality. What scenes in this tale are highly bathetic and why? What makes them seem a bit absurd and are played for laughs, even though they are treated seriously by the narrator? Do you think the narrator is aware of this, or is Chaucer putting him up to it? 

Q4: The story behind all the narrative embellishments and classical citations is almost comically simple: a fox tricks a rooster into being caught, and the rooster, in turns, tricks the fox into letting him go. If we just had the plot to go by, the moral would be as basic as "don't talk to strangers," or something similar. But the narrator adds a Gawain-like element which blames women for Chanticleer's downfall. Do you think this story is meant as a reposte to the Wife of Bath? Is Pertelote a caricature of her, and women like her? Or is Chanticleer, like Gawain, the butt of the joke? 

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(Reschedule) For Friday: Chaucer, "The Nun's Priests' Tale"

NOTE: Since ECU is closed on Wednesday, I'll move everything on the syllabus back. That means we WILL have class on Friday and your Pape...