In order to help you study and visualize the Canterbury Tales by Chaucer here’s a first  video to watch.

LEARNING GOALS: By the end of this module you’ll be able to:

• Identify the historical importance of The Canterbury Tales as a societal portrait of Chaucer’s time and compare it to the Decamerone.
• Describe the narrative structure and the main themes of The Canterbury Tales.
• Identify Chaucer’s use of humor and irony to explore elements of his society.
• Describe the Wife of Bath’s character and her ideas on chastity and sovereignty in marriage.
• Contrast the different ideas of woman of the time.

Thomas Becket (1118– 29 December 1170), whose shrine (sepolcro) is the destination point of this pilgrimage, was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until his murder in 1170. He is venerated as a saint and martyr by both the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion. He engaged in conflict with Henry II of England over the rights and privileges of the Church and was assassinated by followers of the king in Canterbury Cathedral. Soon after the death of Thomas Becket, Pope Alexander canonized him.

Step 1) Watch carefully this video and take notes of the most relevant information you also find in your textbook.

The next video is a funny animation that simplifies – to the point of trivializing (banalizzarlo) it – the Tale of the Wife of Bath.

• Who do you think this video was made for? Give reasons

You can now  listen to an example of the beginning of our work in Middle English. A bit different from the English we listened to in class, isn’t it?

I’d like to end this post with a funny video made by history teachers 🙂

It’s all by now. See you on Tuesday 🙂