English 2332 – essay test two read these instructions carefully. yo

English 2332 – Essay Test Two
Read these instructions carefully. You don't get a second chance
at completing this assignment.
Choose ONE of the questions below for your essay response.
Develop a well-organized essay of at least 2-3 typed, double-
spaced pages, using MLA formatting and documentation style.
**You must supply direct quotes from the literature (course
readings) to support your ideas.
NO USE OF I, ME, WE, YOU – in your writing. This is an
analysis, not a personal essay.
Use the readings, the Dallas College Library Databases,
(Literary Reference Center or Academic Search Complete) or
Google Scholar for your research. You may use two additional
research sources in addition to the reading assignments. List all
sources used on a Works Cited page.
Option #1:
From the literature we read, identify each type of conflict, and
give an example from both Gawain and the Green Knight and
The Canterbury Tales. Compare and contrast the types of
conflict. Which type of conflict do you think is the most
effective? Why?
Option #2:
Compare and contrast the use of humor in the two works:
Gawain and the Green Knight and The Canterbury Tales. How
does the use of humor help to support the central theme of
each? Does one author make better use of humor? Be sure to
clearly state the central theme of each work and then discuss the
role humor plays in supporting these themes.
Option #3:
Compare and contrast the use of violence in the two works:
Gawain and the Green Knight and The Canterbury Tales. In
what way does the use of violence further a central theme of

each work. Does one author make better use of violence? Be
sure to clearly state the central themes of each work and then
discuss the role violence plays in supporting those themes.
Option #4:
Compare and contrast the morality being promoted in the two
works: Gawain and the Green Knight and The Canterbury Tales.
What are the two or three values being promoted in each work.
Are the same values being promoted in both or are different
values being promoted? How is the presentation of these values
similar or different? Which author is more successful in
promoting specific values?
Note: Although this is an exam, it’s still an essay, and as such,
you may use the OWL or visit the Academic Skills Center for
tutorial support. Be sure to follow directions for in-person
tutorial support. Dr. Forbess
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight –
The Literature
• Author: Unknown
• The Pearl Poet
• The Gawain Poet
• Written in 14th Century
Major Characters
• Sir Gawain – the story’s

protagonist.
• A loyal knight to King
Arthur, as well as his
nephew.
• Gawain goes on his quest
to meet the Green Knight
in order to uphold his
knightly values.
Major Characters – The Green Knight
• Green Knight
• Sir Gawain’s main opposition in
the story.
• He is a richly decorated knight,
who has green skin and hair.
Major Characters – King Arthur
• King Arthur
• The king of Camelot.
• Uncle of Sir Gawain.
• It is at his celebration feast that
the Green Knight challenges
the court to a game.

Minor Characters
• Bertilak’s Wife
• – During the competition
between Gawain and her
husband, she tests Gawain’s
integrity and honesty
• Morgan le Faye (The old lady)
• Powerful sorceress trained by
Merlin. Assists Lady Bertilak in
testing Gawain
• Guinevere
• King Arthur’s wife and Queen.
Seated next to Gawain during
the court’s feast.
Settings - Camelot
• The holiday celebrations take
place at King Arthur’s castle in
Camelot.
• It is here that the Green
Knight challenges Gawain to
exchanges blows with him.

Settings – Bertilak’s
Home
On his quest to meet the
Green Knight, Gawain
stays here for a short
period of time.
Settings – The Green
Chapel
The supposed home of
the Green Knight.
Gawain is sent here to
keep his end of the
bargain which he made
with the Green Knight at
Arthur’s holiday
celebration a year prior.
Anticipation Guide
1. Men often act macho to try to impress women.
2. Women are impressed when men act macho.
3. There are many double standards in society regarding men
and women.
4. Women should be treated equally to men in all aspects of
life.
5. The expectations for the ability of women should be equal to

that of men
in every career.
6. Chivalry is dead.
7. If a married man/woman is unhappy he/she should seek
companionship
elsewhere.
8. The lives of kings are worth more than the lives of peasants.
9. Most people try to live their lives by proper morals and
virtues.
10. It is worth it to die to save one’s honor.
Major Conflict
• Gawain’s struggle to decide between his duties as a knight and
the worth of his own life
Rising Action
• Gawain accepts the Green Knight’s challenge and cuts off his
head.
• The Green Knight survives the blow and Gawain is then
required
to maintain his half of the challenge.
Climax
• Gawain meets the Green Knight at the Green Chapel.

• After taking his first two swings, the Green Knight nicks
Gawain
on his third swing, only slightly cutting his neck.
Falling Action
• Confession
• Shame and mortification
• Statement of Sin: Gawain admits cowardice, covetousness, and
untruth
• Request for penance
Examples of the Code of Chivalry
• Thou shalt defend the Church.
• Thou shalt respect all weaknesses, and shalt constitute thyself
the defender of them.
• Live to serve King and Country.
• Live to defend Crown and Country and all it holds dear.
• Live one's life so that it is worthy of respect and honor.
• Live for freedom, justice and all that is good.
• Never attack an unarmed foe.

Examples from the Laws of Courtly Love
• Thou shalt avoid avarice like the deadly pestilence and shalt
embrace its opposite.
• Thou shalt keep thyself chaste for the sake of her whom thou
lovest.
• Boys do not love until they reach the age of maturity.
• When one lover dies, a widowhood of two years is required of
the survivor.
• No one should be deprived of love without the very best of
reasons.
• No one can love unless he is propelled by the persuasion of
love.
Motif
-a motif is the recurrence of an object, concept or idea within a
piece of literature.
-one of the largest motifs presented in Sir Gawain is the use of
color…how is this true?
Symbolism

• In medieval symbology, red signifies
humility as the blood of Christ
• Gold signifies perfection.
• Gawain’s shield – a tool of protection
• Green – symbolizes fertility and
rebirth
• Axe – a symbol of execution
• Holly bob – associated with death and
ghosts
• An analysis of “Sir Gawain and the
Green Knight” indicates that symbols
are prevalent in the poem and the
Gawain-poet intended to use these
symbols as tools of hidden meanings.
• The Pentangle – five-pointed star, a
symbol of truth, virtues, and value
• The green girdle – represents
cowardice and excessive love of a
mortal life.
• The green girdle is also a symbol
paralleling the crown of thorns that
was worn by Jesus during crucifixion.
• Most of the symbols in this story
dwell on the subjects of death,
human triumph, defeat, temptation,
and honor.

Gold Spurs?
• Immediately upon
reading/hearing these lines
about the Green Knight who has
burst into Arthur’s Christmas
festivities, wearing gold spurs,
the audience would know that
he was a guy not to be messed
with.
• He was got up in green from
head to heel:
a tunic worn tight, tucked to his
ribs;
and a rich cloak cast over it,
covered inside with a fine fur
lining, fitted and sewn
with ermine trim that stood out
in contrast from his hair where
his hood lay folded flat;
and handsome hose of the
same green hue which clung to
his calves, with clustered spurs
of bright gold; (ll. 151-55)
Why the Green Knight?
• In medieval England, the “Green
Man” was a pagan
representation of nature. The
“Green Man” was not Satanic
but did symbolize the nature

worship that characterized pre-
Christian tribal paganism.
• The “Green Man” is not evil but
between any of Arthur’s knights
and any creature reminiscent of
Britain’s pagan past is, by
extension, a battle between
“good” and “evil” – or between
the Christian piety of Arthur’s
knights and their tribal, non-
Christian predecessors.
Sir Gawain’s Shield
• In the poem, Gawain’s shield
is very clearly described as a
golden pentangle on a field of
red.
• The pentangle, the poem
goes on to tell us, represents
Gawain’s Five Fifths.
•
The pentangle is also called
the “endless knot.”
“Five-Fifths”
• Gawain was said to possess five

qualities – one for each of the
pentangle’s points – wherein he
far excelled all other knights.
• The first of these “Five Fifths”
was his faultlessness in his
five senses.
• The next (second) of these
“Five Fifths” was his
faultlessness in his five
fingers.
“Five-Fifths” Continued
• The next (third) of these “Five
Fifths” was the strength Gawain
drew from his devotion to the
“Five wounds of Christ.”
1.One through each of his hands
or wrists
2.One through each of his feet
3.The final wound in the side of
Christ
More on the “Five-Fifths”
• The last of these “Five Fifths” was Gawain’s well -known
practice

of the “five social graces.”
• The five social graces which Gawain exemplifies above all
others are:
1.free-giving (generosity)
2.brotherly love
3.chastity
4.pure manners (courtesie)
5.piety
Gawain Faced Five Challenges
1.to voluntarily confront the Green Knight
2.to strike his blow properly
3.to keep his vow to meet the Green Knight in a year and a day.
4.to survive journey to the green chapel
5.to resist the lady’s temptations
Gawain’s Fifth Challenge
• The FIFTH TEST are the temptations and the three gifts; it
tests
especially the fifth point of the pentangle, the social virtues.

• Gawain fails: his acceptance of the girdle is not a fault; his
hiding of it is a potential fault; his actual withholding of it from
Bertilak is his fall.
• Had he given it back to the lady, he would have erased his
potential fault.
• The real fault, from Gawain's point of view, is that the reality
of
his own mortality induces him to break the endless knot.
• Thus two effects of original sin are reasserted: cowardice
(bodily mortality) and covetousness (willful cupidity).
• His nature as a man is asserting itself against his nature as a
knight.
Chastity? Piety? Respect for the
King?
• Gawain knows that he is
facing certain death – and
SOON – when he finally
confronts the Green Knight
and accepts his half of the
bargain.
• Why would he still adhere to
courtesie and resist the
Lady’s temptation?

What’s Next?
Read the literature, take notes,
and prepare for the essay
exam.
1
Canterbury Tales
(c. 12th century)
What do I need to read?
“The Canterbury Tales General Prologue”
“The Miller’s Prologue and Tale”
“The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale”
“The Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale”
Who is the author?
Geoffrey Chaucer (1343 – 1400). Called the Father of the
English Language as well

as the Morning Star of Song, Geoffrey Chaucer, after six
centuries, has retained
his status as one of the three or four greatest English poets. He
was first to
commit to lines of universal and enduring appeal a vivid
interest in nature, books,
and people.
As many-sided as Shakespeare, he did for English narrative
what Shakespeare did
for drama. If he lacks the profundity of Shakespeare, he excels
in playfulness of
2
mood and simplicity of expression. Though his language often
seems quaint, he was
essentially modern. Familiarity with the language and with the
literature of his
contemporaries persuades the most skeptical that he is nearer to
the present than
many writers born long after he died.
---Courtesy of Compton’s Learning Company

Background Lecture
Chaucer’s father, an influential wine merchant, was able to
secure Geoffrey a
position as a page in a household connected to King Edward III.
Chaucer’s duties as
a page were humble, but they allowed him the opportunity to
view the ruling
aristocracy, thus broadening his knowledge of the various
classes of society. While
serving in the English army, Chaucer was captured and held
prisoner in France.
After his release, he held a number of government positions.
While in his twenties, Chaucer began writing poetry, and he
continued to write
throughout his life. Over the years, his writing showed
increasing sophistication
and depth, and it is recognized as presenting penetrating
insights into human
character. In The Canterbury Tales, critics say that the author
shows an absolute
mastery of the art of storytelling.

The Canterbury Tales are also said to present “a cavalcade of
fourteenth-century
English life” because on this pilgrimage to Canterbury the
reader gets to meet a
cross-section of the people from Chaucer’s time.
Canterbury, located about fifty miles southeast of London, was
a favorite
destination for pilgrims. In fact, Chaucer himself made a
pilgrimage there. While
he did not set out on the pilgrimage looking for material to use
in his writing, he
was so impressed by the mix of company that he had met at the
Tabard Inn that
he was inspired to write what was to become his masterpiece.
3
Selected Canterbury Tales Terms and Definitions

Allegory - a story that represents abstract ideas or moral
qualities. As such, an
allegory has both a literal level and a symbolic level of
meaning. Example: Gulliver’s
Travels.
Allusion - a reference to a person, place, poem, book, or movie
outside of the story
that the author expects the reader will recognize.
Fable - a story that presents a moral or practical lesson.
Generally, there are
talking animals in fables. Example: Aesop’s Fables.
Hyperbole - exaggeration for emphasis; overstatement.
Example: I’ve told you a
million times to…
Irony - a subtle, sometimes humorous perception of
inconsistency in which the
significance of a statement or event is changed by its content.
For example: the
firehouse burned down.
Litotes – a conscious understatement that achieves the opposite
effect of the
statement itself. Example: I like money a little.

Satire – using humor to ridicule. Example: Animal Farm
Structure of The Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales is a “frame story”; it includes within it
other stories. The
frame in this case is the story of a pilgrimage to Canterbury
made by twenty-nine
pilgrims. Within the frame are twenty-four individual stories
told by the pilgrims.
The stories told by the pilgrims are familiar tales, but here they
are retold in a
brilliant fashion by most impressive storytellers.
The pilgrims themselves are described in the Prologue to the
tales. In the
Prologue, we see that the personality of each pilgrim is unique
but that the
character traits they exhibit are universal. People from three
main segments of
medieval society are brought together through the vehicle of the
pilgrimage:
church people, nobility, and common people and/or tradesmen.
4

The General Prologue
Setting: The story opens at the Tabard Inn in Southwark is a
town fourteen miles
from London where pilgrims meet to begin the journey to
Canterbury. It has been a
long winter, but spring has arrived so it is time to make a
religious pilgrimage.
While the trip has a religious shrine as its destination, the
pilgrimage will not be
without its social aspects.
Note: Keep in mind that in Medieval times the Catholic Church,
which was for all
practical purposes the only religion in Europe prior to the
Reformation, played an
important part in everyone’s life. Daily life could be terribly
hard, and sometimes
all that would make it bearable was the thought of a pleasant
afterlife with God in
heaven. Consequently, after the king and the nobility, the
church was the third
most powerful institution in this society.
As we will see in The Prologue, within the church there is a

social hierarchy of
roles and positions. Thus, for example, we will see that the
monk obviously comes
from a higher social class than the Pardoner.
5
The Miller’s Prologue and Tale
Allusions to the Bible
The Noah referred to in the tale is from the Biblical story of
Noah and the Ark in
which Noah, informed by God of the coming of a great flood,
builds an ark and
thereby saves his family while everyone else perishes.
Concepts Familiar to Chaucer’s Readers
May/December Weddings. This is the marriage of an older,
often rich but foolish
man to a very young and pretty wife. In stories, the older man
usually winds up a

cuckold and it is thought by readers that he gets what he
deserves for being so
foolish as to get married to someone much younger than he.
Cuckold: This word is used both as a noun and a verb. In stories
the husband is
cuckolded or is made the cuckold when someone else has a
sexual relationship with
his wife.
The cuckolded husband is the target of much comic ridicule in
the stories from the
Middle Ages and centuries afterwards. During this time it was
the belief that
older people should marry older, not younger people; thus the
May/December
Wedding violates the natural order of things.
6
The setting for The Miller’s Tale is Oxford, England, at the
time the story is being
told.
Genre: A fabliau (pl., "fabliaux"), a French invention that
depicts bourgeois

characters in satirical or openly comic plots involving unlikely
and complex
deceptions, usually concerning sex and/or money. There are
considerably more
fabliaux in French than in English, and Chaucer’s are by far the
most sophisticated
in Middle English because they often combine elements of
several fabliaux into one
tightly structured plot. Critics are divided on the issue of
whether the fabliaux
were intended for noble audiences because the tales made the
bourgeois look so
bad, or were intended for the bourgeois, themselves, indicating
that they had a
strong appetite for seeing themselves satirized in literature. The
middle ground
seems to be that they could work for a mixed audience which
might include worldly
nobles (excluding those given to extreme religious devotion, of
course!) as well as
broad-minded and self-confident men and women of the city.

7
Characters:
• Nicholas, a clerk or student at Oxford who has spent more on
his "sound
system" and on parties than he has on his studies—we know the
type.
• John, the "townie" carpenter, whose trade has made him
wealthy enough to
own a house big enough that he might rent rooms to the clerk,
as well as
dressing his young wife in the most outrageously expensive
clothing she
could desire.
• Alison, the carpenter’s "townie" wife, overflowing with
energy and taking
life’s challenges as comedy whereas John, older by far, is ready
to see
tragedy.
• Absolon, a clerk, possibly also an Oxford graduate, who now
serves the
priest in the cathedral but who, like Nicholas, is far more
interested in

dressing well and pursuing the ladies of the town.
• Gervase, the smith, a somewhat enigmatic figure who supplies
a key tool for
Absolon's revenge--he works at his hot forge in the cool of the
night and,
apart from lovers, is apparently the only one awake until the
cries of "Out
harrow!" summon the townsfolk in an informal posse.
8
The Wife of Bath’s Prologue
and Tale
Sources: This tale is a satire in the form of a fairy tale. It is a
twist on an old folk
tale which shows up in one of the Arthurian romances about Sir
Gawain. The tale is
a parody of an “exemplum”, a moral tale that was used by
preachers to show people

how they should act.
The Battle of the Sexes To understand Dame Alice, you have to
understand, as
the pilgrims did, the place of women in Medieval society. At
this period of time,
women were little more than their husband’s property, and they
had few legal
rights of their own. To cope in this situation, the only weapon a
wife had was the
granting or withholding of sexual favors.
Even here, however, the Church’s teaching on sex, which was
that sex was only for
procreation and everything else was lust, could diminish a
woman’s chances of
successfully fighting back. In this context, the Battle of the
Sexes may not be a
fight to see who will dominate in a marriage so much as the
fight of a women to
establish herself as a person with equal rights. As you listen to
Dame Alice of Bath
in the prologue and in the tale she tells, keep in mind this socio-
historical context.
You will also note that sex and bodily functions were talked
about in mixed company

quite openly in this period.
9
Audio File: Click on the link to listen to the Wife of Bath’s
General Prologue read to
you in Middle English.
Genre: The prologue might be called a fictional autobiography,
a confession, a
mock sermon or an apologia (L., defense). Persuasive as
Chaucer’s Wife’s voice may
be, however, do not mistake it for true autobiography.
Chaucer’s immediate source
for many of the opinions and strategies described in the
prologue are two
characters from the Roman de la Rose (by Guillaume de Lorris,
1237, and Jean de
Meun, 1275): La Vieille (the Old Woman) and Le Jealoux (the
Jealous One). He also
draws upon the vast literature of anti-feminist theologians to
characterize the
views of her husbands, especially Jankyn.

Characters: a rapist knight (unnamed), Arthur’s queen
(unnamed), and the "loathly
lady" (unnamed) he meets on his quest.
http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/wifeport.htm
10
The Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale
The Pardoner will offer a sermon as a performance, part of a
process-analysis
under the rubric "present company excepted" in which he takes
the pilgrims into
his confidence. He claims that although his theme is always
"Radix malorum est
Cupiditas" (greed is the root of evils), he nevertheless,
ironically, is obsessed with
appropriating money (like the Wife's obsession with authority
and the book), and
doesn't care about the remission of sins. He explains how he
uses his position to

manipulate "lewed peple". Without his usual audience, the
soliloquy is self-
destructive, and maybe self-hypnotic.
Aware of his isolation, the Pardoner's attempts to rejoin society
are misguided,
partly due to his insensitivity. He attempts to join here by
proving his superiority.
He has to be intellectual to survive, but this may have turned
into egomania. He
scorns his usual low-class audience and thinks this more
educated group will share
his opinion. So it's a demonstration of his typical con -- how he
manages to survive
and manipulate audiences, but it involves his moving back and
forth between
apparent audiences.
The Pardoner’s purpose is to save souls; however, he does
everything he can to earn
money. The irony is that the Pardoner is very guilty of the sin
of avarice himself.
11

He uses ways of getting people to repent from avarice as a
means for acquiring
more money for the church.
The archetype behind the Pardoner is Faus Semblant (False-
Seeming) "a
professional hypocrite who pretends to holiness that he
possesses not at all.
Chaucer's Pardoner sermonizes in a confessional of self-
destruction. He's
dreadful, vital, and fascinating. For us, he's his own worst
enemy.
Genre: The prologue may be a "literary confession" or "Vice's
confession," like the
"Wife of Bath's Prologue" in some interpretations but with
absolutely no ambiguity
about the speaker's viciousness, despite his cheerful demeanor.
The tale, itself, is
a "novelle" or short story of a type often used in sermon
exempla. The old man who
directs the young men to their doom is variously interpreted as
everything from
Jesus, the Devil, God's mercy, and the Wandering Jew.
Characters: The Pardoner and his victims, in his Prologue's
delirious self-

dramatization of his ruthless frauds; three riotous young men,
their deceased
buddy, a young "knave" who knows how to tell a story, an old
man who cannot die,
and "a privee theef men clepeth Deeth / That in this contree al
the peple sleeth"
(VI.675-6).
Tale:
The tale is an exemplum on avarice. (Exempla are stories that
illustrate a theme in
preaching, usually found in collections.) The setting is dramatic
this time, taking
place in a tavern to set the innate hypocrisy here. Although
avarice is the focus,
the Pardoner includes drunkenness, gluttony, swearing,
gambling, and maybe other
sins; his choices probably depend on which sins can be made to
sound most exciting.
The Pardoner has a detailed knowledge of low life. He does not
euphemize sin: it's
truly nasty here. He seems to have control over the sequencing
of the other sins
he incorporates too. But is he talking about gluttony? Or

something else?
O wombe! O bely! O stynkyng cod,
Fulfilled of dong and of corrupcioun!
At either ende of thee foul is the soun.
12
How greet labour and cost is thee to fynde!
Thise cookes, how they stampe, and streyne, and grynde,
And turnen substaunce into accident
To fulfille al thy likerous talent!
Out of the harde bones knokke they
The mary, for they caste noght awey
That may go thurgh the golet softe and swoote.
Of spicerie of leef, and bark, and roote
Shal been his sauce ymaked by delit,
To make hym yet a newer appetit.
(The Pardoner’s Tale – from www.librarius.com, lines 534-546)

13
Epilogue:
There's no formal separation from the tale here, since the
Pardoner goes right
into further self-parody? or more of the con? Is he still
addressing his usual
church audience? The abrupt shift is disorienting.
The fake relics function as an extension of the Pardoner
himself. Is he selling
relics as a misguided way to include himself? Is he drunk? Was
this all a game and
he misjudged that the audience was laughing with him all
along? Does he despise
this audience too?
Whom is the joke against? Against the Host to ingratiate
himself to the others?
Whatever his reasons -- avarice, good-fellowship, humor -- he
concludes his sermon
with an offer to sell his pardon to the pilgrims even after all he
has told about his

own fraudulence. Ironically he picks the worst possible victim,
that rough, manly
man who might be supposed to have a natural antipathy for the
unmasculine
Pardoner.
The Host misreacts. It's a disaster and a bad call on the
Pardoner's part when the
Host is pulled in against his will. The Host offers an angry
reaction, not at all joking
now, metaphorically cutting off the Pardoner's tongue. The
Pardoner never reacts
and is effectively shut up; we won't hear from him again. The
pilgrims laugh --
nervously? They're reacting to what? The Knight levels out the
social surface and
the tensions are diffused with a kiss of friendship.
14
What do I need to know?
1. Explain how The Canterbury Tales is a profile of fourteenth

century life.
Use specific examples from the text.
2. Characterize Chaucer’s treatment of women in The
Canterbury Tales. Use
specific examples from the text.
3. Choose any two characters from any tales we read and tell
how they are
alike/different.
4. How do the tales reflect life in the 1300s?
5. Explain the importance of the character of Harry Bailly.
6. Describe the portrait of the clergy as painted by Chaucer in
The Canterbury
Tales. Was it an accurate picture?

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