As stated in the Chaucer/Canterbury Tales PowerPoint, each character in The Canterbury Tales represents a different segment of society in Chaucer’s time. By noting the virtues and faults of each, Chaucer provides social commentary, writing that offers insight into society, its values, and its customs. His insights raise various questions regarding social class, spirituality, religion, etc.
So, for this assignment, you will be a modern-day Chaucer. If he was alive today and writing The Canterbury Tales, which segments of society do you think would be his focus? What social commentary would he attempt to relate to his audience? What stories would those characters tell?
1. First, compile a list of five modern-day people that come from very different walks of life (i.e. priest, garbage man, high school cheerleader, movie star, politician).
2. Choose one of those five characters that you find to be potentially the most interesting. Write a description, as Chaucer did, for that character. Create a visual that shows the character’s name, occupation, dress and accessories, physical descriptions, and any interesting information about the character. Your visual can be in any form you choose so long as it includes the above-listed information and is presented in a clear, graphic way.
3. Finally, write a story that is appropriate and suitable for your character to tell, much like Chaucer did for each pilgrim making the Canterbury voyage. For example, the Wife of Bath in The Canterbury Tales was a woman claiming to be an expert on the arts of love, although she’d been married five times. In the example above, the garbage man could be a dirty man who tells a story that shows how important cleanliness is. The possibilities are endless! The story must contain a moral or life lesson and be approximately 2 double-spaced pages.
