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Juniors ~ Critical Analysis

OVERVIEW

Your assignment is to write a critical analysis of one of the two tales we read in class – “The Pardoner’s Tale” or “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”. By critical analysis, I mean an essay that looks closely at the text, focusing on a very specific critical point. This is not a summary or a book report.

Please focus on one of the following:

  • A character analysis – focus on Chaucer’s characterizations

o character types or traits, whether positive or negative

o one character’s development over time

  • A thematic analysis – focus on a central theme as represented by one or more of the readings
  • An historical analysis – establish the historical context of an element in one of the readings, comparing that to the fictional reality depicted by Chaucer
FORMAT

The essay will be between two and three pages long, and will follow the conventions of MLA format. Your only source will be the textbook: you will refer to line numbers if quoting the poem, page numbers if citing anything else.

Note that when quoting poetry, you must separate the lines with a forward slash (space on each side). Example:

When characterizing the Knight, Chaucer not only focuses on his own observations, but those of the Knight’s companions: “He was of sovereign value in all eyes / And though so much distinguished, he was wise” (69-70).

When quoting more than three lines of poetry, treat as a block quotation: first, quote the poem as it appears, including all punctuation and spelling; do not use quotation marks, and indent two tab spaces.

This post is based on the handout I gave you in class last week.

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