TERM PAPER IDEAS

1. Why does Chaucer use a pilgrimage as a framework for the Canterbury Tales?

2. What is the importance of each character's station in life?

3. What are some examples of styles that Chaucer uses to tell the tales? Why are they effective?

4. How does the picture of Emelye bear on the idea of courtly love?

5. Why does Chaucer include all the descriptions of the battles and the building of the arena in the Knight's Tale?

6. Why does the Miller answer the Knight with a dirty story?

7. What can you tell about the Miller's view of religion from reading his Tale?

8. What does Nicholas' interest in astrology tell us about his character?

9. How does the Wife of Bath go against the religious and social conventions of her time?

10. Why does the Wife of Bath equate superiority in marriage with happiness?

11. What does the Pardoner's personality tell us about the tale he tells?

12. Why does the Pardoner use three rioters as examples of the people who go looking for Death?

13. How does the dream sequence in the Nun's Priest's Tale prepare us for the rest of the tale?

14. What support is there for the belief that the Nun's Priest and Chaucer are similar in outlook?

15. What does the use of classical styles tell us about Chanticleer and Pertelote?

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