Background
The author of the Canterbury tales, who worked as a civil servant
Who is Geoffrey Chaucer?
This class of society is in charge of the church and Christian faith, and was heavily criticized in The Canterbury Tales
What is the clergy?
This story structure supports one or more stories within the story, switching back and forth between them
What is a frame narrative?
The crime that the knight committed at the beginning of the tale
What is rape/sexual assault?
This group of three characters in the tale are known for partying and drunkenness
Who are the revelers?
The language spoken by medieval Brits, which was used to write the Canterbury Tales
What is Middle English?
The system of government in medieval times that was characterized by extremely unequal wealth distribution and land ownership to kings and nobility
What is feudalism?
A poetic structure composed of set of rhymed couplets, which gives the poem a "sing-song" quality
What are heroic couplets?
To atone for his crime, the knight must go on a quest to learn what women most ______
What is desire?
The characters want revenge on this idea, which is personified in this tale as a thief
What is Death?
Each character in The Canterbury Tales was supposed to share two of these with their fellow travelers
What are stories?
The sect/denomination of Christianity practiced in medieval Britain
What is (Roman) Catholicism?
This literary device is used to criticize society through humor, and by making serious situations seem ridiculous
What is satire?
The queen who gave the knight his quest and would judge if he was worthy of being spared on his return
Who is Queen Guinevere?
The three characters all decide they should make secret plans to kill each other in order to get this for himself
What is gold?
The section of the poem that introduces each character with a short description of their appearance, personality, actions, etc.
What is the Prologue?
The reason for the journey in The Canterbury Tales, usually with a religious significance
What is a pilgrimage?
This literary device has three different "types," but all of them play off of things not going the way you expected or misunderstanding a non-literal meaning
What is irony?
According to the old woman that the knight met in the woods, this is the thing that women most desire
What is independence?
The Pardoner cautioned against this in his tale, while hypocritically indulging in this sin himself
What is greed/avarice?
The narrator of The Canterbury Tales, who has a different perspective on the characters than his real-world counterpart
Who is Geoffrey Chaucer?
The Knight traveled across the world to fight in these wars, intended to "defend the Christian faith" in the Islamic Near East
What are the Crusades?
An author writing themself into their own story as a character
What is an author surrogate/self-insert?
The Wife of Bath has had five of these
What are husbands?
The Pardoner likes to show churchgoers a chicken bone and claim that it is a ______ from a martyred saint
What is a relic?