Canterbury Tales GHP Study Guide 2015
Your Canterbury Tales exam will cover “The Prologue” and the following tales:
“Nun’s Priest’s Tale,” “Pardoner’s Tale,” “Knight’s Tale,” and “Wife of Bath’s Tale.”
On day 1 there will be 6 questions, each worth 10 points; on day 2 there will be an essay worth 20 points.
1. For each tale, you should be able to identify and analyze the following: the characters, plot,
lesson/moral/theme, and the relationship between the tale and the Pilgrim who tells it (except for the
NPT since this pilgrim isn’t discussed at length in “The Prologue”).
2. Know the different types of irony and how they manifest in each of the stories.
3. Know the different characters as introduced in “The Prologue,” particularly the characters about
whom Chaucer feels strongly.
4. Know specifically the aspects of the “Chivalric Code” and the “Chief Rules in Love” and their application
to “The Knight’s Tale.”
5. Characters about whom you should be able to talk in detail:
“The Prologue”:
“The Pardoner’s Tale”:
“The Knight’s Tale”
 31 Pilgrims, particularly
 The three roisterers
 Theseus
those about whom Chaucer
 The old man
 Hippolyta
feels strongly and those
 Creon
who tell the tales.
“The Wife of Bath’s Tale”
 The mourning widows
 The Knight
 Arcite
“The Nun’s Priest’s Tale”
 King Arthur and his Queen
 Palamon
 The old widow who owns
 The old woman who
 Emily
Chanticleer
becomes the knight’s wife
 Diana
 Chanticleer
 King Midas and his wife
 Mars
 Lady Pertelote
 Venus
 Sir Russel Fox
Essay Question: You will randomly be given one of the following essay questions:
YOU WILL NOT NE ALLOWED TO USE YOUR TEXTS during the essay—there will simply be too
many pages and stories to navigate in the space of 40 minutes. You will, however, be allowed to bring in
your quotes on a separate sheet of paper—along with the parenthetical citations already written out (Chaucer,
“The Knight’s Tale” 63). Your essay must be an intro paragraph and three body paragraphs.
1. A “feminist” is one who advocates for women to have the same social, political, and all other rights equal
to those of men, while a “misogynist” is one who hates, dislikes, mistrusts, or mistreats women. Using
details from at least three of the four tales decide which Chaucer is.
2. Using at least three of the four tales, decide what three qualities Chaucer most dislikes about people.