Study Guide: The Canterbury Tales, "General Prologue"

1. How many different "classes" are represented by the pilgrims? You might consider other ways of grouping them besides categories based strictly on wealth/social prestige.

2. Which characters does the narrator admire? How can you tell?

3. Which characters does the narrator treat with contempt?

4. What is the narrator’s attitude toward the Wife of Bath? What are your reasons for reaching your conclusion?

5. How would you characterize the narrator’s attitudes about the church? What evidence are you considering?

6. Does the narrator take the idea of pilgrimage seriously? Do the other characters?

7. Is the narrator "reliable"? Or are we meant to see more than he does? Are there times when he is blind to the significance of things he describes? (Another way of thinking about this is issue is to ask whether you are meant to adopt all of the narrators’ opinions or whether you feel the text guides you to make separate judgments.) Read the headnote in the Norton Anthology, especially the statements at the top of p.81.