Due Date: __________________
Name: ______________________________
English 3 CP
Canterbury Tales Research Project
(50 pts.)
In class we have discussed the history of Chaucer and several of his works. In order to expose you to other genres and
techniques that Chaucer uses throughout the work, you will do a research and poster project on ONE other tale.
You will read one of the following tales. My tale is: ____________________.
The Knight’s Tale
The Wife of Bath’s Tale
The Miller’s Tale

The Reeve’s Tale
The Prioress’ Tale
The Summoner’s Tale
If you plan on reading the Knight’s Tale, you should research the entire tale, but you only have to read from part III on.
PART I (30 pts.) ~
WRITING PORTION
You will be responsible for:
A. NARRATOR: Briefly explaining what you know about the pilgrim who is telling the
story. Include why you think the character would tell this type of story.
B. SUMMARY: Creating a short SUMMARY of your tale. Include the setting, plot, and
characterization of the main characters (that means explain what you can infer about
their personality/qualities as well as simply what they did).
C. ANALYSIS: Defining and/or explaining any TERMS/QUESITONS listed for your
chosen tale. You should also attempt to explain a THEME(S) that is relevant to your
story. You can either come up with it on your own or conduct research.
*** This section must be written in PARAGRAPH form with COMPLETE sentences,
double spaced, and HAND WRITTEN neatly in ink. ***
PART II (20 pts.)
~
Movie Poster
You will also be required to make a movie poster for your story. The movie poster
must contain all of the typical requirements of a movie poster and be neatly
presented.
A. Picture(s) relating to the story, character, setting, and/or theme
B. Title and listing of actors playing the main characters
C. ONE quote from the story
D. ONE review from a “critic” of your choosing. (Ex. “It got 4 swords up!”)
E. Trailer/Suspenseful Attention Grabber: attach a few sentences or a catchy phrase to
explain the story in order to draw the audience in or grab their attention.
Name:____________________________
English 3 CP
Canterbury Tales Project Rubric
My tale is: _______________________________________
Writing Analysis (30pts):
 There is a brief explanation of the pilgrim telling the tale and why
he/she might tell the tale.
 The summary is in the student’s own words and is complete,
including major events/characters/plots/etc.
 There is a complete explanation of terms, themes, and questions
relevant to the tale.
 Presentation is neat, legibly written, and in correct format.
Movie Poster (20pts.)
 Includes all of the required pieces:
(title, picture, actors, critic review, quote, and trailer line)

Presentation is neat, colorful, and effort was put into the process.
_______/ 5 pts.
_______/ 10 pts.
_______/ 10 pts.
_______/ 5 pts.
_______/ 15 pts.
_______/ 5 pts.
Total: _______/ 50 pts.
Other Comments:
Name:____________________________
English 3 CP
Canterbury Tales Project Rubric
My tale is: _______________________________________
Writing Analysis (30pts):
 There is a brief explanation of the pilgrim telling the tale and why
he/she might tell the tale.
 The summary is in the student’s own words and is complete,
including major events/characters/plots/etc.
 There is a complete explanation of terms, themes, and questions
relevant to the tale.
 Presentation is neat, legibly written, and in correct format.
Movie Poster (20pts.)
 Includes all of the required pieces:
(title, picture, actors, critic review, quote, and trailer line)

Presentation is neat, colorful, and effort was put into the process.
_______/ 5 pts.
_______/ 10 pts.
_______/ 10 pts.
_______/ 5 pts.
_______/ 15 pts.
_______/ 5 pts.
Total: _______/ 50 pts.
Other Comments:
CHOOSE WISELY…
Tales to Choose From
WEBSITE FOR TRANSLATIONS: http://www.librarius.com/cantales.htm
1)
The Knight’s Tale:
This is a tale about romance and a fight to the death! Two knights, who were imprisoned and fell in love
with the same princess, compete in a tournament to see who can win her heart.
Terms: Romance, Courtly Love
Questions: What’s the significance in who prayed to each temple? Was it really fate or did the
characters impose on it?
2)
The Miller’s Tale:
This is a tale about love affairs, cheating, and deception. Alisoun, a carpenter’s wife schemes to cheat on
her husband and everyone gets hurt, emotionally and physically, in the process.
Terms: Fabliaux, Ribaldry
Questions: In what ways are Nicholas and Alisoun like “courtly lovers”? How is education important
to this tale?
3)
The Wife of Bath’s Tale:
This is a tale about a knight who rapes a woman. By the queen’s orders, he is sent on a quest to figure
out “what women really want.” The catch is, if he doesn’t find the right answer, he will be executed.
Terms: Feminism, Breton Lai
Questions: What women in the tale hold power? How do you think this compares to the position that
you would assume women hold during this time? Why turn the wife beautiful in the end?
4)
The Prioress’ Tale:
This is a tale about murder and prejudice. It is about a young Christian boy was murdered in a hostile
Jewish ghetto while walking home from school one day. This is his story and the after math that follows.
Terms: Anti-Semitism, Prejudice
Questions: How does the prejudice in the story relate to other historical/present day examples of
prejudice? Why might this tale have been told? Can we learn anything from this tale today?
5)
The Summoner’s Tale:
This is a tale about revenge. A friar shamelessly begs for money from a poor couple who recently lost
their only child. In order to even the score, the father comes out with a grotesque way of getting revenge.
Terms: Fabliaux
Questions: Explain how this relates to the reoccurring theme of the corruption of the church. How is
revenge an important motivation for the action in this tale? Do you think the Friar would be offended by
this tale? Why/why not?
6) The Reeve’s Tale:
This is also a tale about revenge. The main character Symkyn, is a shady miller. When he overcharges
and cheats a poor college he is doing business with, two students plot revenge against him.
Terms: Fabliaux
Questions: How is revenge an important motivation for the action in this tale? How does education
enter into the action? Do you think the Miller from the Prologue might be offended by this tale?
Why/why not?
The Knight’s Tale: A tale about romance and a fight to the death! Two knights who were imprisoned and fall in love with the
same princess compete in a tournament to see who can win her heart.
Theseus, duke of Athens, imprisons Arcite and Palamon, two knights from Thebes (another city in ancient Greece). From their prison, the knights
see and fall in love with Theseus’s sister-in-law, Emelye. Through the intervention of a friend, Arcite is freed, but he is banished from Athens. He
returns in disguise and becomes a page in Emelye’s chamber. Palamon escapes from prison, and the two meet and fight over Emelye. Theseus
apprehends them and arranges a tournament between the two knights and their allies, with Emelye as the prize. Arcite wins, but he is accidentally
thrown from his horse and dies. Palamon then marries Emelye.
The Miller’s Tale: A tale about and love affairs, cheating, and deception. Alisoun, a carpenter’s wife schemes to cheat on her
husband and everyone gets hurt, emotionally and physically, in the process.
The Host asks the Monk to tell the next tale, but the drunken Miller butts in and insists that his tale should be the next. He tells the story of
an impoverished student named Nicholas, who persuades his landlord’s sexy young wife, Alisoun, to spend the night with him. He convinces his landlord,
a carpenter named John, that the second flood is coming, and tricks him into spending the night in a tub hanging from the ceiling of his barn. Absolon, a
young parish clerk who is also in love with Alisoun, appears outside the window of the room where Nicholas and Alisoun lie together. When
Absolon begs Alisoun for a kiss, she sticks her rear end out the window in the dark and lets him kiss it. Absolon runs and gets a red-hot poker, returns
to the window, and asks for another kiss; when Nicholas sticks his bottom out the window and farts, Absolon brands him on the buttocks. Nicholas’s
cries for water make the carpenter think that the flood has come, so the carpenter cuts the rope connecting his tub to the ceiling, falls down, and
breaks his arm.
The Wife of Bath’s Tale: A knight who rapes a woman is sent on a quest to figure out “what women really want.” If he
doesn’t find the right answer, he will be executed.
The Wife of Bath gives a lengthy account of her feelings about marriage. Quoting from the Bible, the Wife argues against those who believe it
is wrong to marry more than once, and she explains how she dominated and controlled each of her five husbands. She married her fifth husband,
Jankyn, for love instead of money. After the Wife has rambled on for a while, the Friar butts in to complain that she is taking too long, and the
Summoner retorts that friars are like flies, always meddling. The Friar promises to tell a tale about a summoner, and the Summoner promises to tell a
tale about a friar. The Host cries for everyone to quiet down and allow the Wife to commence her tale.
In her tale, a young knight of King Arthur’s court rapes a maiden; to atone for his crime, Arthur’s queen sends him on a quest to discover what
women want most. An ugly old woman promises the knight that she will tell him the secret if he promises to do whatever she wants for saving his
life. He agrees, and she tells him women want control of their husbands and their own lives. They go together to Arthur’s queen, and the old
woman’s answer turns out to be correct. The old woman then tells the knight that he must marry her. When the knight confesses later that he is
repulsed by her appearance, she gives him a choice: she can either be ugly and faithful, or beautiful and unfaithful. The knight tells her to make the
choice herself, and she rewards him for giving her control of the marriage by rendering herself both beautiful and faithful.
The Prioress’ Tale: A tale about murder and prejudice. A young Christian boy murdered in a Jewish ghetto and the after
math that follows.
The Prioress calls on the Virgin Mary to guide her tale. In an Asian city, a Christian school is located at the edge of a Jewish ghetto. An
angelic seven-year-old boy, a widow’s son, attends the school. He is a devout Christian, and loves to sing Alma Redemptoris (Gracious Mother of the
Redeemer). Singing the song on his way through the ghetto, some Jews hire a murderer to slit his throat and throw him into a latrine. The Jews refuse
to tell the widow where her son is, but he miraculously begins to sing Alma Redemptoris, so the Christian people recover his body, and the magistrate
orders the murdering Jews to be drawn apart by wild horses and then hanged.
The Summoner’s Tale: A tale about revenge. A friar shamelessly begs for money from a poor couple who recently lost their
child, but the father comes out with a grotesque way of getting revenge.
The Summoner, furious at the Friar’s Tale, asks the company to let him tell the next tale. First, he tells the company that there is little
difference between friars and fiends, and that when an angel took a friar down to hell to show him the torments there, the friar asked why there were
no friars in hell; the angel then pulled up Satan’s tail and 20,000 friars came out of his ass.
In the Summoner’s Tale, a friar begs for money from a dying man named Thomas and his wife, who have recently lost their child. The friar
shamelessly exploits the couple’s misfortunes to extract money from them, so Thomas tells the friar that he is sitting on something that he will
bequeath to the friars. The friar reaches for his bequest, and Thomas lets out an enormous fart. The friar complains to the lord of the manor, whose
squire promises to divide the fart evenly among all the friars.