1. Where Are the Pilgrims Gathered, and for What Purpose? What Time of Year Is It?

1. Where are the pilgrims gathered, and for what purpose? What time of year is it?

2.What code of behavior does the Knight follow? Who are the other two characters in his party?

3.Of the Nun, the Monk, and the Friar, who takes money from poor widows? Who hunts instead of studying? Who is kind to animals?

4.Of the Merchant, the Cleric, the Sergeant at the Law, and the Franklin, who is most obsessed with food? With books? Which two serve as judges? Which one is secretly in debt?

5.What rules does the Skipper ignore? What does the Doctor not often read? In what “art” does the Wife of Bath know the “oldest dances”?

6.What does the parson prefer to extorting fees from parishioners? What does his brother the Plowman do “for love of Christ”?

7.Of the miller, the Manciple, and the Reeve, which two are thrifty shoppers? Which one earns money by overcharging?

8.Explain the profession duties of the Summoner and the Pardoner. For what purpose does the pardoner “tune his honey-tongue”?

9.What contest does the Host propos3e over dinner? How will the winner be determined? What will the prize be?

10.What does the narrator think of the Knight, the Parson, and the Plowman? What do the three have in common?

11.What is the narrator’s attitude toward the Nun? Toward the Monk? In addition to their high rank in the clergy, what do these two have in common? By contrasting them to the low-ranking Parson and Cleric, what generalization can you make about the clergy in Chaucer’s day?

12.What do the Friar and the Pardoner have in common? Why is it significant that the Summoner and the Pardoner work together?

13.Based on the portraits of the city dwellers, what qualities seem to have been needed for business success in Chaucer’s day? Ion what way is the basis of the Manciple’s financial success different from that of the Miller and the Skipper?

14.Based on the Host’s proposal, what seems to be Chaucer’s idea of good literature? Does “The Prologue” fit that definition? Why or why not?

15.Describe what might be the modern-day equivalent of the Merchant, the Manciple, and the Cleric.