LTEN 107: Study
and Thinksheet questions for Miller through Wife of
Miller:
For Thinksheet, Friday, April
13, please answer question 2.
1. How does the Miller come to tell his tale? Is it supposed to be his turn?
2. How does the Miller=s tale Aquit@ the Knight=s tale? There are numerous points where the Miller picks up on details from the Knight=s TaleBits structure, themes, characters etc. Pick one specific element to discuss the Miller=s tale as response.
3. Line 3558 speaks of AGodde=s pryvetee.@ What is meant by this and where else does the idea of Apryvetee@ come up in this tale?
Man of Law:
For Thinksheet for Monday April 23, please answer question 3.
For Wed. April 25, please answer question 1.
1. How is Custance (or Constance) characterized in this tale? How can we compare her to Emilye of the Knight=s Tale and Alisoun of the Miller=s Tale? Be specific in your points of comparison.
2. What type of tale is this? How would characterize it in terms of tone and content and how does it compare to the other two tales we=ve just read? Does it respond to them? What are some of this tale=s features? What is its verse form like?
3. How is Islam portrayed in the tale? What are the relationships between Christians and Muslims? Who are representative Muslims? representative Christians?
4. In the Introduction, the Man of Law mentions Chaucer. What does he have to say about him? What do you make of this insertion of the author? How does this complicate our view of Chaucer the pilgrim? Chaucer the poet?
5. What do you see as the symbolism of Custance=s rudderless boat?
Wife of
Thinksheet: For Monday, April 30, please answer question 6. For May
2, please answer question 10.
1. How many times has the Wife been married? What were her husbands each like? How did she treat them? Be sure to look esp. at her fifth marriage. How would you characterize it? What caused the argument between Jankyn and the Wife as she tells it?
2. In her long monologue, the Wife catalogues the many accusations of husbands against wives. What are these accusations and how does the Wife respond to them?
3. What do experience and authority mean in the Wife’s Prologue and Tale–how does she set up the contrast between them?
4. What does the Wife have to say about virginity? How does it compare to marriage? What are her views on the biblical teachings about virginity? What is the Wife’s theory of sovereignty in marriage? How is this expressed in her Prologue? In her Tale?
5. The Wife uses many metaphors in her Prologue. List a few of them. Do you see any patterns among them? What is their effect on her monologue?
6. How do the Wife’s Pro. and Tale relate to one another? What similar themes are discussed? Does the ending to her tale modify your reading of her views on mastery in marriage? What is “sovereignty?” How does the Wife define and use it?
7. Does the Wife’s tale end up condoning rape? Why or why not?
8. Is the Wife a feminist figure? Why or why not? How are you defining that term? Does it make a difference that she is the creation of a male writer? How?
9. How is nobility defined in the Wife’s Tale?
10. Is this text a male fantasy? A woman’s? Whose fantasy is it?
11. How does the Wife “quite” the Man of Law’s tale? How can we read her tale as responding to the other tales we have read so far?